[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's Word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Come on. One time for Jesus, everybody.
He is the reason why we are here. I'm so glad you could make it to church. Church. Welcome all of you that are watching from all around the world. We love you. So glad you could tune in on whatever social media platform that you're watching. I think God has got something specific to speak to you today. And as we turn our attention to his Word, I think God's going to speak to you if you'll allow him to do that. So grab your Bibles if you will. We're going to spend some time in the Book of Matthew. The Book of Matthew, chapter 25.
And as we're turning there, I want to say thank you for those of you who have decided to stand behind us financially. Your finances, your gifts, your generosity is making a massive difference, not just here in Longview, but all around the world. I like to show you every single week where your money's going and give you different people and. And places and photos and videos of where your money is able to reach and those lives that it's able to touch. And so this week, I want to spotlight a group that we're connected to called Hope Local. They try to find as many great families that are looking to adopt children as possible and put children that have been in the system for a long time into great families. And so they had contacted us a while back and said, hey, we are about $3,000 short of reaching our budget. And so I said, give me a quick second, let me see what we have. And I was able. Because of your generosity, we were able to write a check, get that right over to them. And people like Devin here is now having. He has a brand new last name. Devin now is named Devin Carter. He has a home because of people like you willing to support amazing ministries like Hope Local. So we have a huge heart to put the lonely and the orphan into families. And God is doing great things through us. And so I believe it's important that you need to be able to see God, where your money's going. So you may never meet Devon this side of heaven, but just know that there are people that are very grateful that you're standing behind us financially, it matters. It's making a massive difference. Thank you so much for being a generous church. It's beautiful. So Matthew chapter 25. We're gonna continue on with our series called Jesus the Storyteller. We talk a lot about Jesus, great grace. We talk about him as a teacher. Not enough is said about the brilliant ways he tells story. So Jesus gives incredible parables, and we're going to break down this one in Matthew chapter 25. It's important that as you look at this parable, that you really see it in the context of what Jesus is talking about. Otherwise, you'll do what I've done for, for many, many years and you'll completely misunderstand this parable. And so what's important is this. This is at the end of Jesus's ministry. He is just about to go to the cross. So these stories take on an added wait. Jesus is not. He's not hiding a lot of things right now. He's speaking very clearly to his disciples.
And so earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus has rebuked the temple leadership. He is. He's speaking really, really strongly. And we find Jesus is not in a great mood. Jesus is fire and brimstone Jesus. He is. He's not the gracious, let the children come unto me. He's not that kind of Jesus in this, in this moment. And so what's happening is, as they're leaving the temple, after he's just criticized the temple leadership, his. I think his disciples are trying to distract him a little bit, trying to lighten his mood a little bit. And they're like, jesus, look at all these amazing buildings. Look at the architecture of this awesome temple and these great buildings. Isn't this lovely? And then Jesus responded, says, not a single stone will be left on top of the other. Like, whoa, like, everything's going to be destroyed. Now he's speaking prophetically about what's going to happen at the fall of Jerusalem.
And so they begin to ask questions like, are you talking about, like, you're talking about, like, this, this. This thing is going to be, like, destroyed? Yes. They're like, well, tell us about the end times.
Tell us about what, what things are going to happen. And Jesus launches into several parables that make it very, very clear about what's going to happen in the end times.
And in those moments, he doesn't just talk about all the things we're going to see out there. He talks about what we're supposed to be focusing on as believers. He talks about what is Most important that we have to know as we're approaching the end times.
And Jesus does that with one story after the next. Each one of those stories that he tells, by the way, is just a brilliant, brilliant picture of things that we need to see.
He gives each story strong characters with great visual imagery. You can't deny what he's saying, and it's so important, and it shows us that Jesus stories weren't just biblical lessons. They're not just Bible lessons. They're spiritual X rays. They're looking beyond the surface of who we are, and they're seeing what's going on on the inside. And they're saying something's broken.
And you need to know this because your Father is going to have a great judgment day, and you need to be ready.
I want to show you what he's looking for.
So Jesus stories look beyond the outside, that everything appears to be well, and he shows us what's going on on the inside with brilliant stories.
I remember the very first time I had an X ray. I had fallen off of a tree house, and I'd caught myself on my right arm, and this thing was just snapped in half. And I remember going to the doctor for the very first time, and I'm freaking out, and my mom's freaking out, and they put my. My hand up on this. On this. On this table. They said, let's get a good X ray and let's see what we're looking at. I'd never had an X ray before, but I asked the doctor, is this safe? And he's like, yeah, of course it's safe. And then he goes and stands behind, like, this lead wall.
You wait a minute. Like, this is my. The first of my trust issues right there. Like, why are you standing behind that wall with a little peephole? Like, no, it's totally safe. Totally safe.
Oh, and Jesus stories are very, very much like spiritual X rays showing you what's going on on the inside, the parts that are a little messed up. They're saying, you need to pay attention to this. And that's why it's so critical that we don't just view Jesus stories as metaphors. They're not metaphors. They're mirrors. And they're showing us the condition of our hearts. They're X rays. They're showing us what's broken on the inside. And he's confronting that. Why? Because he loves us.
He loves us. And so he's speaking to his disciples, saying, this is what you need to look for, and this is what's most important, as the end times are approaching, it's important that you take great notice of what Jesus is saying when he paints this very, very vivid picture in Matthew 25. Let's read it together.
So Jesus, this is what he says again. It will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. Notice it says his wealth. Whose wealth was it? It's his wealth, not their wealth, it's his.
Jesus says, to one, he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag each according to his ability.
Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and and gained five more.
So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money.
After a long time, the master of the servants returned and he settled accounts with them. This is important, he said, he's coming back and he's going to settle some accounts.
By the way, that should be good news for those of us that are good and faithful servants. That's good news. That's not something to be afraid of. That's something that we look forward to.
He says he came back to settle his accounts with them, and the man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master, he said, you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more. And his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness.
The man with two bags of gold also came. Master, he said, you entrusted me with two bags of gold. See, I have been faithful with a few things. I've gained two more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. I love that he gives them both the exact same response. He doesn't sit here and say, well, I gave him five, and he doubled that and made it 10, but I gave you two, and you might have doubled it, but you only came back with four.
No, no, he gives the same response to both of them. Well done, you're good.
You're a faithful servant. He said, you've been faithful with those few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.
Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. Master, he said, I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. I want you to notice the very accusatory tone of which he approaches the Master.
He's saying, I kept what you gave me and I'm giving it back to you. But I want you to know that this is how I see you're. You're a hard man.
You. You gather where you didn't scatter. And you. You're reaping what you didn't sow. Notice the accusatory tone by which he approaches the Master.
This is how I know you. He said, so here is what belongs to you. And his Master replied, you wicked, lazy servant.
So you knew that I harvest where I haven't sown, and I gathered where I haven't scattered seed. Well, then you should have at least put my money on deposit with bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest like nothing. Not even like 5% interest, nothing, he says. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10. But that makes him 11. Like, come on, he's got enough.
Give it to the one with 10 bags. For whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance. But whoever does not have even what they have will be taken from them and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where they'll be weeping and gnashing.
I used to have a friend that said, what's ganishing? Ganishing of teeth. What does that mean?
There's going to be weeping and ganishing of teeth.
So clearly, Jesus is speaking about our responsibility in light of his return.
He's saying, the Master's coming back.
I once saw a bumper sticker that said, jesus is coming back. Everybody better look busy.
And he's saying, you need to know that there's a promise that I will return.
And at that moment, he said, there's going to be a settling of accounts.
And it matters what you've done with what God has given you.
It matters how you've handled the gifts that God has placed into your hands. Jesus shows us very clearly that our everyday stewardship has eternal significance. It matters how you spend your day. It matters. It matters. Please hear me. How you spend your paycheck.
It matters how you honor God with your time. It matters how you honor God with your finances. It matters.
And he says, there is eternal significance that comes from how you spent your money.
And Jesus begins to explain in very, very great detail what we're responsible for. Now, depending upon how you see this story, it's really easy to misunderstand this story. It's Easy to misunderstand the characters because all, all too often what we will do is we will view this story through a very American Christianity lens.
We will view it through our American culture and not see the culture that Jesus was speaking to.
And so it's difficult for us to understand the difference between a master and a steward. We kind of see it as a boss and a worker, but that's not really what he's talking about here.
In this culture, masters were completely different than bosses. In our American culture, we would look at this story and say, that is a toxic boss.
That is a red flag job. You need to change jobs because that guy is unfair, he's unjust. He did not give to every single employee exactly the same and expect the same results. That would be fair.
And so we have a hard time really understanding that this is a very different culture than what we live in every day. And if we try to apply our American lens to what Jesus is speaking to, we will get a false narrative of who the master really is and what he expects of us. But he's toxic, because that's a red flag kind of job.
And we'll skip past the importance of this parable because it doesn't relate to us, but it does.
What we tend to see is we look at this story and say, oh, I'm so thankful that I'm not going to be thrown outside where there's weeping and ganishing of teeth, because I have grace.
Grace over ganishing, right? I have God's grace. Let me just remind you very quickly, make sure that you hear this. Grace will cancel your sin. Grace does not cancel your responsibility.
Grace does not cancel your accountability.
It is very, very clear in scripture that God is going to hold us accountable for. For what we did with that grace. Grace doesn't cancel our responsibility. Here's the good news. It empowers our responsibility. It helps us to become more responsible. Helps us to become more accountable. Why? Because he's given us grace.
It's a very different lens that we have to approach this story from.
So let's look at the three different characters that we're looking at in this story. There's the. The Master himself, and there's the way that we kind of view him falsely.
There is the faithful servants here who have great risk and reward for what they did with their master's money. And then there's the third category that I hope doesn't apply to a single one of us.
But I have a feeling that if we look at his word, the way that Jesus presented It. We're going to have a hard time with that third character because it exposes things in our hearts that we need to see.
It confronts our sin.
It confronts our misunderstandings and shows us a better view of who the Lord is and what he expects of people like me and people like you.
So let's take a look at the Master, and here's the big misunderstanding that we have from this story is we often don't see him as Jesus is presenting him. The Master in the beginning of this story is presented as generous and trusting.
The Master is generous and trusting.
So once again, we have a failure to really see the heart of the Master.
But in this culture, I think we kind of also misunderstand what it means to be a steward.
We don't use that word steward very much anymore. You might. You might interpret that as a slave. That's. That's not necessarily what he's talking about at all.
You see, a steward is someone who's responsible for a lot of things, but is not the owner of those things.
So to have a better picture of what a steward looks like biblically, you need to go back to the book of Genesis and look at a young man named Joseph.
Joseph was blessed with everything that he touched because as a. He was a fantastic steward of someone else's resources, from Potiphar all the way to Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh makes him the number two ruler over the greatest country on the planet at that time in Egypt, because he was a faithful and a good steward. He was an outsider that came from a prison.
And God raised him up because of the character that was in his heart and the relationship that he had with the Lord.
And Joseph became a faithful steward that God blessed immensely.
You see, the role of a steward is total responsibility under complete authority.
Total responsibility, but under complete authority. And this is why the story begins to dismantle our own theology.
Because in our Americanized version of Christianity, we're the master, we're the owner.
We're El Jefe, we're Big Daddy, we're Big Mama.
But Jesus very clearly says, you're a steward, and your Master is generous and trusting of you.
He has given vast resources into human hands.
And then he steps back and says, can I trust you?
The Master's heart is generous and trusting. It shows us through this parable that faithfulness to God. Faithfulness is measured by how we steward what God has entrusted to us, how we steward what God has entrusted to us. So it says, the Master gave to each of them according to their ability. How would he know Their ability. If he didn't know each of them, he'd spent time with his stewards. He knows each of those stewards intimately. He knows you. The Bible says in Jeremiah, before you were formed in the womb, I knew you.
I know you. The question is, do you know my heart?
The Master knows each of his workers intimately, and he expects them to know his heart in return and what he wants to do with his money. So the wealth of the Master is placed into human hands.
When it talks about the five bags of gold. Your Bible, if you're old, King James might say the word talent. There don't be lost on that word. We. We have a different word in American English that we translate into talents. And that's normally where people get this story wrong. They will say, oh, well, this story is all about using your talents for the glory of God. Which is what they're trying to. Which is what they're. What they're really trying to do in that moment is to get you to sing on the worship team.
Use your talents for the glory of God. That's normally what that means. You should be singing on the worship team. But not everybody can sing.
And so you kind of dismiss that because you're like, I'm not very talented. When someone says, I'm not talented, what they normally mean is, I don't draw very good. Like, that would dismiss a lot of us.
But he's not talking about talent. He's talking about money.
And so in this story, when Jesus says he gives him five bags of gold, notice that that one of those bags of gold is equal to one talent. And one talent in Jesus's time is equal to 20 years of worth of wages.
So even the servant, the steward that gets one bag of gold is equal to 20 years worth of the Master's resources. Think about what you make in a year. Think about your annual salary. Some of us are like, ooh, not quite what I want. But multiply that out 20 years.
Now you've got something precious.
So we see the vast wealth and the generosity of the Master and what he's trusting to these stewards. That's real trust, because that's real money. This is not. He gave each of them 50 cents. No, no, no, no, no.
This is vast amounts of wealth that the Master is placing into human hands. And he's saying, can I trust you? I know you, and you're able to do this. You're capable of doing this. Your abilities and your knowledge of my heart are going to allow you to succeed.
If you've Spent enough time with me where you know where I want my money to go.
The master places his wealth into human hands. This just shows us it's a weight of money. It's not skill, it's not talent, it's money, vast wealth. And it says to one he gave five, to another two to another one each according to his ability. It shows us that God gives in proportion to our capacity based on how he knows us intimately. God knows you and knows what you can be trusted with.
So in this parable we see that it's not really, it's not really about how smart you are.
It's not really about how good looking you are.
The question is it's about how trustworthy you are.
And God's inviting us into a partnership with him. He's saying, I'm going to give you resources. I'm going to give you things that are incredibly valuable.
What will you do with them? Will you know my heart?
Will you recognize that I'm being generous? I'm trusting you with these things.
And there's a day coming where you and I are going to settle accounts, where I'm going to say, what did you do with what I gave you?
When we see the master as generous and trusting, it changes the way that we view this story. And it changes the way that we view ourselves as stewards. Not owners, but stewards.
Just that alone is a massive mind shift change for each of us. I'm not the owner, I'm not the boss, but he is.
And I know his heart. I know what he expects of me. I recognize the trust that he's placed in me and I want to do well so that when he comes back, he can look at me and say, well done.
Come and share your master's happiness.
You did good.
That's what we want to hear him say at the end of our life.
Be sure that you know this, that heaven is not full of participation, trophies.
That's American kids, sports.
That's not God's kingdom.
He's saying, I'm going to give you grace. I'm going to give you the blood of my son. I'm going to entrust things to you. And you have a job to do. And there's a day coming, we'll settle down and start settling up. What did you do with what I gave you?
And to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant, that means that we've taken this great grace and it's empowered us to know God better so he can trust us with more.
Here's the second Group of characters that we see. Number two, let's talk about the faithful servants. And we're going to see them through the lens of risk and reward.
Now, it doesn't make a lot of sense to many of us that we would say, I would take the master's money and start trying to double that money. That sounds like you're going to the boats in Shreveport and you're trying to double down. Always bet on black. See what we can do. That's what it sounds like. You wouldn't call that faithful, but God does.
That's weird. They take his money and start putting it to work. And the master calls them, they give an account, and he says, well done, good and faithful servant. Why?
They risked it.
Remember, risk it for the biscuit.
The difference is they knew his heart. They knew what was expected. And the secret is found in this tiny scripture tucked in there when it says he gave them those weights of gold, those bags of gold, and it says they went at once and put that money to work at once.
What does that tell me? It tells me that God rewards those who step out in faith on his behalf.
I know his heart. I know what he's asking me. I hear his voice. I know what he wants me to do. And they, they're not playing risk.
They know his heart. It might look like risk to those that are outside, but I'm hearing from the Lord. I know that this is his heart. This is what he wants from me. And those are things that God begins to bless, and those are the things that God rewards. God rewards those who step out in faith on his behalf. Notice that the five talent and the two talent, service, servant, they both receive exactly the same commendation.
Well done, good and faithful servant.
Come and share your master's happiness. It shows us that God doesn't compare productivity, but he rewards faithful stewardship.
He doesn't say, you're better because I gave you more and you did the exact same with it. That he doesn't say that.
He says, well done, you're both faithful stewards with what I gave you according to your ability.
So this, this incredible parable shows us that in our performance driven culture that it's not wise to compare fruit.
I might not have been given what you were given, but it'd be really easy if you're the third kind of servant, to say, I didn't have what they got, so I can't be held responsible to do things because they have more resources than me. I can't do that.
That's a problem.
The Lord knows what you're capable of?
Are you willing to partner with him, knowing his heart, stepping out in faith, and watching what God can do through your partnership? It shows us that in this, in this parable that Jesus highlights that fruitfulness flows from faithfulness, not from comparing capacities.
And then we move to the third category. We're not going to call him just a wicked and lazy servant, because all of us would tune out, say, I'm not wicked or lazy. Well, least I'm not wicked.
We're going to call him the fearful servant, because this honestly comes to light better when we talk about his. His fear.
So this is the one that the Master says, you're wicked, you're lazy. You took what I have and, and you. And you hit it. You didn't even put it on, on loan with the bank. You didn't even try to get some interest from this. Nothing.
But think about it, he says, I gave you back what you gave me. That's smart, that's wise. I don't owe you, you don't owe me.
Most of us would say, that's good enough.
But Jesus very clearly says, that's wicked, that's lazy.
That's a problem for us in our own human minds, because we don't see that as wicked and lazy. We see that as smart.
That's smart.
So when this servant approaches the Master to give an account for what he did with the resources that the Master has entrusted to him, he says, look, I knew you to be a hard man. You're reaping where you don't sow. You're scattering seed. And he comes with this accusatory tone. And the Master, who is God, the Father in this parable, says, that's how you know me.
That's how you see me.
You don't see the fact that I've given away vast amounts of wealth and I've trusted that to you, that this is a gift. I don't have to give you anything.
But you see me as that.
Let me show you this. That what we believe about God will shape the way that we interact with him.
If we believe that he can't be trusted, if we believe that he is unjust, if we believe that he is not fair, if we believe that about our God, we'll project those ideas onto him and it'll change the way that we interact with Him.
You'll approach God with fear.
Instead of what the Book of Hebrews says, we come boldly before his throne of grace. Like. Like a child running to their father, saying, abba, Father, he said, no, no, no. Your approach is completely wrong because you understand me to be a hard man.
How we view our Father is going to change the way that we interact with him.
Well, this servant says, but I'm giving you back what you gave me.
I took it and I hid it so that I could return it back to you. He said, why didn't you give it to a bank? I heard a pastor one time says he didn't put it in a bank because banks keep records. He didn't want any record kept.
He was hoping that his master would never return so he could just go back and say, now, well, he's not here. That's mine.
He said, there's a heart issue that's at work here. I don't want anybody to know. I don't want any records to be kept.
I found that some of us need to be taught how important it is to honor the Lord with our finances.
I need you to see this parable that matters a lot. Remember, this is at the end of Jesus's ministry. He's just about to go to the cross, and he's not playing around.
He's not wasting time. He's not giving filler parables.
He's saying, you gotta know, this money has an incredible way of building a wall between us and God, of not being able to trust him and calling it safe.
So I've had to be confronted on this in my own life. I had a pastor that sat down with me when I came on staff at a church. Now, remember, I was raised in church. My parents were church planters, and we were very, very poor growing up. It was very difficult at times to even have steady food. Now, that doesn't mean that we didn't have a fantastic life. My parents did the best that they could. But what I learned in those moments was that working for Jesus means you will always be poor.
And what that began to grow into is God will not provide for me.
I have to make it happen for myself, because he is untrustworthy.
When they're talking about Jehovah Jireh, my provider, that's not. That's for y' all.
When they're talking about honor the Lord with the first fruits, honoring the Lord with generosity, honoring the Lord with our tithes, honoring the Lord with offerings, giving of our finances, I'm like, that's for rich people that have more than enough. That ain't for those of us that are barely scraping by.
And so when I finally came onto staff at a church and they brought me on as As a youth pastor, my pastor sat down with me, said, we need to talk.
He says, you're now taking from the tithes of the people, and that's your salary. Do you understand how precious that is?
Like, well, I didn't till you just brought that up. He says, now let's talk about what are you putting in. Because if you're taking out of that, but you're not putting anything into it, there's something wrong with your heart.
And I had to come to the realization that there was a negative, distorted view of God as my provider at the center of my theology.
And I had allowed that to build a wall between me and him. And there were places where God was not allowed to go, and those were hiding behind my paycheck.
So here, this servant says, I'm just giving you back what you owe me. I don't owe you. You don't owe me. Here's your money back. That's safe. And I found, even in my own life, in 25 to almost 26 years now of ministry, I found that generally there's two reasons why people will not honor the Lord with their finances. They will never give to a church. They will never support ministries. They will never do that. And it's usually because two reasons. Number one, they're either untaught, nobody's ever showed them.
They don't read parables like this and see that the Lord is serious about that. They've never been taught. Or number two, it's unresolved trauma.
I've never dealt with what it feels like to be abandoned.
I've never dealt with having bad parents that left me or that didn't have enough to feed me or couldn't provide. And I project that onto the relationship with my father. And I'll understand him to be a God that won't provide for me because of what somebody did. Maybe I had a bad pastor or read a story about somebody that did something foolish in ministry. And I will allow those to give me an excuse to do what I will call wisdom.
But the Father calls wicked and lazy.
You see, fear, doubt, and unbelief often disguise themselves in Christians as wisdom.
I'm afraid I'm in rebellion. I'm in unbelief.
And this servant says, I know you to be a God that won't provide for me. You don't care about my family.
Therefore I cannot take what you've given me and use it for anything other than to hide it, hoping that you won't come back and hold me accountable to it.
That's mine. It's not yours, it's his. You've been entrusted with it.
Now notice the exact same commandment was given to all the stewards, but we have two very different responses, identical commands. Here's what I've given you. I'm going on a journey. You know my heart, you know my methods, you know what I want. There's going to be a day that I come back. You don't know when it is, but I'm coming back and we're going to settle up, all right? He steps out. We have very, very different responses as responses to identical commands. Reminds me of what happens when you, when, when you've ever gotten pulled over for speeding, right?
You see those red and blue lights flash in your rearview mirror. All of us have the exact same thought. Oh, oh, dear Jesus.
And there are a couple of different schools of thought on how you can respond to the same question. You roll down your, you roll down your window and the officer may ask you the exact same question he asked me.
Do you have any idea why I pulled you over today? They normally say that same thing. They might ask you for license and registration, but they'll ask you, do you have any idea why I pulled you over today?
And there's a couple different responses that you can give. One of them not so good.
If the first response that you give is to pull out your cell phone and start filming and talk about, all of you guys hate me. You're gonna drag me out and beat me to death. Like that's not the way you want to go. Let me just, let me just, let me just share that with you. Because they will pull out their pen and click it once, and that means you about to have a long day.
You started off on the wrong foot, but I found that there is a second road where you can crack a little jokey joke.
You can hope to make them smile and you got a chance of maybe catching a little bit of grace, right? I found that one guy said, this one time, the officer said, do you have any idea why I pulled you over? He said, well, my ex wife left me for a cop and I thought that was you trying to bring her back.
And he got out of the ticket.
One guy said, because you saw me getting those Krispy Kreme doughnuts and you thought you could share, like, if you can get him to smile, maybe you can have a different response. But notice there's completely different responses that these stewards give to the master when he says, let's talk about what you did. With what I trusted you. Identical. Identical questions, but completely different responses based upon how they view the Father.
I believe that still today, many believers hide their potential behind a distorted view of God.
Things that human beings have done, unresolved trauma.
And we project that onto our gracious, generous, our trusting God that has given us great grace and responsibility to steward what he's so graciously given to us.
Notice this.
This is not a business lesson.
It's a warning.
It's a mandate. Jesus is being very clear.
This is about your relationship with your Father, not about how you conduct business.
It's a theological principle.
And many believers still today will hide their potential behind that distorted view of God. And when Jesus gets to this part of the story, that was the twist where they recognize that it was the one that played it safe, that becomes the bad guy, the one that did the right thing, the one that was what we call faithful.
God says, that's laziness.
You didn't even try.
Let me say it this way. What, what man calls wisdom, God calls wicked and lazy.
And there has to be a mind shift change in how we steward his resources.
There has to be a mind shift change on how we see God.
Otherwise that day of accountability will not go as well as you think it might go. Jesus says, there's many that will say, lord, Lord, look what we did for you. And he said, I don't know you, I don't know you.
Let me make sure that you see this. If you view God as harsh, you will bury your gifts and you will hoard your resources to protect yourself from him.
And this is where we lose.
This is where we find ourselves full of fear. And God says, you are wicked and lazy. You don't know me at all.
The good news is that in those stewards that were faithful, the Master says, come and share the Master's happiness. You've been faithful. I know that 20 years of wages times 5 is a lot to you. That's not a lot to me. He said, you've been faithful with a few things. Let me show you what real abundance looks like. There's rewards, there's rewards.
He says, come and share in your master's happiness. He's saying, this is a partnership with the Master, your father, trusting you with the gift of life, with the gift of a job.
And he's saying, can I trust you to use that to further my interests and not your own?
Because in that you're going to find great rewards, you're going to find abundance, you're going to be able to share in my happiness. You get to be a part of what I'm doing. You are steward. You're not the owner. And the more clearly you see the Father's heart, the more joyfully you're going to steward what he gives you.
It should be a great joy, a great delight to partner with your father and say, lord, I give you my life because this is better than me using it for my own amusement.
Your way is better.
My question is, how do you see the Lord that's trusting? Do you have a distorted view of God?
Notice that this steward that had one bagot, that fear didn't motivate him to get up and do something with it. That fear motivated him to be paralyzed.
I'm doing nothing because I'm afraid.
Let's not be people that are fearful.
Let's be people that recognize I can hear the voice of God. I can see his heart. I can see where God is working. I'm going to stand behind that because that's what he's asking of me.
Would you bow your head and close your eyes? As we finish up right there today, I want to give us a chance to maybe respond to what the Holy Spirit may be showing us.
Can we just have an honest conversation between you and your father today and saying, lord, have I.
Have I got some kind of distorted view of who you really are?
Have I projected the failures of people onto you?
Have I misused the resources that you've given me?
Have I been foolish, wicked and lazy with the gifts that you've given me? Lord, you're generous, you're trusting. And I want to be trustworthy.
I want to be able to stand at the end of my life and be proud of what I've done.
Be proud of the grace that you've given me and what I was able to do with it.
Not to earn your love, not to earn your grace, but to use that grace to empower me to do more than I ever thought was possible.
Father, you own all things.
It all belongs to you.
Help us to be good stewards.
Help us to take a step of faith.
Help us to hear your voice clearly and respond to what you're saying to each of us.
Let's do it with joy.
It's a joy, Lord, to give.
It's a joy to steward your resources. It's an honor to be trusted by you with so much.
Help us to do well with it. In Jesus name, with heads bowed and eyes closed. Perhaps you're here today or even watching online, you'd say, pastor, I don't have a relationship with Jesus. I'm so far from God, I need that.
Maybe you'd say, pastor, I'm so full of sin. I'm so full of regret. I've made so many mistakes. I need a relationship with Jesus. My friend, if that's you, you are in the right place today. You are welcome here.
As a matter of fact, if you could see it, God himself is reaching down his hand to you, saying, come home.
Your father wants a relationship with you, and he invites you right now to receive it. You may say, how do I do that, my friend, it starts with a prayer, and I want to invite you, if you want a relationship with Jesus, I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me. I'm going to tell you the words to say. As a matter of fact, we're all going to say it out loud together so you don't feel singled out or feel like somebody put the spotlight on you. That's not what I'm here to do. I'm not here to embarrass you in any way.
So let's pray this prayer together out loud. Every one of us. Let's just say, jesus, come on, say it like you mean it. Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God.
I believe that you came and died.
I believe that you rose from the grave so that I could have life and forgiveness for all of my sins.
I have messed up.
I need your grace.
Will you please forgive me?
Say this, my friend, say, I give my life to you right now.
Thank you for loving me with heads bowed and eyes closed all across this place. Just those of you who prayed that prayer, maybe for the very first time. Those of you that felt like you're far from God, but you say, pastor, I pray that prayer with you. Just those of you, could you just lift up your hand all across this place. That was me. I prayed that prayer with you. Yes, I see you. Yes, young man, I see you. Good for you. Good for you. Yes. For those of you that pray that prayer. Yes, sir, I see you. For those of you that pray that prayer, I want you to know that there is a phone number appearing right behind me on the screen. I want to invite you to text me. Text the words I prayed to that number.
What's going to happen when you do that is I'm going to send you back the link to some things that will help you understand what just happened inside of your heart and what to do next.
I'm super proud of you and what you just did. Good for you. For Everybody else, go ahead and look up at me if you would, and let's stand to our feet together today. As we do, I'm going to invite our elders and their wives forward to be available to pray with you about anything that you might be struggling with. If you're watching us online today, I want to invite you. Would you. Would you do us a huge favor? One of the ways that you can make a difference today is by sharing this sermon on your social media. There are people every single week that find Jesus because of people like you being willing to share your social media for the cause of Christ.
I believe it's a beautiful gift. And one of the ways that you can make a difference as a believer today is by using and allowing the Lord to redeem your social media to put something out there that's better than some of the junk that's out there.
God wants to speak to your friends and family. You have no idea the people that can find Jesus. When you take that simple step, it's a big deal and we appreciate you doing that. Also, we've been in groups, so those of you that are in groups, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's been a fantastic week. Groups, Week one, we have a grilling group, so me and Ben Sheldon has started a grilling group. So we got a lot of guys that their wives are going to love them because they're not going to be burning the chicken anymore. Come on, somebody.
God's doing some great things and we're doing some devotionals and talking about what it means to be men and taking care of our families and what it means to grill a great steak. Come on, somebody. Beautiful, beautiful. God's calling us to live in abundance and I love it. So as we finish up today, I want to just tell you, hey, I love you so much. I'm going to pray a blessing over you as we go. Father, would you bless my friends with an incredible week, hearing your voice and being faithful stewards over every gift that you have given to us. Lord, may we all hear you say, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your master's happiness at the end of our lives. Father, would you bless my friends in Jesus mighty name and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv. Or you can check out our
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