Aggressive Investment

Please turn your Bible to Luke chapter 19. Luke 19 we'll be looking at the parable of the ten minas. Please stand when you have that. Luke chapter 19 beginning in verse 11. As they heard these things he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near to Jerusalem and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.

The Parable of the Ten Minas and Aggressive Investment

He said therefore a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return calling ten of his servants he gathered them ten minas and said to them engage in business until I come.

But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying we do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned having received the kingdom he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him and he might know that he might know what they had gained by doing business.

First came before him saying Lord your mina has made ten minas more and he said to him well done good servant but you have been faithful because you have been faithful in very little you shall have authority over ten cities.

And the second came saying Lord your mina has made five minas and he said to him you are to be over five cities. Then another came saying Lord here's your mina which I kept laid away in your handkerchief in a handkerchief for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.

He said to him I will condemn you with your own words you wicked servant you knew that I was a severe man taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank and at my coming I might have collected it with interest.

And he said to those who stood by take the mina from him and give it to the one who has ten minas. They said to him Lord he has ten minas. I tell you that everyone who has more will be given but from one who has not even what he has will be taken away.

But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them bring them here and slaughter them before me. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father we ask you today that you would bless the preaching of your Word.

Christ, the Kingdom of Grace, and the Kingdom of Glory

We know that Christ spoke parables in order that not all would understand. We ask that our eyes would be open today in order to understand your parable to understand what Christ has taught here and that we would be excellent kingdom citizens, excellent investors ready for that day when Christ returns.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Many struggle to serve the Lord. Many invest in the kingdom boldly. Many do so because of fear. Many do so because of hatred. As it is described in this passage there are various motivations that keep people from serving the Lord as they ought, from investing as they ought.

And it is worthwhile to take time today in this passage to consider what is it that makes for wise investing? What is it that makes for good investing? Believe when we look at this and we see the details of these different categories of investors, you have those citizens who rebelled, you have the one who did not invest at all, you have the one who invested some and made back five, and you have the one who invested very aggressively and came back with ten minas.

That the Lord rewards bold investment. In our terminology today when we talk about growth strategies or investment strategies we speak of aggressive strategy, aggressive investment. The Lord rewards aggressive investment.

And this is the mindset that we should have as we steward the resources God has given us. Doesn't matter if it's time, doesn't matter if it's money, doesn't matter what it is, all your talents, they should all be stewarded.

Now it is also worth observing here, this is very similar to the parable of the talents that is told in the Gospel of Matthew. However, circumstances are different, many of the details about the parable is different, and so there is a distinct message that we are to get from this.

Just to highlight two of the differences for you to show you what those may be. First of all, we have immediately before this the context of Zacchaeus and how he has given away half his possessions. We have before that the rich man that Christ had told to give away all of his things, sell to the poor.

So we have a distinctly financial context, whereas with the parable of the talents there was not such a distinctly financial context. Secondly, in the parable of the talents, the reward is the same for each.

Here there are differing quantities, they're all given the same amount, but they are making different amounts with it. And so it draws us to ask a different question, not just about faithfulness in general, but more specifically, what does it look like to be more faithful rather than less faithful?

And the answer is to be bold, to be aggressive in the way that you would invest, and especially in the context of finances, as we see with Zacchaeus. So it explains the context here. It says, "...as they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.".

This is what the disciples have been proclaiming ever since Jesus sent them out. They were sent out into the villages in order to proclaim the kingdom of God has come near. It has come near. And here Jesus is arriving at Jerusalem, that place where the throne of David is supposed to be, and they are expecting the kingdom to come.

And then he continues, and he says, "...he therefore said, a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and then returned.". The nobleman represents Jesus Christ, far country represents heaven, he's going to receive for himself a kingdom, that's the kingdom of heaven.

It says, "...calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, engage in business until I come. But the citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, we do not want this man to reign over us.".

So these rebellious citizens refer to those who do not outwardly serve him, especially in the context of this gospel, it refers to the Jews. Those Jews who he is supposed to reign over, those who are supposed to be his citizens, and they have rejected him.

Verse 15, "...when he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money be called to him. They might know what they had gained by doing business.". Okay, so these citizens that actually did invest, these are his disciples, at least outwardly so, his disciples.

And he is calling them forward, this is for judgment, this represents that judgment on that final day. "...the first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful and very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.

The second came, saying, Lord, your mina has made five minas. And he said to him, you are to be over five cities.". So these different disciples, these are true disciples, they've invested, they are rewarded, there will be rewards in heaven, this is spoken of many occasions.

In fact, that reward is often spoken of as an authority, not just a reward that one would get to enjoy, but an authority. "...then another came, saying, Lord, here's your mina, which I laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man.

Take what you did not deposit, you reap what you did not sow.". This man is afraid. Jesus responds, or the nobleman responds, "...he said to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant, you knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest. He said to those who stood by, take the mina from him, give it to the one who has ten minas. He said to him, Lord, he has ten minas.

I tell you that everyone who has more, more will be given from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.". So clearly these represent false disciples, those who would outwardly be disciples but are not truly investing in the kingdom as they're called to do, and therefore betraying the fact they are not truly Christ's disciples.

Verse 27,. "...but as for these enemies of mine who do not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.". I once saw a debate, it was not a very good debate, it was in some third world country, and I think the Christian who was participating in this debate against a Muslim was very cocky, and he talked about how Jesus was all about peace and love, not about war, like Muslims are about war, and the Muslim quoted this verse and said, did you know that Jesus said, bring these enemies of mine, bring them here before me and slaughter them?

And the Christian said, no, Jesus never said that, Jesus never said that, and he pulled up this verse and quoted it, and the Christian was just so stunned he didn't know what to do with this verse. Of course it's in a parable here, and it refers to this final judgment, it does not refer to how Christ is running his earthly ministry, because his kingdom is not of this world, but on that final day there will be a great judgment, and everyone will have to give an account for what they have done in the body, whether good or evil, they'll have to give an account for all those resources that they have stewarded.

Your life is not your own, Christ has given it to you. Now as Christians, especially our life is not our own because it has been bought with a price, but for every single person it is the case that their life is a gift from God, and so every aspect of it they will have to give an account for how they have stewarded that, and they will have to give an account before Jesus Christ himself on that final day.

The Timing of the Kingdom and the Two Ages

So in considering this passage, I'd like to start off by talking about the timing of the kingdom. You can imagine why the disciples would expect that this kingdom is about to come. Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, this is the throne of David, this is where this is going to happen.

He has frequently told them that the kingdom of heaven is near. Now there are several ways that Jesus has spoken of the kingdom. He has spoken of it as something that is near to come. He has told them that the kingdom of heaven is near.

He has also told them that there are some of you who will not see death before you see the kingdom of heaven in all its glory. So there he's speaking of it primarily as something that happens in the resurrection.

Then at other times he says the kingdom of heaven is already among you, and then at other times he talks about it as something that will happen on that final day. He says not all who say a Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of God.

And so he uses this phrase kingdom of God in several ways. Sometimes it's to speak of something that's already existing, inaugurated through his ministry, something that will be more fully realized through the resurrection, and then something will be more fully realized on that final day.

Now the way that we should think about this is that it is inaugurated through his ministry and through his resurrection. If you group those together that's one kind of the existence of his kingdom. We speak of that as the kingdom of grace in theology.

And then there is that final day. That is the kingdom of glory. That's the phrase that theologians often use to describe the kingdom in its full manifestation on that final day. Now they aren't operating with these distinctions, and so they are confused when they have this kingdom of grace.

They think that it's the kingdom of glory that's coming. The kingdom of glory it's not coming till that final time. But we do enjoy this kingdom of grace. And so what that means is that there are two ages.

There's this age and the age to come. There are a lot of different eschatologies, which eschatology is talking about your view of the end times, that imagine that there's several ages, right? There's this age, there's some golden age that we're waiting for, and then there's finally when we're all together in the eternal kingdom.

This is not the way that the Bible speaks of it. The Bible speaks of it as this age and the age to come. There's this age that we are in now when Christ returns. That is it. There's no golden age that will be in the middle.

We are waiting until that day when Christ returns, and when he returns, that is judgment. So if this is the case, consider the alternatives. What is the alternative? The alternative is, well, one, if he is coming so immediately, there's no time to invest with any kind of wisdom, with any kind of real sense about us, and investment is not that important.

If he is never coming, then there is also no reason to invest, because why would you? Why would you invest in something that would never have any kind of reward? If the master is never going to return, why even bother?

But the reality is that he is not coming immediately as they imagined immediately. He was not coming then, yet he could come at any time, and so we must always be ready. We must always be about the business of the kingdom.

If you have one of these other ideas and you're locked up in the idea that this is coming, that he is guaranteed that it's coming so immediately, you will not be inclined to invest into the kingdom. If you have in mind that it's coming so far out that you will not have to answer to him, you will not invest in the kingdom.

It's important to have the right mindset, which is that we do not know when he is returning. It may be some time away, it may not be, and so if that is the case, we must invest. When a parent leaves their child at home and says, you know, do these several things while I'm gone, the kids often are taken away by the temptation to just do whatever they want.

When the parent arrives, then they have to suffer the consequences, but the faithful child is rewarded by the parent. Now consider these rebellious citizens. The citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him.

Okay, these are those who oppose him. Christ is Lord over all. He is called the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. So even though in this context is primarily talking about those who are most obligated to serve him, the Jews, having been waiting for this Messiah, at the same time it is still the case that Christ is an authority over all.

He is not an authority just over some. He's an authority over every single person who lives on this earth, and he demands obedience. He demands people submit to him. He demands they believe his gospel.

So few do, and this is not...and so therefore, given this passage, you should not see those who reject the kingdom of God, reject Christ's lordship over the kingdom of God, as being those who are simply ignorant.

Now there is a level at which there is ignorance, but this passage describes it as hatred. Now you could have...anyone could have at that time say, oh, but all these Jews just don't know that Jesus really is the Messiah.

Sure, if they had answered a multiple-choice quiz, they probably would have said Jesus is not the Messiah. But what is going on in their hearts is hatred. Likewise, Romans 1 says that mankind suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, that it's by his own wickedness that he rejects the reality of God.

And so when one hears of Jesus Christ, it's by man's own wickedness that he would reject that lordship. You should think of the word hatred as a privation of love. This is...if you think of it like that, it will answer a lot of difficult questions in the Bible.

How can the Bible say that God loves his enemies and also say that he hates evildoers, right? There is a...he loves. There is a... love is a positive thing. Hatred is a lack of love. And so if there is some love, but not all the love that there could be, you can call that from one angle love.

You can call it from another angle hatred, right? And that makes sense of these truths that you see in the Bible about him loving his enemies and also talking about him hating the wicked. Now if that's the case, when we say hatred, we're not necessarily talking about a foaming at the mouth.

Rather, we're talking about a privation of the love that is due to Jesus Christ. He has done most excellently. He is most excellent. And we should have a great affection for him. We should have a great love toward him and a service, great service to him.

And so those who don't lack the love that they ought to have, and this is rightly called a hatred. So this is...and if you consider how people in the world usually phrase this, right? They usually say things like, oh, I don't have any problems with Christianity.

I just don't want anyone telling me what to do. Okay, so their problems are not with Jesus as a person. It's with Jesus as Lord, right? They do not want Jesus as Lord. It is once he requires something of them, they do not want it.

There's a famous quote from Gandhi, I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so much unlike your Christ. A lot of people will hear that and they're like, oh yeah, a lot of Christians aren't like Jesus.

But the thing is, Jesus is making them like him. And so does Gandhi, did he really like Christ? No, he didn't like Christ. He liked Christ as an idea that's just out there, but it's when something's actually required of him, right?

When you come face-to-face with those who are saying, repent and believe, and there's some kind of lordship demanded, that is what people don't like. All kinds of people can say that they like Jesus as a teacher, etc., but if they do not submit to him, they truly hate him.

It is not a love of him, it is a hatred of him. So the believing mindset understands that your whole life is owed to God, and that you are not one who has your things, whatever it is, but most especially finances in this context, and then you would give them to God out of your own generosity, which is your own, as though you are the source of blessing, and it didn't come from him.

A lot of people imagine that when they give, God should be very thankful to them because they have done so well to give that which is theirs, not realizing that it is given from him to you in order to steward, and that he has called you to live with your whole life in regard to how he would have you to invest your wealth and resources, your whole self.

So yeah, disabuse yourself of that mindset that would say, God should be thankful to me because these blessings are coming from me. They're coming from him. They're coming from him, and so if you give to him, you have given, as long as you have given short of everything, you have given him less than he has given you.

Now there is a very likely allusion that Jesus is making in this parable. Herod Archelaus, who is mentioned in Matthew 2, of the different Herods, is very short-lived reign, only ten years. You don't see in much of Scripture, but he's mentioned in Matthew 2.

He's the reason why Joseph went away and took his family out to Nazareth, because Herod Archelaus. Herod Archelaus, when his father Herod the Great died, because they were under the Emperor of Rome, had to go away to Rome in order to get the kingdom.

He had to say, my father has died. I'm the one who should be rightful here. You should give me this kingdom. Now many of the Jews did not like him. He was a wicked man, and so they sent out a delegation after him to Rome to say, no, do not give him the kingdom.

He should not have the kingdom, but when he got the kingdom, what do you think he did? Well, he put to death many of his political opponents. So Jesus is alluding to something that has happened within their own history.

If you ever wondered, how could it talk about going away to get a kingdom? I understand how Jesus goes away and gets a kingdom, comes back, but what does that look like in real life? Well, in the analogy that he's making here is to one who would be over a nation like Judah and go away to the Emperor to get the rights to that kingdom and come back, and that is precisely what happened.

And those rebels are often put to death, and so it is the case in Jesus' kingdom. He will come back in power. He may not be operating in the same kind of power right now, but every last enemy will be put under his feet.

Then on that final day when he returns, he will return operating in full power, power that he already has but that he restrains, and he will destroy every last enemy. Now we also see this servant who does not invest as he ought to invest.

This is in verse 20. Then another came saying, Lord, here's your Mena. Sorry, I should have explained. Mena is about three to four months of income. You can imagine this if we take the idealized salary as being $100 ,000.

This is like $25 ,000 in our time. That's how you can imagine it. So you compare that to the cities that they're given. That's a huge ratio we're talking about. $25 ,000 is nothing compared to being given authority over a city.

Okay, so he says, Lord, here's your Mena, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief, for I was afraid of you because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.

Okay, so this man is afraid. He puts it in the handkerchief. It's not a very great way of making an investment. The nobleman says to him, I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a severe man taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then did you not put my money in the bank? And at my coming I might have collected it with interest. So all he had to do was give some, all he had to do was, true investment really does not require much.

There are even, even timid investments are very easily made, but this man made no investment at all. He does not know the master. He speaks of him as a hard man, but he is not. He has been incredibly generous with the others, and he does not know himself.

He thinks of himself as one who is not truly a servant, but one who gets to decide what he would do. Master told him to invest, and he did not. He did not invest. And what is, what is the punishment here?

He is truly a wicked servant. When it says that all are taken away, all is taken away, what might come to your mind is something like 1st Corinthians 3, where it talks about someone not having any, all the reward being burned up, but they will be saved yet as if through fire.

Okay, that's talking about teaching and teaching that is not true teaching. Those who do not teach well, it being burned up. However, here what you see is one who is just a false disciple. This is not someone who has done poorly and so receives little.

What he has is taken away entirely. He is called a wicked servant, and Matthew in the parable of the talents, the one who does not invest at all, is cast off into outer darkness. This is a, this is a false disciple.

Now, consider the nature of his character. You can consider this in, I'm gonna give you three different ways. One is fear, one is laziness, and one is selfishness. And all those are really the same thing, but they can be variably considered from those different angles.

So fear. I do not believe he is lying. Every time I come to this passage, my immediate thought is that, okay, this is just an arbitrary excuse. The more I think about it, and the more I think about examples in Scripture, examples in life where I see people operate this way, I realize I do not think this man is lying when he says that he is afraid.

He fears the consequences of failure, and so he does not act. Consider David. When he wants to bring the ark into Jerusalem, and then one man touches it, and he dies, and David becomes so scared of the penalties for failure that he doesn't even try bringing in the ark into Jerusalem for a number of more years.

This is a frequent way that people go about service to the Lord. They become too afraid of failure, and so they do not even try. Many people are scared of what it would look like to serve the Lord. They think through the options that they have, and each one is met with fear, and so they are frozen in inaction because of fear.

So I do not believe this man is lying or making excuses that have no grounding in reality. I believe that this really is his mindset. His mindset is that the Master is a harsh man. His mindset is that if I fail, then there will be great consequences, so it is better off not trying at all.

The problem is not trying at all is failure. Of course that wouldn't be tolerated, so he simply assumes that he's going to fail, and then decides to fail the simplest way he can, which is doing nothing.

This can also be considered as laziness. He doesn't do anything the Proverbs say on multiple occasions. Sluggard says there's a lion in the streets. Why does the sluggard say there's a lion in the streets?

Maybe he believes there's a lion in the streets. Maybe it's just a good excuse. Regardless of whether or not it's sincere, this is frequently someone's reason for not doing hard work. It's because there is something that they are afraid of, and so the Bible also calls this laziness.

So this laziness and fear, they are not really distinct things in this way, and there are a lot of people who would avoid hard work because of fear. Talk to people about going into plumbing. They say, oh no, that'll hurt your knees, and so they kind of sit unemployed.

Or going into construction, oh no, that's a very dangerous profession. You list profession after profession after profession. They're like, oh no, that one has dangers. That one's hard to your body. That one has, you know, etc.

Then what they end up pursuing is something incredibly mediocre, if anything at all, because they're paralyzed by fear, which the Bible also calls being a sluggard, being lazy. Now additionally, you can also frame this as selfishness.

This man is concerned about his self-preservation. He's not concerned about what will be best for the master. What he's concerned about is what will be best for himself. So he is concerned that the master will treat him harshly, and so in his self-preservation, he just wraps up the mina in a napkin and leaves it hidden away, doesn't do anything with it.

So many people are very self-centered, and you wouldn't, once again, all these things, you know, fear, laziness, selfishness, you might not identify them this way because they are kind of proxying one another in ways that make them ambiguous.

So you see, you can't tell that someone is lazy because it's proxying fear, right? You can't tell that someone's selfish because it's actually something else that's going on, but really these are all the same.

So think about how many people are very self-centered in their life, and their life is not in order because they are so selfish. They are so self-centered. Now once again, I'm not talking about outwardly, me, me, me, but when you are not focused on others, you have a tendency to only focus on self and to engage in ultimately self-destructive behavior.

It's very ironic the way that God has structured the world. He has structured it so that those who are concerned about others ultimately are building themselves up. He has guaranteed this. He has said that those who serve others will be raised up to high positions.

Those who put themselves at the end of the table will be brought to the height of the table. There are, increasingly in our world, more households have fewer people in it, right? And so you have all these households where they're just one person even, right?

And in a one-person household, it's very hard to be thinking about others. And so there's an increased temptation in our world to only be thinking about yourself because your circles are so small. Now even those households that do have multiple people in it are often not really focused on much more than themselves.

The Bible describes in 1 Timothy 3 that preparation for being a elder or a deacon involves managing your own household well so that you are equipped for the household of God. This is true just for kingdom service in general.

It's especially true for those two offices, but this is true in general. If you want to be equipped for kingdom service, that begins in your own home. The more you have, the more you are caring for others and you have an outward focus, the more you are ready to serve in the kingdom in this way.

This man is very self-centered. He is concerned about himself, and so he is not able to think about what is in the Master's best interest because he is only thinking about himself. Just to say some more about how households are run frequently, I really want you to realize just how much temptation we're under and how big of a generational sin this kind of self-centeredness is.

I know that a lot of people talk about this, but if you think about it in terms of isolation, I think that it's helpful and just how people financially structure just for themselves. One interesting statistics I saw that nearly 50 of baby boomers said that they would prefer to spend their savings on themselves and pass them off to the next generation.

Now only, I think it was 11 of Gen Xers said that and 13 of Millennials, but that is an incredible statistic that those that are passing off wealth right now, about half of them are saying that they don't want to, that they want to use it all on themselves and they don't care to pass it off to their children.

That is a wild statistic. And 40 of baby boomers said that they, this is a different study, 40 of baby boomers said that they plan on passing off nothing to their children, and then an additional 20 said it would be less than 10%.

So right now you just have an incredible set of statistics about, that are operating against the pattern you see in Scripture, passing off an inheritance, having a home where you care about others, just generally being outward focused.

Many people are just focused on themselves and then, like I said, have that mindset that when they do give anything, God should be thankful to them that they would give something that, you know, ultimately is coming from them, when it's ultimately actually coming from the Lord.

Faithful Servants, Kingdom Authority, and the Call to Boldness

All right, now you have these other two, these other two disciples. First comes and says in verse 16, Lord, your Mina has made ten Minas more. And he said to him, well done, good servant, because you have been faithful and very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.

And the second came saying, Lord, your Mina has made five Minas. And he said to him, and you are to be over five cities. So he puts them as rulers, just having invested a very small amount, and having done very well with it, he gives them whole cities to look over.

Because that's the thing, is his possessions right now, this nobleman, he has ten Minas. That's all he has. You know, if we really treat it like it's $25 ,000, you know, you can do the math and that's what, 250, right?

Times ten, that's easy, right? $250 ,000. That's a quarter million, right? And so that's in this area, you know, there are a lot of people that have that much. But he's going to go off and get a whole kingdom, right?

He's going to get, you know, imagine someone having that much money, you know, not even much to buy a house in this area. He's going to go off and he's going to get the whole state of California. So when he returns, he's going to give a proportional portion, depending on how you did, with that very small amount that he had access to before.

This is what is going to go on in the kingdom. He has spoken multiple occasions about how he will give authority over things. He has told the twelve disciples that they will judge the twelve tribes. He speaks of us as not just receiving crowns, but as, and think about what a crown is, you know, a crown is authority.

But speaking of us as receiving a rulership and authority, there will be a great responsibility that is given to us if we are faithful servants. Now just imagine, I mean just imagine if, like the little amounts of faithfulness that God calls you to, just how those things are rewarded.

They are rewarded. They will be rewarded in incredible proportions. If you knew how much the small things that he calls you to will be rewarded, how much more would you eagerly do them like it's nothing?

If you had these things in mind, you would follow like it is, like it is nothing. Now you have here also the objections that are given, right? And he said to those who stood by this, verse 24, take the Mina from him and give it to the one who has ten Minas.

So all the wealth is transferred to the one who has done the best with it. And this is considered crazy by others. He already has so much, why would you give him more? If you think about this primarily in terms of some kind of fairness, primarily in terms of right with reward, it's going to be hard for you to wrestle with.

If you think of this nobleman, and Jesus Christ is King, as wanting sound investments, of course he's going to give it with the best investor. Of course that's going to be the case. And so this this nobleman is not concerned about making sure that, you know, everything's spread out evenly and fairly.

He's concerned about the health of his kingdom, and the health of his kingdom means granting greater authority to those who have demonstrated the ability to use this greater authority. And he receives much hostility for this.

He's told, and they said to him, Lord he has ten Minas. Now you might just consider how hostile the world is toward Jesus, toward those who would give. Now it will be the case on that day that they will be even more hostile, but it's already the case now.

It's already the case now that if you want to serve the Lord, if you want to invest, you'll be met by mockers, you'll be met by the world who is trying to rebel against him. Even those in the kingdom who are purportedly part of the kingdom, but are like this man fearful, will try to discourage you out of their own fears.

They will try to offload their fears onto you and have you bear that anxiety with them as a way of getting affirmation. And these will all work against your desire to invest. You must put all that aside, wash that out of mind, and embrace the truth that Christ is a good master.