The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25,14-30, "What Did You Get?"

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Matthew chapter 25 starting in verse 14. Hear the word of the Lord For it will be like a man going on a journey who

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Called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one He gave five talents to another two to another one to each according to his ability then he went away

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He who had received the five Talent five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more

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So also he who had the two talents made two talents more But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with him and he who had received the

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The five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to be five talents here

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I have made five talents more his master said to him. Well done good and faithful servant You have been faithful over a little

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I will set you over much Enter into the joy of your master And he also had the two talents came forward saying master you delivered to me two talents here

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I have made two talents more his master said to him. Well done good and faithful servant You have been faithful over a little

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I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master He also who had received the one talent came forward saying master.

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I knew you to be a hard man Reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed

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So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground Here you have what is yours?

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But his master answered him you wicked and slothful servant You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed

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Then you ought to have invested my money in with the bankers And at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest

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So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance

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But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place.

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There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth May the lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word

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Well christmas and new year is now over the gifts have been given And opened and and maybe even some returned

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I wonder if I went around And I asked when you know, what did you get? I wonder if we get any surprising news

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Well, I told mary that i'm probably the only baptist pastor in the area to get a bottle of wine for christmas

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I appreciate the thought and the gift Well, what did you get? It's also the type of year in which people make new year's resolutions

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Often to make more themselves and often to try to undo some of the damage they did During the christmas time when they were indulging

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Maybe to be in resolving maybe to be in better shape or stop some bad habit hurting them So dieting plans and you know aids to stop smoking are now on tv a lot

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You see a lot of ads for that the idea is that now well Now we've gained we've indulged ourselves and gained some pounds by eating too much now

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We need to apply ourselves make more of ourselves by physically making less of ourselves I guess now for many people.

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This is really a contrast, you know, we've gone from one extreme to another from the season of indulgence

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And getting gifts and things we want and buying what we want never mind the debt and eating whatever we want

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Never mind the fat And now this dreary january Oh eating the tiny portions these weight loss plans allow no more desserts

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Cut back on the spending Especially when that credit card bill comes due Cut something out

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Hitting the treadmill or the weight rooms to work off those pounds Uh, we've gone right from the season of getting to this getting things to the season of giving up things

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And we think those are opposites Well, that's sort of the average person going from extremes of fasting to feasting saving

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Displurging and working for the weekend. Uh, but there are others of course who you never never seem to get to the

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Discipline part, you know the resolution part They may be too lazy and self -indulgent

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To ever save or to sacrifice or to work very hard for anything You know today in many places is considered kind of ill -mannered unsophisticated even sort of barbaric to To criticize people for being lazy.

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Even the word is just almost becoming like an obscenity. That's supposed to lazy You don't hear it that much

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Lazy as a criticism is a condemnation. It's just rarer and rarer. Oh some might be criticized for being workaholics.

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Oh, you're a workaholic cut back Stop working so hard, but fewer criticized these days.

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It seems to me for For not working enough Get to work you lazy bum with a kick

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I remember in seminary having a european friend european friend who said that we westerners And he included us americans in that just couldn't keep up with those east asians who worked so hard I remember thinking hey, i'm working 17 hours a day here.

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You speak for yourself A few years later. I was in singapore describing the puritan work ethic

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You know the puritans worked hard at everything they did and a chinese singaporean student there said, you know, you know, we already work hard What more are we supposed to do?

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And that was a good question. I didn't have a good answer for at the moment many work many work There are there are those who aren't lazy and who will work but for the long -term goal of spending

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Yeah, some want to work maybe a day or two and then for the work weekend But some for the long -term goal, they're willing to work for 34 years for the long -term goal of spending

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Maybe for retirement to get a vacation home and an easy life After years of earning it, uh, they may be afraid to lose then in the short term.

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They'll hold on to every cent they have Maybe they'll stuff it away in their mattress Uh afraid the banks will go under Afraid society will collapse afraid something will happen and so too afraid to do anything really except to hunker down stock up and wait here the lord jesus deals with all these kinds of people the ones who go from one extreme to another the lazy who never get

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Out of the indulging and then those who just work and deprive themselves our whole life He deals with all these kinds of people and with us and he tells us speaking about the end

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And remember the context of this passage. He's continuing Uh talking about the end in times, uh, he and here he talked about the end he tells us what we need to know for the beginning

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Of another year the beginning of what may be a long wait. He gives us here.

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He gives us some of god's math Okay, many people when it comes to the end times Are just love to calculate things

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Right, they'll find codes And hidden dates and you know when things are going to happen

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Of course they always prove wrong, but they'll keep working at it They'll be very disciplined hard working about that Uh, this is part of uh in what jesus teaches us here

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What the passage we read remember is part of this long answer that jesus gave to the disciples question that begins chapter 24

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You know, when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming? They ask him that and he all of chapter 24 now still in all of chapter 25

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Is answering that and people are often interested in the mathematics of jesus's return They want to precisely answer never mind that he said over and over again

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No one knows the day or the hour, but they forget that they'll look for the math And here jesus does give us a lesson in math.

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He tells us how god adds How we should multiply? how christ divides and finally how god adds some more and subtracts

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First god adds Here jesus is again dealing with what we're to be doing

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During the long delay, you notice that the master goes away and after a long delay It says he comes back before and and that this is so this is telling us what we're to be doing before christ returns

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Now all those scoffers today Often mock, you know the early church those christians.

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They've always thought jesus is going to turn anytime soon Actually, he teaches a great deal and he taught right these disciples a great deal right from the beginning

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Um that there's going to be a long delay and what they're supposed to be doing during this Long delay and this teaching the parable of talents is another lesson in that in verse 19

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Jesus again says after a long time. That's what jesus is teaching us here. What are we to be doing?

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During that long time He begins in verse 14 with for it will be like It meaning his his return or what's happening before he returns.

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It will be like That is the end is like a wealthy man going on a journey

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And he entrusts his wealth to reliable what he hopes anyway are reliable servants and here he he adds to three servants

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He gives to one five talents to another two talents and to another one just one talent and two questions here

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What does god add? And then how? Does god add it now what does god add now first literally a talent

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Because we may be a little confused because this is a word we have in english But first we need to know what it originally meant

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Uh, a talent was a measure of weight a weight for money Uh, particularly of silver and gold.

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That's usually the way they measured their money in those days They didn't have like a bill that had how much it was worth printed on it or usually

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Often not even a coin they just weighed it how much does the gold or the silver weigh and that's how much it's worth and uh

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A talent was a was a large weight. It was about 60 to 80 pounds Not quite sure but it's a it's a good amount and so it's a lot of money

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I mean you can imagine 60 pounds of gold that's worth a lot And so if it's silver, which most commentators seem to think this is then this is worth hundreds of thousands perhaps a million dollars

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So let's put it there Round it up to a good million dollars per talent.

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So the guy that gets five talents is getting five million dollars Here that's yours Take good care of it.

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Uh, so this is a lot of the masters entrusting with these servants now That's what it is. Literally Now, what is it to us?

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What does jesus mean it to symbolize? Jesus is the wealthy man who's going on a long journey and we are the servants now.

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What are the talents? That we are entrusted with maybe we'd prefer to be entrusted with five million dollars

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You know, we could we could live out the interest at least right? uh first someone to say that Well, it's you know

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Kind of make it very spiritual that it's the gospel and we've been entrusted with the wealth of the gospel And we need to make more of it more of it

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And that he will return after a long time and reward those who who made more of it

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And then punish those who just kind of sat on it didn't do anything That's one interpretation of what the talents represent and I believe it that is true

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But not yet that's ultimately where we should get at the problem with that is that In this parable the servants are given different amounts

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Of talents, you know five and two and one How can you be given different amounts of the gospel?

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So it so it really doesn't make much sense to say the talents represent the gospel. What is someone someone given five

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Gospels, what does that mean? That doesn't work So because the servants are given different amounts of talents the talents symbolize

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What we use the word talent for We may not I don't know. Maybe I hope you all know this but the word talent comes from this passage

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Our english word talent comes from this very parable. This is its origin And because people understood what it was talking about anything that god gives you it's a talent

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It's a gift from god and you're gonna make more of it personal gifts and abilities Of all kinds even of money the money you might have of anything that we have been given talents

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Our talents That's not so hard. Is it? Uh, i've actually heard christians though object to the idea talents here can't be talents

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Because so many christians can't imagine that god First has given them the gifts and the things that they have

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You know, whatever it is Whether it be musical skill or teaching ability or the money that they have in the bank the property they own their business

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Their intelligence their social skills their athletic ability their opportunities. They have to learn or to grow or to teach and to give

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You know, so many people can't imagine that god gave them those things. They think you know, they see what they did

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I went to work. I earned the money that money in the bank is mine. I earned it They don't see god behind it and even some christians kind of unfortunately think that way

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It's a very secular way of looking at the world. They think natural talents are just accidents

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Of our dna so what I was born I can run fast or I was born with the you know I can learn languages quickly something like that Or maybe achievements through our hard work.

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They're just natural They weren't we often think they weren't gifts from a supernatural god, but if we think that way we're wrong everything about us

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That is useful The sin is not a gift from god that we came up with ourself, but everything that's about us that's useful

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Uh, whether the the skill to you know to paint a building well to perform a song well

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Or maybe the the self -control Um And the discipline to run a business

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Properly takes a lot of self -control, you know, you have this money if you invest it you you got to Spend it on all kinds of things for the business instead of just going out and you know

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Nicest restaurants and spending on yourself self -control that to to develop a business um the the the

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The ability to hit a three -point shot or run a five -minute mile or play an instrument or ride

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Well or cook a good meal or the character to show up week after week to drive a vehicle to support a ministry

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Or to study for exams or to stay late at a job when you'd rather just go play Or the shrewdness to know how to invest your money

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Or how to sell a product To to guide a conversation that wins people over instead of putting them off every imaginable talent that we can think of Is a talent

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Here in this passage that jesus is talking about now the church has gone off to the left side of this because so many christians apparently believe that uh, you know often

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Preaching is the only real talent they they can think of The only talent that matters though So they'll call the pastor the preacher and the main service is the preaching service and come for a lay at 11 a .m

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preaching as though the singing and the praying and having the lord's supper or Or even reaching out or just being a church together

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Or even just living as a christian throughout the week as though none of that matters And so the result is that some people can't imagine that the talents that they have mean much of anything they can serve and they can keep the facilities and they functioning and encourage or Others or they can give or they can sing or they can teach or they can witness

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They can do all kind they can drive a vehicle they can do all kinds of important things but they don't really believe that those are talents because They don't believe those those are the talents that god is concerned with because they think god is only concerned with Maybe just these really few spiritual things

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That only a few rare people have They don't understand What they've got

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Well, what did you get? What has been added to us Well talents now, how does he add them to us notice in verse 15 that the master distributes to his servants

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It says to each according to his ability and even the ability comes from god too, but That's not the point.

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That is the master gave to the servants according to their capacity at handling what was given to them

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He gave to the first servant the most five talents because he expected the most from him

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And people may be equal in rights and value But we understand got to understand the fact

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People are not always equal in ability Some have just enormous ability sometimes there's some few people have a lot of abilities in a lot of different areas

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I'm, not one of those but some are now those who have more ability

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Have that because they had that added to them and they have They have they have a lot of ability.

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They have a lot of talents added to them God has added two of them now that could be a recipe for exploitation and oppression

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You know for some people a lot of ability. I have all these abilities. God has favored me You should just do what

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I say serve me that that leads to that kind of oppression only if we forget what comes next

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God adds But we are responsible to multiply

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We are supposed to make more of our talents. Yes talents are given to each according to his ability but with ability comes responsibility

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Not just rights But responsibility Like a famous saying and this may be the only time from a sermon

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I ever quote Karl Marx But here it is from like Karl Marx said from each according to his ability to each according to his need now what

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That gets right And we'll talk about what that gets wrong a little bit later. But what that gets right to each according to his ability

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Is that the more ability we have? Actually is from each according to his ability the more ability we have the more that is the more talents that we have the more

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Expectations are placed on us more was expected From the servant who was given five talents.

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That's why he was given five talents More was expected of him than when the one to whom the master just gave one or even the one he gave two

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Even though the one did two he did just as well as the one who got the five Well as jesus says elsewhere everyone to whom much was given

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Of him much will be required and from him and from From him to whom they entrusted much

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They will demand the more Okay, you've been entrusted a lot More is required of you.

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That's in luke chapter 12 verse 48. So the more you have either the more money you have or the smarter you are the more skills you have the the

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Or even the ability to acquire new skills Then the more is expected

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Of you that doesn't mean you should just coast by a lot of money. You can just live off the interest You know wake up late every day.

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No, you have more responsibility to serve God first and people second so with every talent or every dollar or every bit of knowledge that has been added to you

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More expectations are placed on you. So being ready for his return Consists not only as many people think just well,

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I don't want to be caught You know in some kind of sin keeping our slate clean. It's more than just being

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Staying out of trouble, but also it means in this long wait. That's what he's talking about Master is going to return stay active be responsible fateful service which produces results

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We make more of everything that god has given to us if it's athletic ability

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Train it if it's academic skill Educate it if business opportunities grow them if social skills

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Develop them we learn from dale carnegie how to win friends and influence people

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Learn learn those things if making money work at it if singing develop your voice

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Practice if teaching will learn teaching techniques to do it better We take the gift that god has added to us and multiply it and then finally

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That first interpretation is true we use our talents Whatever it is to spread the gospel of the kingdom

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If in sports, you know like eric little We glorify god in an athletic excellence

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He had a legalistic kind of sister who thought he was just displeasing god and almost sinning by spending so much time in his athletics and he finally got

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Get alone with her and say i'm going to be a missionary But first I need to do this need to run and he said when

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I run I feel his pleasure because That was something he had been given a talent to do

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To run and he could feel himself pleasing god god being pleased entering into the joy of his master

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When he developed that talent And of course it led to him going to the olympics refusing to run on what he believed as the sabbath

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Standing up for what he believed which actually put him in another race Which actually it turns out he was even better in and he won the gold medal in that He entered into the joy of his master

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Do it for the lord if it's in school, you know, you don't just study Kids don't just go to school just so you can

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Get you know get the best grades in school so you can go to the best college So you can get the best job and make the most money

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You know if it's great to go to the best schools But you you go there first of all to love the lord your god with your mind

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Okay If in business we're not just interested in acquiring great wealth So we can spend it on ourselves one day and buy that retirement home that we always wanted

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This is what that singaporean asked me that I couldn't quite get right about 20 years ago You know, we're already working hard.

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He said we're good at business. What more do you expect of us? We'll do it for the lord as john.

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Wesley said earn all you can Save all you can Give all you can

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Take the treasure that god has added to you and multiply it For the kingdom of god

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Not just for your retirement. Not just for your glory It's it's not just for you to splurge on yourself.

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You know, that's that's the worldly self -centered way of looking at it You know, you make money to get a bigger house a nicer car

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Maybe more leisure time all for yourself. You're a champion in sports to glorify yourself

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Get that medal hung around your neck or you're an american idol and singing because you want to be idolized

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You win friends and influence people To use them for yourself, you know can win their vote or their favors or their contracts

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That's so common That's what the chinese singaporean person was asking me, you know, they knew how to do that already

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They were throwing themselves into that But that's not what jesus is talking about here jesus is talking about Stewardship these things that you've been given are given by god

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And he's coming back and he wants to know what have you done with them for me?

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He's coming back for them. Have you made more of them for him? It's not as though you're just the owner and you can do with it what you want

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You're not so using our talents for ourselves for our own enrichment and pleasure. That's all wrong

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God has added to us gifts that he expects us to multiply and use those gifts for him

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At the beginning of another year. So our question then should be not uh, you know, how am I gonna? Pay for all the indulgence i've just Put on the credit card for the gifts.

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I bought from christmastime or doing whatever I wanted or or how can I make? More of myself this year getting get rid of the fat or that I acquired but how can

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I use what I got? Or will get for god After all jesus used what he got

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At christmas, didn't he? He got a human life for us

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He used it to purchase us And he and he did that for god's glory to make worshipers.

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Now we should do the same With whatever we got. What did you get by the way?

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Uh in verse 19 finally after a long time The master returns and he settles accounts with the servants notice in verse 20.

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It's kind of a picture Appears they're like all there lined up And first comes forward

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The one who had received the five talents he doubled his investment. This guy should have got a job in wall street

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He's commended. Uh, he had multiplied what was given to him during all that time that the master was away

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You know, he didn't waste the money. He could have said hey, you know five million bucks I can live pretty well on this for a while The one who had received two talents did the same he doubling the principal and again a hundred percent return

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He too is praised well done And he too is designated a good and faithful servant

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And so what this parable teaches us is is the great value that god puts on two things

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One is faithfulness. The second is hard work The first two servants are praised for being good and faithful For continuing to work even when no one is looking right the master's not over their shoulder

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Making sure they're doing what they're supposed to do. He's long. He's way far away When the master was away, they could you know, they could have just taken it easy and relaxed

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But they were faithful day in And day out so many people today are more are waiting on something

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You know, maybe to fulfill them That will finally make them faithful, you know

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Maybe they're waiting on a relationship when I meet that perfect person he or she

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Will make me faithful Meanwhile, i'll be unfaithful to all these other relationships or it could be a job once they find that perfectly fulfilling

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Job, then they'll be faithful to it. Then they'll work hard at it. But but here

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The good and faithful servants are good Because they are faithful Not because they're fulfilled

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Okay, whatever they were doing it just as they traded with it It's not as though they just kind of probably in their day is most likely livestock or something like that and it's not as though you know, they just This is so fulfilled by by buying and settling selling cattle or goats

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It just so fulfills me and so they were fulfilled and so they went out and were faithful to it

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No, they were faithful with what they had been given And that's what god expects from us be faithful with what you are given

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Find your fulfillment in being faithful Don't expect that.

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You'll finally be faithful When finally you find something to fulfill you be fulfilled in faithfulness

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Well two things they did to multiply what was given them They were they were faithful and they worked hard and god expects us to use our time in advancing

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Somehow everything that we have now when I was younger i'm kind of undisciplined now, I guess but when

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I when I would ask myself Every day, have I advanced today? I've done something today to advance every part of me

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Spiritually you ask yourself every day. Have you have you had have I advanced today spiritually in prayer?

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Today in bible study. Have I have I considered something? I mean you have to read a whole book But maybe just meditate on the verses something

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Serving god today. Have I advanced mentally? Have I have I learned something? Have I stretched my mind?

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Have I advanced physically am I in better shape today than I was the day before have I advanced financially?

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Have I? Have I made some money or save some money today or have I rested and refresh myself so that I can do those things better tomorrow

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The scottish puritan david dixon wrote that the parable showed us That just as the faithful servant whether his talents are fewer or more

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Was accepted of his master and made partaker of his joy. So every man who in the discharge of his calling

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Seeks faithfully the glory of christ and the increase of his kingdom. She'll be accepted in the day of judgment god loves hard work

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Uh work hard in your calling in life be excellent

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Like the two good and faithful servants. They took what had been added to them and they multiplied it by hard and smart work

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Returning to the master twice What had been given to them? The lesson is john piper would say

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Don't waste your life Don't waste your life on things that just fritter it away Invest it work on it

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Develop it make more of it so that at the end of your life That you were the best that you could be

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And everything you did whether academics or sports or teaching or business or cooking or music or saving painting writing

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You know, whatever you fill in the blank, whatever it is that you were given to do You did it for the glory of god and you did it excellently

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Faithfully God adds We should multiply

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But then christ divides Well, two servants are praised And told well done

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And called good and faithful There's only one problem with giving high grades You know what that is unless you give them to everybody then it's great inflation and that's no good but It divides the good from the bad

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Uh jesus here teaches that there is a final judgment All right.

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I'll see even more about that in the next passage. But here there is a final judgment And that judgment will divide the faithful from the faithless

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Calling some good and faithful divides them from those who are not good and faithful, you know giving a's

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Divides the good students from the bad students when I was a teaching assistant at the university of chicago I gave a few a's a few

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Two good and faithful students who had studied and done their work But by doing that I divided them from others

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And I remember there was young one young lady student who came to the professor's office where I was personally to get her grade

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She was impatient to see it. I guess After the test and I had to hand it directly to her

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I graded the test paper in my hand right into her hand And She with an f right on it.

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She failed She was a senior she needed that class to graduate

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But her work failed And she started to cry and I felt miserable But I couldn't change her grade

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She earned it my grading divided the a's from the f's and caused much weeping at the end

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There is a division And some will be crying What now what is it then that divides

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What what is it about those that fail that causes them to fail? Now we've seen that some of the causes to succeed that is they're faithful.

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They work hard. What is it that causes others? to fail So that they have to be divided from the rest.

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Well, he's there's four things mentioned here Can't get them to rhyme or alliterate or anything.

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But here they are. They're blame shifting One two is bearing Three the is fear and four is laziness

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And verse 24, uh, last of all the third servant came forward. Uh, he's returning the one talent he had been given

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He he begins with an explanation Really it's blame shifting. He basically says, you know master.

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It's it's your fault You know if if you weren't so hard use the word hard there and exacting

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I would have tried harder not for you Blame shifting is a natural part of being a sinner

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Sinners hate to take the blame to take responsibility to say I was wrong

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The first thing that adam said in the garden, you know, anybody remember after the sin? After he says confronted by god first thing he says

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God the woman you gave me It's her fault And god, it's your fault.

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He implied by giving her to me You did it. It's everybody's fault except for mine

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And that's common. That's the way sinners are Always somebody else's fault Blame shifting is common in abusive relationships

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Common excuse, you know, if you would only stop doing that I wouldn't get so mad It's always someone else's fault

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And and to this last servant is the the fault of the master For being so demanding, you know, apparently because he confesses to it to himself.

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You notice that Well, he says you knew that I was hard expecting crops from fields where I'm planted.

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Uh This service I you know He actually went through the fields where he hadn't planted to see if he could harvest some crops there, you know wild stuff growing

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Can you believe it? He's that hard he's that demanding, you know, what will he do then if he comes back and i've lost all my money

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Um in my my investments went bad So, you know, he just reasons

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I might as well bury it That's the perfectly logical way that he was thinking a rabbi of this time

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I said that the only safe place for money was to bury it in the ground And so he took that advice so seeing the master so demanding

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He better not take any chances He surrenders to just protecting it

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I'm going to try to advance it not to make more of it Now some people just try to conserve As they just try to hold on to what they have in life

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They don't want to go forward afraid. That'll mean having to leave things behind in the little town.

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We lived in in pennsylvania There was this old house That hadn't been lived in for about 40 years. It's actually a fairly decent looking house and I looked in the window once peered in And I could see

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Uh, it looked like a scene out of the 1950s There's old -fashioned kind of furniture and a big tv but with a little tiny round screen

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Probably the last thing that had been watched on it was leave it to beaver You know when it was first coming out

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The people that owned the house actually lived nearby a few houses down But I was told that they would never sell it.

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They wouldn't even bring the old furniture out of it They just they grew up there in that house. And so they couldn't bear to let it go

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You're just going to let it sit conserve it They held on to it And there are people who treat the gospel, you know treat the gospel like that.

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They'll bury it. They'll try to preserve it They might fight each other over any perceived change or you know different way of presenting it

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But they don't really try to spread it to make more of it After all if you do that You know, they're afraid

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We might lose it The last servant buries his talents because he's afraid

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He says so himself in verse 25, you know, so he says I was afraid you're so demanding I was afraid

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He's afraid of losing the master's money and thought just preserving. It was the right thing to do

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But as a robert kiyosaki author of rich dad poor dad wrote Winners are not afraid of losing

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But losers are Failure is part of the process of success People who avoid failure also avoid success

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A woman in israel true story about three four years ago Apparently she's too afraid of the banks.

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You never know I could tell they could Collapse whatever literally Stuffed all her money her life savings in her mattress

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But one day when she was away her her adult daughter Not knowing where her mother put her life savings

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Thought she would do her mother a great favor Get rid of her old lumpy mattress and buy her a brand new one

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And by the time the mother got back It was too late The trash men had already hauled away the old mattress.

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They went to the dump. They searched everywhere They couldn't find it with nearly 1 million dollars of a life saving stump stuffed inside Well, finally the master says that the real reason he took the easy way out

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He was just lazy And and here we see the definition Or maybe you say the essence of laziness

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You know when our fears Are greater than our faith We lose any motivation to work, you know, if you have no faith and something good is going to come out of this

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Why why work? Just say it's not worth it No more motivation to sacrifice

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To invest to educate yourself to train yourself to go get up early to do what needs to be done

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If we don't believe that giving up or or risking anything now Will produce anything good later on?

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We just give up And his fears were greater than his motivation Because he was faithless faith

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Tells us that there is a reward That it's worthwhile working and sacrificing and risking and suffering

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Faith gives us the vision of the reward and that fuels

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The motivation and so he saw this last servant did he saw the same demanding master?

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That the other two servants saw But unlike them He feared losing

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More than he believed in a reward So he did nothing He was lazy

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But we're supposed to multiply What has been added to us and because he didn't? He is divided from the other two

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Then we see that god adds some more and subtracts

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First we see here that What jesus explains in luke chapter 10 where he says there? Um, whoever is faithful in a very little

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Is also faithful in much in this life You know, you could be like the second servant

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For a while. I never could figure what the second servant was there for I couldn't the five shows he reproduced the one shows he's lazy.

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What's the second? Well, then I figured out second servant is probably most of us Who maybe we don't feel like we've been given that much.

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We're not the smartest We're not the most most skills about most of everything But you can still be rewarded you can still be the good and faithful servant at the end

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Even if you're given very little compared to one with five Anyway, if you make more of it In this life, you could be like that second servant not given much

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But be rewarded at the end. You may not be given that much wealth yet I don't think anyone here

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The best of my knowledge has given been given that much wealth, but how have you managed it?

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Have you have you earned all you can have you saved all you can have you given all you can?

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Uh, you may not have that much influence But how have you used what you have?

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you may not Have that, you know many people in your church or sunday school class or in ministry, but have you tried to multiply?

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What you have jesus's principle is that even if you're given very little in life

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If you've been faithful and trying to grow it Then you will have much added to you

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God adds talents at the beginning and god adds rewards at the end much rewards

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Well, he not only adds much it says he adds joy you know, you know like eric little saying when

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I run I feel his pleasure gets joy from Developing this talent god had given him both.

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The faithful servants are invited to enter into the joy of your master in other words Relish the master saying the pleasure the harmony the approval the fellowship of the one that you've served so well

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Instead of taking that money and splurging on yourselves, you know having parties and good times for yourself while the master was away

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Thinking i'll enjoy myself now, even if I have to suffer for it later Instead of doing that thinking that way they were faithful and so when he returns well, then

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Then they'll get parties and good times with him sort of like the previous parable the bridesmaids and the

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And and the parable of the ten virgins the the five wise ones Are the ones that get to enter into the joy of the wedding reception because they prepared

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They developed a life of knowing the lord through bible study and prayer and serving god with the church

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So they could come in they were prepared when the bride of the groom came and here the good servants

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They get joy Then When the master master comes because they were full of faith faithful now

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Believing that the pleasures of god To come were greater than the pleasures of sin now again we often think fulfillment or joy

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Will make us faithful But here we see it's the other way around Faithfulness will give us joy

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God adds much and god adds joy and god subtracts

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Now, this is a shocking parable To many people today because it kind of turns upside down what many people got to expect is is right it just goes

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Directly in conflict with what many people think is fair Remember the marxist slogan from each according to his ability

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To each according to his need Well, that's that's what some people think that that is justice.

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That is the ideal society And the first part is true from each according to his ability those who have more ability who have been given more

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We should expect more from them. The master gave to the servants according to what? What was expected from them?

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But scandalously here He doesn't reward according to need does he?

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Notice what he says It's not according to need that that at the end where the servants are rewarded but according to faithfulness indeed the last

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Lazy servant notice that in verse 28. This is a shocking idea to many people today the the last lazy servant

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Has his talent taken from him subtracted and given to the first faithful one

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That's what it says look at that you don't believe me The rich get richer And the poor get poorer now sure sometimes

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That's the product of greedy rich people using their wealth to exploit and oppress others and you know give themselves an unfair advantage but sometimes sometimes

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Is the decree of god adding to the faithful and subtracting from the faithless

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But jesus himself lays down the principle in verse 29 For to everyone who has

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Will more be given And he will have an abundance But from the one who has not

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Even what he has Will be taken away And the one adding

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I should say adding and subtracting here is god He's the one active there giving to the faithful so that they have an abundance and taking away from the faithless so that They began with little and they end with nothing and god finally

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Subtracts everything from the faithless And finally the worthless servant full of blame shifting and fear and empty of faith is shown

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He's thrown into the outer darkness he's divided from the faithful and subtracted from heaven

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Jesus is coming again to settle accounts with us his servants have we

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Been faithful have we multiplied what's been given to us? Not just for ourselves, you know, that's what worldly people they can understand that they get to keep the reward for themselves

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Who work and save and spend all for themselves, but like christ himself who? though wealthy for our sakes

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Became poor that he might make many of us rich So that he might add us to his joy

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So What did you get? a little a lot

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Justin got a lot You've all been given something And if you will just have faith

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If you'll be filled with faith So that you're faithful You can multiply what you've been given