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Collierville First Baptist Church
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(Gentle Music)
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Go ahead and take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 25.
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As you know, we're in a series entitled Perfect Ending. And by the way, it's going to be a perfect ending when Jesus comes, I promise you.
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And today I wanna speak to you on this subject,
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faithful or slothful, which will it be for you?
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Have you ever looked at someone and said to yourself, if I only had what they have, I would be successful, I would be a difference maker for the kingdom. You ever done that?
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Maybe you might say, if I had their time,
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I could be successful.
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If I had their spouse, I could be successful.
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If I had their gifts, I could be making a big difference for the kingdom of God. If I had their money, if I had their opportunity and on and on we go.
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We often believe that having more means living a more meaningful life, a more fruitful life.
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But what if God sees things differently?
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What if in God's eyes, it's not how much we have,
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but what we do with what God has given us. Maybe that's the issue that God's looking at more than all that we have.
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Listen, Jesus used three consecutive parables in Matthew 24 and 25 to clarify how he wanted his followers to prepare for his coming.
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Each of them has a different emphasis.
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The parable of the two servants in Matthew 24 verses 45 to 51 illustrate the importance of eagerly watching for Jesus.
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Let me ask you, are you eagerly looking for Jesus to come?
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And then the parable of the two servants and the parable of the 10 virgins, we looked at that last week, illustrates
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that we need to patiently wait for him.
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And then the parable of the talents we're gonna look at today illustrates the fact that we need to diligently work for Jesus and his kingdom.
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Now these parables when considered together build into our lives a kind of balance that we need.
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I love one of Dennis the Menace's cartoons.
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He and his parents had gone to church
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and they're walking out and the pastor standing at the back door and he's shaking everybody's hand
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and Dennis and his parents make it to the pastor.
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And Dennis looks up at the pastor and says, "Hey pastor, what are you gonna do with that dollar my dad dropped in the plate?"
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Don't you know that dad was embarrassed?
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You know, that's a pretty good question in light of the parable that we're going to study today.
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In fact, the Lord Jesus seems to point us right here in this room, those watching live stream, he seems to point us to a similar question.
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What are you going to do with what God has given you?
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Oh, that's a good question, isn't it? Until he comes, what are you going to do with your time,
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your talents and your treasure?
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You know, you study these two chapters and there's a theme of delay here that runs through these two chapters
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in the Olivet Discourse, chapters 24 and 25, Jesus began his teaching by speaking of tribulation, persecution and opposition that will come to his disciples.
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And then he said the gospel would be preached in all the world before he came. And it implies a long delay between the time that Jesus ascended to heaven and the time that Jesus comes back again.
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Then there are explicit references to this delay.
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In Matthew 25, five, look at it. But they kept on insisting saying, he stirs up the people teaching, excuse me, that's the wrong chapter.
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It helped me by being in the right chapter.
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Chapter 25, verse five. Now while the bridegroom was what? What does it say? While he was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. Then verse 14, for it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. Again, delay.
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And then notice verse 19.
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Now after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them after a long time.
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Listen, 2000 years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.
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40 days after he was resurrected from the dead, he ascended back to heaven. Do you know where Jesus is right now? He's seated at the right hand of the father and the Bible says he has a ministry there in heaven. It's a ministry of intercession for us. It's a ministry of being our advocate before the father.
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But the Bible says very clearly that one day Jesus is going to come again. We don't know when.
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There's nobody on the face of this earth that can tell you the exact time when Jesus is going to come again.
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But I can tell you this, every Bible believing preacher can stand behind a pulpit with Bible on the pulpit and say, Jesus is coming again. That much I can be absolutely dogmatic about. He's coming.
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And that day is going to be a special day.
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And Jesus desire is that everyone who believes in him would be ready for that moment.
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That's why he taught these wonderful principles here in chapter 24 and 25 of Matthew.
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Now, listen, in this parable we're gonna focus on today,
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the man in this parable going on a journey obviously represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Who left heaven, left earth, ascended back to heaven. And then the journey represents the time between his ascension and his second coming. And the slaves depict professing believers whom he entrusts with his resources.
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I love what J.C. Ryle said about talents. We're gonna talk about, this is a parable of the talents, okay? But what is a talent?
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Pastor J.C. Ryle made this statement. He said, "A talent is anything whereby we may glorify God,
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our gifts, our influence, our money, our knowledge, our health, our strength, our time, our senses, our reason, our intellect, our memory, our affections, our privileges as members of Christ's church, our advantages as possessors of the Bible, all our talents."
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You know what? We just had an interview here.
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And you know, the Bible says that you could take your ability that God has given to you and you could use it in one by one ministry to make a difference in mother's lives, mothers who are disadvantages, mothers who need hope.
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That's a talent, it's a talent.
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Now, if you're a Christian,
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God has given you the ability and the responsibility of stewarding three things.
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You got to be a good steward of your time.
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Do you realize that God knew the moment you would be born and God knows the moment you would die? He knows everything, he is omniscient.
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God knows everything.
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And he's given you your time.
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You're here for a purpose. You're here to make a difference for the kingdom.
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And secondly, he's given you talents. Now we talked about J.C. Ryle's definition of talents
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and it covers a lot of ground. But all of your talents have been given to you as a steward of God for you to make sure that you use for his glory and for the advancement of his kingdom. And he's given you treasures. He's given you financial resources.
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And you can use your money, not just for your enjoyment or just for your retirement, just not just for multiple vacations, but use your money for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
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And you're a steward. Now, here's what that means.
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It means that one day you're gonna give an account to Jesus for what you did with your time, your talent and your treasures.
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Are you saying, pastor, that we as believers
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are going to be judged by Jesus? Yes, I'm saying that. Take your Bible, look at Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. (Paper Rustling)
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The Bible says,
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let me find it.
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Excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter five.
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2 Corinthians chapter five.
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As Joshua said, I practice this.
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I doubt, really, I practice this.
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2 Corinthians chapter five.
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Look at this, verse 10.
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Therefore, we must all appear
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before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body and according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
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The Bible says there's coming a day
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when every born again believer is gonna stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And the Lord Jesus Christ is going to give us an examination
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a review of our lives and what we did with what he entrusted to us as stewards. Your time, your talent, and your treasure. So the question that we must deal with today as we get into this parable
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is what will you do with what you've been given?
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Now look at Matthew chapter five, 25, verses 14 through 18.
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Here's the parable itself.
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For it is just like a man about to go on a journey
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who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them.
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To one, he gave five talents,
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and to another, two talents,
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and to another one, each according to his ability.
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And he went on his journey.
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Immediately, the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents.
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In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. Now, why is that important? Why is that word immediately important? It's important because we don't know when he's coming.
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These slaves didn't know if it was gonna be a short journey or a long journey.
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And so they immediately got actively engaged in kingdom activity because they wanted to be ready when their master came back.
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And then the Bible goes on to say, verse 18,
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but he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
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He was playing it safe, right? He didn't wanna take any risk whatsoever.
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So Jesus point is clear in the parable of the talent. And it's a one point. Now remember, a parable teaches one point. And here's the one point that this parable teaches.
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Serve the Lord with gladness.
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Serve the Lord with gladness. Take your Bible, turn to Psalm 100. Psalm 100. The Bible says, shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth.
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Serve the Lord with gladness. See, you ought to underline that in your Bible.
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It became the main point of the sermon today.
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Not because I made it the main point because the Holy Spirit made it the main point. Serve the Lord with gladness. If there's one thing I would tell you today,
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if you live 50 more years or you live five more days, you ought to serve the Lord with gladness. Every single day is a gift from God. Every moment that he gives you a breath in your body is a gift from God. And you ought to serve the Lord with gladness in the moments that he gives you. And then he goes on to say, know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we are says, we are his people and the sheep of his pastor. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise and give thanks to him, bless his name. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations. Listen, God is faithful.
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And he expects us as believers in his son, Lord Jesus Christ to be faithful in return, to serve the Lord with gladness.
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Now in this story,
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the businessman handed over five talents to one slave, two talents to another and one talent to another.
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Now a talent here in the Greek understanding of the word is a measurement in weight.
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So measurement in weight.
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Now, obviously the money during that time, it could be gold, silver or copper.
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And depending upon whether it was a talent of gold, a talent of silver or talent of copper,
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it would determine the worth of that particular coin.
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And the Bible says here,
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these talents that the owner or the businessman entrusted to these slaves had enormous value, enormous value, thousands and thousands of dollars.
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Now they were given according to the servant's ability.
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Notice the master, the businessman, the landowner did not give them something that they couldn't handle. He gave them something they can have. Can I tell you the Lord does the same with us. He gives you opportunity that matches your ability that He gave you when He created you,
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when He saved you.
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Now listen, are you a true Christian?
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That's the question. If you are, you are blessed with God-given opportunities to advance His kingdom. You're blessed with opportunity to share the gospel with someone who is lost. You're blessed with opportunities
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to invite someone to church. You're blessed with opportunities to take your resources and be a blessing to somebody who has a particular need. You have so many opportunities as believers. The question is, what are you going to do with those opportunities?
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Now, each opportunity that God places before you is a call to action.
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It's a call to action, not inaction, but action. Take for instance, your spiritual gifts. In Romans chapter 12, verses six to eight, Paul wrote, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. If prophecy according to the proportion of your faith, if service in his serving, or he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness."
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So we are to you, listen, every born again believer in this room, every born again believer that's sitting on the couch watching the service today, you've been blessed with a spiritual gift or gifts. You may have multiple gifts.
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And the Lord Jesus gave you those gifts so that you could exercise those gifts for his glory and the advancement of his kingdom.
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Wouldn't it be a shame to stand before the Lord Jesus at the beam of seat judgment, the judgment of believers, and have him examine your life and see that you were not actively engaged in using your gift on a consistent basis.
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Oh, I pray that none of us would face the embarrassment of that moment.
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Listen, have you ever been really embarrassed?
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I remember I was the new pastor at First Baptist Church Richland,
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and I was doing a funeral.
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And I remember it had been raining all day.
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We were at the graveyard.
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And I get through with the graveside service
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and I'm this far away from the casket, okay?
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And I get through and I grab my umbrella. I'm walking over to speak to the family and I step about this far away from the casket and I'm down in the grave.
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This left leg went down in the grave.
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My right leg was still up on the ground. I put one hand on the casket and I shot out of that grave like a rocket.
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(Congregation Laughing) And my left leg was covered in red mud.
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My right leg was clean as a whistle.
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And I walked over to the funeral guy and I said, "What in the world?
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"There's supposed to be something solid "under this carpet."
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He said, "I think we dug the grave too big."
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(Congregation Laughing) I said, "I think you did."
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And the family said, "Hey, pastor, "do you wanna come eat with us?" "No, I don't think I'm gonna eat today."
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(Congregation Laughing) Anyway, embarrassment.
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Now let me ask you a question.
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Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for us as a believer?
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To stand before the one who gave his body and blood on the cross of Calvary to save us,
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to remove our sins from us, to give us his perfect righteousness
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and for him to look into our lives and our hearts
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and see that we weren't faithful,
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that we didn't actively, consistently use our spiritual gifts, our talents, our time and treasure
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for the cause of Christ and his kingdom.
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That would be more embarrassing than stepping in a grave, I assure you.
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So we are to serve the Lord with gladness.
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Now interestingly, the slave who'd been entrusted with the five talents turned 100% profit.
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The slave that received the two talents turned 100% profit and the slave entrusted with one talent turned a 0% profit.
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Let me tell you this, one day, I don't know when, one day Jesus will come and he will hold us accountable for how we use what he's entrusted to us.
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That's the message of this parable. That's why we are to serve the Lord with gladness,
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every opportunity we have. Let's take just a moment and look at the slave with five talents. Look at verses 19 to 21.
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"Now after a long time,"
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it's been a long time since Jesus ascended to heaven, right?
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But let me tell you something, something happened on May the 14th, 1948,
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that tells us that the coming of Christ is near.
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Less than 100 years ago, the nation of Israel, which had been dispersed across the world,
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they had lost the Hebrew language
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and they came back into the promised land, the land of Israel,
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and they took control of the land of Israel and they became a nation once more.
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Let me tell you, that is a prime big time prophecy that tells us that the coming of Christ is near. Hey, you study chapter 24, the first parts of 24
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about the things that are gonna happen that show us that Christ coming is near. I'm telling you, it ought to get your attention today.
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I'm telling you, friend, I believe with all my heart that the coming of Christ is near. I can't give you a date,
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but you look at what's happened prophetically
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and things are happening that indicate to us that His coming is near. Just look at the lawlessness in our land.
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That's a prophecy that Jesus gave us there in chapter 24.
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And it's an indication that His coming is near. Look at the persecution. I read on open doors yesterday that the persecution of believers in the world today is at an all time high.
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What does that tell us?
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His coming is near.
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So the Bible says now after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Jesus has come in to settle accounts with us.
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Verse 20, the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents say, "Master, you entrust in five talents to me. "See, I've gained five more talents." And you can just sense the exuberance in this slave's conversation here.
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Verse 21, "His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave.
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"You were faithful with a few things." Notice, you were what? What does it say? You were faithful.
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Are you being faithful with what God's entrusted to you? Are you?
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"You were faithful with a few things. "I will put you in charge of many things "enter into the joy of your master."
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So he was commended by the master for his faithfulness. He received a promotion. "You were faithful with a few things. "I'll put you in charge of many things." And then he was invited into the joy of his master. Can you imagine the sheer joy
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of being with Jesus in heaven?
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You desire to serve the Lord with gladness and that will determine your responsibility in the kingdom of heaven. Let me tell you, heaven is not simply an eternity of passive relaxation. You're not gonna be some hermit on a cloud or an angel on a cloud strumming a harp for all of eternity.
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Let me tell you, the thing about the kingdom of God,
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is there are things that we'll be serving him with in the kingdom of God forever.
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We'll serve him. It'll be exciting, it'll be rewarding, it'll be full of joy. It'll be the most fulfilling thing you've ever done in your life.
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What about the slave with two talents?
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Matthew chapter 25, verse 22 and 23.
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Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, "Master, you entrusted two talents to me.
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See, I've gained two more talents and there's excitement and exuberance in his voice."
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His master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master."
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This slave also received a commendation, a promotion and an invitation
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to come into the joy of the master. Listen, what we do in this life, listen to me very carefully. What we do in this life matters for all of eternity. That's what Jesus is trying to help us understand. I read about a woman who finished shopping,
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maybe at a Walmart, and she goes to her car
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and she found four men inside her car.
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She dropped her bags, she put her hand in her purse, she pulled out a gun, she pointed the gun at the men and she said, "I have a gun and I know how to use it. Get out of my car."
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Let me tell you, those guys didn't waste a second. They were out of there and they ran faster than the fastest men on the planet.
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The woman was shaken and she got her bag, she put it in the car and she got in and she put the, tried to put the key in the ignition, but it wouldn't fit.
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And she realized she was in the wrong car.
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And she got out of the car, she took the bags, she put them in her car, which was five spaces over.
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And she immediately went to the police station
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and she went to the desk sergeant
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and she told him the story.
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And he about fell out of his chair laughing.
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And he pointed to the end of the counter
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and there was the four guys.
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They were still shaking and they reported that an old woman with thick glasses, curly white hair, less than five feet tall and carrying a large handgun had tried to steal their car. (Congregation Laughing) Thankfully they were understanding and didn't charge her with anything.
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You see, she thought the car was hers.
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And there are many believers living their lives with this mistaken idea, this myth
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that their life belongs to them.
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Your life don't belong to you.
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You do understand your time does not belong to you.
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Your talent does not belong to you. Your treasure does not belong to you. You belong to God and everything you have and everything you are belongs to God.
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He created you in your mother's womb.
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He gave you the breath to get up and come to church this morning. Everything is focus on the fact that you belong to him.
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You belong to him. You don't have the right to do what you wanna do. You don't have the right to say what you wanna say. You don't have the right to use your time the way you wanna use your time. You don't have the right to use your money the way you want to use your money.
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You belong to him, him. That's why you ought to serve the Lord with gladness. That's why you ought to be faithful to him. But what about the slave with the one talent? He's sort of the outlier in this story, right? Well, look at it, verse 24 to 30. And the one also had received the one talent came up and said, master, I knew you to be a hard man. That's odd, isn't it? We don't get that idea from the other two slaves, do we? I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you scatter no seed. Man, he's really throwing the master under the bus here. And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. It's yours. I brought it back to you. But his master answered and said to him, you wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scatter no seed. Then you ought to put my money in the bank and on my rival, I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, from the one who had one talent, one talent, take the talent away from him and give it to the one who has the 10 talents. You say why? Because to everyone who has more shall be given and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Verse 30, look at verse 30. It ought to cause you to, to quiver in your liver. I'm telling you, look at it. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So there are two faithful servants in this story and they have a reverence for their master. They love him. They love serving him and they go all out because they want to please the master. But there's one servant in this story and he has no reverence for the master at all. None. Has no respect for the master and he has simply decided that he's not going to do anything to please the master.
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He was preoccupied with himself. Now listen, the master's response to this one slave is gut wrenching. He was condemned because he hadn't done anything with the opportunity that had been given to him by the master. He had not been faithful. This is without a doubt what I call the tragedy of wasted opportunities. His talent was taken away. In verse 30, the Lord Jesus reveals that a consistent waste of opportunities indicates that a person is not saved. It's not that he lost his salvation. He wasn't saved to begin with. In the parable of the talents, the faithful are invited to share their master joy while the unfaithful slave is cast into the outer darkness in that place or be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Hey, there are many jokes that people make about hell. They're silly, ignorant jokes where people say, well, I'd rather go to hell to be with my friends and go to heaven. I'd rather go to hell because heaven's going to be boring.
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That is absolute foolishness. Hell is a real place. Hell is a place of outer darkness. Look at that word, outer for just a moment. Think about it. Why is it outer darkness? Because there's no life of God there. There's no hope there. There's no joy there. There's no love there. There's no laughter there. There's no partying in hell. I promise you that.
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There's only weeping and gnashing of teeth. I beg you today, I beg you, listen to God's word. Oh, I pray that nobody within the sound of my voice goes to hell. I pray that everybody within the sound of my voice while you have this opportunity, an opportunity to repent of your sin. You've got that opportunity right now. An opportunity to believe in Jesus.
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An opportunity to spend the rest of your life committed to him,
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serving the Lord with gladness, being faithful to him until the day that you see him and you're rewarded for your faithfulness.
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You're rewarded for serving him with gladness and you were invited, listen, you were invited into the joy of the master. Joy inexpressible and full of glory. Oh, please, I beg you today, please don't miss your opportunity today. I'm going to ask our staff to come, our worship team to come, and we're going to give you an opportunity today to settle this opportunity. Once and for all your relationship with Jesus, a chance to repent of your sin and place your faith and trust in Jesus as your savior and your Lord. Don't miss this opportunity. You say, well, I got plenty of time. How do you know you got plenty of time? You don't know you got plenty of time. You don't know if the Holy Spirit will ever deal with you
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right now. Come to Christ, come to him right now. Now, if you're born again believer and you've been sort of lackadaisical with all that God's entrusted to you, I would invite you to come to the altar and bow before the King of glory and confess to him that you've not been a good steward of your time, your talent, and your treasure. And ask him, ask him to do a deep abiding work in your heart to help you be the man, the woman, the boy, girl that God's called you to be.