If you know that Jesus will praise you for this thing you're about to do, then you don't need the praise of men.
If men revile you, if men say, That's not right, if men say, that was uncomfortable or that offended me, but you can say with certainty that Jesus will praise you for that
thing, you don't need the praise from others.
You don't need to be working to get others' adoration.
Of you.
The following message was recorded at Kingstree Church.
May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Join me in Matthew 25, verses 14 through 30.
We'll be in Matthew 25, 14 through 30.
And before we jump in, I want to tell you a story.
Some of you know this already.
Um, but my wife, Julia and I, we met and married within a single year.
So we met in, we met on August 19th, 2018, and then we married August 3rd, 2019.
So I was within one year.
As you can tell, I was very ready to get married.
All right.
That's the that's the end of the story.
But I was quick, I quickly found out that I was not ready to.
Be married.
All right?
That's a little bit different.
That's not, that doesn't mean that I was like completely out of order or something, but I knew that something needed to be changed if Julia was going to be my wife.
And so I did what I could to make myself ready for the wedding day.
So when I first here's some examples.
When I first met Julia, I was planning on going to seminary in Minnesota.
And we were living in Ohio at the time.
So, but as soon as she said yes to me, I uh I called the seminary and said, Hey, we're gonna have to, we're gonna hold this off for another year because this girl wants to marry
me.
And she has a year left in school.
So I s I stopped my pursuit of going to seminary so I'd be ready for our wedding day.
I had a house to welcome Julia into, but it had a bunch of smelly guys living in it.
I was renting out some of the rooms to some of my friends.
And so I made sure they were kicked out before Julia came in.
I also painted some of the walls.
Uh I cleaned the house to the best of my ability, which Julia would probably disagree with.
But I tried.
I tried.
I was trying to make it ready for her.
Finances, you know, I was a single guy.
I I don't buy things.
And then as soon as I started thinking, I'm I'm gonna have to provide for a whole nother human being.
I need to learn how to handle money well.
So I turned on the Ramsey show every single day.
I listened to that.
I started throwing every extra money that I had to pay down my student loans so that we weren't that we would have a better financial lifestyle once we got married.
I also had a dog.
Dog the dog's name was Jericho.
And Jericho did not like Julia very much.
And Julia did not like Jericho very much.
And I didn't really like Jericho very much.
Because I liked Julia way more.
And I like spending my time with Julia way more than I like spending time with the dog.
And that's probably why the dog didn't like Julia very much.
All right.
End of the story.
I got rid of the dog.
I sent him to a nice farm, a real farm, not a fake one, a real farm where he could live all his days out in peace.
And then most importantly to me, when Julia and I met, I was, I was not like in the worst shape, but I also wasn't in.
So I made sure that for our wedding day, I was in the best shape I possibly could be.
The summer before we got married, I was running every morning.
I was going to the gym and doing strength training.
I was eating at a calorie, a calorie deficit every single day.
I was a superhero, basically.
And I can't even imagine myself doing that anymore.
But all that to say I wanted to be ready for when Julia.
by the for Julia by the time our wedding day came.
Now of course Julia wasn't marrying me because I was doing all of these things.
It's not like if I was a couple pounds heavier as she's walking down the aisle that she's gonna be like, nah, nope, not the right, not the right size or something like that.
No.
It was, but by doing all of these things, I showed
To her, and I prove to her that I actually loved her, and that I would take the responsibility on of caring for her as a good husband would, at least again, to the best
of my ability.
Now I tell you this story because it's similar to what Jesus is going to tell us here in Matthew 25.
Jesus is telling us that there is a day coming, a day that is
More important than any earthly wedding day.
And that day is the day of his return, his second coming.
And in this passage, he's telling us that he's going to reign in a particular way when he comes back.
And one thing he's going to do on that day is he's going to gather all of the nations, every single human being, including each and every one of you here and myself, and he's
going to judge them.
According to how they lived their life.
And in this passage, Jesus, and that's called Judgment Day.
All right.
So the title is Judgment Day is coming.
Jesus is going to reign, and he's going to reign like this on this day.
That's what we're going to read about.
And just like my wedding day affected every aspect of the way that I lived my life for that year, so this judgment day is.
Jesus is is telling us should completely reshape the way we live our lives.
That if we orient ourself to that day, to judgment day, it it's going to, our life is going to look a certain way.
We're going to work out in a certain way.
We're going to, you know, take care of our homes in a certain way.
We're going to treat people a certain way.
And so the passage this morning teaches us three ways to be ready.
For the judgment day before it comes.
And so let's go ahead and jump into the passage now.
As we read, I want you to think: all right, what did the servants who served their master well, who were ready for their master to come back, what did they do?
What did their lives look like?
So let's go ahead and jump in.
Matthew 25, starting in verse 14.
It's a little bit of a long passage.
I'd rather you
Listen and stay awake most for me reading this passage more than my commentary on it.
Cause you'll get more out of it just by listening to me read it.
Here we go.
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Now he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
So also he who had the two talents made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money.
Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them, and he who he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing the five talents
more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents.
Here, I made five talents more.
His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master.
And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents.
Here,
I have made two talents more.
His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a little.
I will set you over much.
Enter into the joy of your master.
Now he also who had received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.
So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.
Here, have what is yours.
But his ma his master answered him, You wicked.
And slothful servant.
You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received
what was my own with interest.
So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents, for to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance.
But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the serv the worthless the worthless servant into the outer darkness.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Father, we come before you, I come before you, sober, just listening to these last verses of this parable.
And yet, I thank you that you've given us this parable, that you have warned us that a day is coming when in fact we will be judged.
I ask that you would help us see from this passage what you are trying to teach us.
I pray that.
You would help me be faithful with this text and work with it in such a way that is pleasing in your sight and bears fruit in the hearts of those who are listening.
And Father, I do pray that by the Spirit you would help us be ready for this day that is to come.
In Jesus Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
All right, so I said that this passage teaches us three ways to be ready for judgment day.
And the first way is to work with what Jesus has given you.
Work with what Jesus has given you.
We can see that in uh these the faithful servants uh in in three ways.
They do three things to work with what Jesus or work with what their master had given them.
The first thing that they did was they took stock of what their master had given them.
They took stock of it.
So in the beginning, we hear the story: the man's going on a journey, he calls his servants, and he gives them a certain amount of his property.
He allocates it to them.
The first one, five, second one, two, and the last one one.
But they were in in and they were very, very aware of what they were given.
We see that in verse.
20, when the first faithful servant comes to his master, he says, Master, you have delivered to me five talents.
He knew that his master gave him five talents.
And that was what he was supposed to be responsible for.
Now Jesus says that this parable is like like his coming, like how he is going to judge, how he is going to act.
And that means that we have been given.
Something from Christ to take stock of.
What has Jesus given to you?
What has Jesus entrusted to you?
And hopefully the the answer that comes back in your head is everything.
Jesus has given me everything that I have.
There's nothing that's in my hands that hasn't first come through his hands, including my hands.
Like I didn't make myself.
And even the things that I have done in this life, created in this life, come from what he has given me in the first place.
Everything I have comes from him.
Now, some people disagree with me that this parable is about using well everything that Jesus has given you.
Some people say that Jesus is only talking about the most important things that he's given us, like the Spirit.
The Spirit is
Probably the most significant relationship that he has given us because it's God dwelling inside of us.
Others would say that the parable is about the gospel.
Jesus has given us the mysteries, the good news of Jesus Christ, and he's expecting us to use that well.
But Jesus would disagree with those people because he says there's more than those things that are going to be.
You're going to give an account for on the last day.
You don't have to turn here, but in Matthew 12, 36, Jesus says, He says, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give an account for what?
Every careless word they speak.
Every careless word.
That means even the things that God has entrusted to you, your lips.
That you're using when you're not even thinking about it, you will give an account for every single one of those things.
So, yes, we must take stock of everything that Jesus has given us.
Now that seems really lofty.
How do you how do you take stock of everything that you have?
Well, I'm gonna break it down into three things.
Jesus has given each of us three things to take care of.
The first thing is yourself.
The self that he has given you is the way that you literally interact with everything around you.
You cannot have a relationship with God without having been first given a self, yourself.
Um, so, and it's not just yourself like physically, it's not just your hands and your feet and stuff like that.
It's also your spiritual self, your inner man and your outer man.
Both of these things God has entrusted to you to manage.
And maintain.
And that's something you're going to give an account for.
How did you handle yourself?
That's called self-control.
Were you self-controlled?
So that's the first thing.
The second thing Jesus has given each one of us is our relationships, all of our relationships he has given to us.
Primarily, his our our relationship with him.
That is the most important relationship he has given to us.
That
God Himself has given him, given us Himself an opportunity to actually speak with Him, to pray to Him, to serve Him, to do all things with and for Him.
But He's also given you all of your other relationships, your immediate family, your ex your extended family, your church family, your coworkers, your friends, your neighbors.
All of those relationships are given to you and are unique.
To you.
There's no other person who has the exact same network that you have and does not have the same position as you.
And we'll get to that in a second.
So the second thing is all of your relationships.
The way that you actually engage in those relationships, you will give an account for.
And then third, your possessions, your possessions.
Now, this as well is not just your physical possessions, it is spiritual possessions.
Possessions.
Jesus has given you spiritual things.
Like we hear in Ephesians one, uh three, it says that Christ has given us every spiritual blessing in the high places.
And then we also hear in Matthew six, and I'm going to turn there because I want to get this right.
Matthew six, he says, lay up your for yourself treasures in heaven.
Where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We that's a whole nother conversation to have, but I just want you to be aware of that.
As well as your physical possessions, taking care of your house, taking care of your car, taking care of your land, taking care of your plane.
I don't know what you have, a yacht, whatever things you own.
I know nobody has a yacht.
I'm assuming nobody has a yacht.
It doesn't matter.
If you have a yacht, call me.
whatever physical possessions you own, God is going to like you're going to have a give and account for those possessions and the way that you handled those things.
Now, when you're taking stock of these things, it's also important to take stock of what Jesus hasn't given you.
And this is where things get a little bit more easy to manage.
Look at the look at the uh the servants here, the the two faithful servants.
There's two of them.
One was given five talents, and one was given two talents.
The one who was given two talents was not given five talents.
And the one who was given five talents was not given two talents.
Why is this?
Well, Jesus uh at least Jesus says the master gave each according, uh each he gave one five and one two.
according to their ability.
So the master knows his servants well and he gives certain things, he entrusts those things to them because he knows he has built within them the capacity to actually handle
those those things well.
But if you don't take stock with what Jesus hasn't given you, you may be tempted to think that you have five talents when you only have two, or that you have one talent
When you actually have two talents.
So the warning here is um you may feel overwhelmed with the fact that, wow, I have so much that I need to be responsible for because you're trying to take responsibility for other
people's talents.
It's like if the guy with the two talents went over to the guy with the one talent who dug it in the hole and said, Hey, you're not going to use that?
Like, can I have that?
The master would say,
The the guy who got the two talents is not skilled enough yet to handle three talents.
That's why he gave him two talents.
So take stock of what Jesus has actually given you in those three categories that I gave you.
I need to move on.
Okay.
So you got that.
Second, take action.
Take action.
I'm just gonna speed right through here.
Just like the uh the first servant who uh who takes action immediately.
He was diligent right away.
In verse 16, or right before verse 16, it says, The master went away.
And then in Greek, the verse starts, immediately.
The one who had received five talents traded with them.
So as soon as the master went away, the faithful servant did not say, ah the master just started his journey.
And it's not like he's going to come back today.
I don't need to like.
start working with these things that he's given me.
No.
He's like, what?
I get five talents?
I know exactly what to do with this.
And he goes at once and is diligent with what Jesus has given him.
But he doesn't just go do things haphazardly.
All right.
It says that he traded with them.
The work the word here for traded is more commonly translated as work in the New Testament.
He took those five talents
And he worked with it.
He made a business with it.
The the problem I just have with the word traded here is because in our day and age, when you hear traded, you think of day traders, maybe.
People are just trying to make a quick buck by investing in things and hoping they time the market well.
That's not what happened here.
Again, the master gave the five talents to this faithful servant because he knew he had the skill to take those five talents and make five talents more.
So
You take what Jesus has given you, take action with it by taking calculated risks according to your ability, according to what he's given you to actually do with it.
And then finally, bear fruit, bear fruit.
As you see in verse 16, he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
This is the blessing of being.
A human, quite literally, the blessing.
At the very beginning, when God created us, what he blessed us and what he said connects to exactly what the master is hoping for from his servants.
It says, And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens.
So it's not just
That we take something and we just maintain it and just keep it as it is.
The master, Jesus, wants us to be like trees who take the resources that he gives us and make something even more glorious with it, make something more beautiful with it.
All right.
So that's the first way to be ready for judgment day.
Work with what Jesus has given you by taking stock of what he's given you.
Take action with what he's given you.
And then bear fruit with what he's given you.
So what's the second way?
What's the second way this passage teaches us to be ready for judgment day?
This is the one I'm most excited about.
And uh hopefully this will not go too long.
I don't even know what time it is.
All right, 1046.
We're good.
Work.
Okay, here we go.
Second way to be ready for judgment day is to work for what Jesus will give you, not what, not what man will give you.
Work for what Jesus will give you, not for what man will give you.
So let's take a look at this passage.
What does the master in this story give to his faithful servants?
What are the things?
He gives them three things, starting in verse 21.
It says, His master said to him, This is the one with the five talents, Well done, good and faithful servant.
What is that?
Praise.
The master praises the servant for two things.
He praises him for his good work.
Well done.
You did it.
Way to go.
Attaboy.
Like you crushed it.
I don't think Jesus is going to use twenty first century vernacular, but it's this.
It's the same thing that he said at the beginning when God himself created all things, that is good.
God is happy to see good work and he praises that good work.
But he doesn't just stop there.
He doesn't just stop with praising the work.
He says, Good and faithful servant.
He praises the servant.
He tells the servant, not just what you've done is good.
But you are good and you are faithful.
Now Jesus is the one who says this is like what he is going to do at the end of the age.
But if you think I'm taking this too far, extrapolating too much out of the text, that the one who is most praiseworthy, who deserves all praise, is actually going to turn around
and praise us?
Well
There's way more of it in the New Testament.
I want to take you there this time, and I want you to go with me to this one.
1 Corinthians 4, 1 through 5.
First Corinthians 4, 1 through 5.
Now, this is we're just jumping into one of Paul's arguments here.
Basically, he's writing to the church of Corinth, which he founded, and then somebody else came in after him and is now leading the church.
Well, some of the original members of the church were saying, you know what?
I was discipled by Paul.
And the others are saying, Well, I was discipled by Apollos.
And basically they're saying, Paul is way better than Apollos.
Okay.
And Paul comes in and he's like, You guys are so much of the flesh when you're doing that.
That is not the way you're supposed to regard us.
Here's how you should think of us.
Here's how you should regard us.
And that's in 1 Corinthians 4, starting in verse one.
He says, This is how you should regard us.
As servants of Christ, okay, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Paul's applying the parable of the talents to his own ministry.
He's saying, I am a servant of God, and what God has given me to maintain and steward are the mysteries of God.
He's taken stock of what Jesus has given him.
So he knows he's serving Christ and he's stewarding the mysteries that he's given him.
Moreover,
It is required of stewards that they be found faithful, that they be found faithful.
Just like what we're hearing in Matthew.
Servants ought to be found faithful.
And then here we go.
He says, But with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court.
In fact, I do not even judge myself.
For if for I am not aware of anything against myself, but I'm not thereby acquitted.
It is the Lord who judges me.
And because the Lord judges me, therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will
disclose the purposes of the heart.
He's saying, You're praising me for being this good, and I'm telling you, hold off, because you're not the ultimate judge, I'm not even the ultimate judge of whether I've
done right.
The Lord on the last day will judge and say whether my works were good or whether my works were bad.
And on that day it says, He will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart.
And then right here, the last part, he says, Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
Now the ESV does this again to me, but the word there for commendation almost every
Everywhere else in the New Testament is praise.
He will receive his praise from God.
So like Ephesians 1, one of the loftiest passages about blessing God says, He adopted us as sons to the praise of his glory, to the praise of his glory.
That's the same word here.
The same thing that he created us to give to him, God himself is going to give back to us.
Because he sees his goodness and his good work in us.
Of course, he's the one who brought it about in us, but he will still praise us.
Now, there's other passages we can go to, but the point I want you to see here is being ready for judgment day is.
Looking to the praise of Jesus in everything that you do.
And if you know that Jesus will praise you for this thing you're about to do, then you don't need the praise of men.
If men revile you, if men say, That's not right, if men say, that was uncomfortable or that offended me, but you can say with certainty that Jesus will praise you for that
thing.
You don't need the praise from others.
You don't need to be working to get others' adoration of you.
Um, and that's like been a massive shift in my life because I am like a people pleaser to the core.
That's just been the way that I've act and I've I've acted and worked in order to just get the adoration from men.
But if you work for what Jesus will give you and his praise, his pleasure, then
Even if you have none of that on earth, you can still be whole and have joy in your heart.
Second, work for what Jesus will give you.
He will give you a promotion.
A promotion back in Matthew.
So if you work with what Jesus has given you faithfully, Jesus will give you a promotion.
We see in verse 21, his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over little.
All right.
So Jesus has given us little in comparison to all that he owns.
And if you're faithful with that, he says, I will set you over much.
I will set you over much.
And this is a very common New Testament uh teaching.
We've we've heard that whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
So those who are humble will be exalted on the last day.
But what does that mean?
How will we be exalted from on earth into heaven on that last day?
Well, for his faithful servants, for those who are his, Jesus says in Daniel that he will give them reign over all the kingdoms of the earth.
This is what it reads.
Daniel seven twenty seven.
Then the sovereignty, power, and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the
Of the most high.
His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship him and obey him.
So you may just be taking care of your house.
You may just be taking care of your children or your business.
These things that in in the world's eyes might seem so small and menial and have no effect.
In eternity.
But you, with the little that you've given, you've been given, if you are faithful with those things, you will prove to be a servant who is capable of actually ruling over all
the nations of the earth.
That's what this is.
And Paul agrees with that.
That's coming from Daniel.
But Paul says, 1 Corinthians 6, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases?
Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
So Jesus wants to give you a promotion from what you have on earth in heaven.
So take what he has given you and be faithful with it, because you know that that is coming.
And if Jesus is going to promote you there to a place that you could not even possibly think about putting yourself by all of your effort and all your work,
Then you don't need the promotion of men on earth.
If men do not exalt you, if men do not speak well of you, if men do not give you what you want or elevate your life at all, you can press through that, knowing that as long as I am
faithful with what Jesus has given me, there will come a day when He does, in fact, glorify me and exalt me.
And this, I just have to show this.
This is not something.
Like you should not be ashamed to be seeking after the glory of God.
In fact, you need to seek after this glory that God gives.
We see this in Romans, well, I'm gonna start with John 5, 44, because it's Jesus' words.
He says.
How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
So the uh the logic here is you can only believe if you seek the glory that comes from God, not from men.
You can't believe if you're seeking the glory of one another.
So it's not the seeking the glory that's the wrong part.
It's seeking glory of men.
God wants you to seek the glory that comes from him and him alone, because that's what you were made for in the very first place, to reflect, to to maintain and to be like him in
his own glory.
All right.
The third thing, the third thing that Jesus will give you is Jesus will give you all his pleasures.
Jesus will give you all his pleasures.
Back in Matthew 25, verse 23, his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
You have been faithful over a little.
I will set you over much.
And then finally, enter into the joy of your master.
Enter into the joy of your master.
Now, Christopher has preached on this, I think every single sermon he says, he says these things.
So I'm not going to belabor the point.
But
There are pleasures forevermore at the right hand of Jesus.
He gives to us from his table.
That is, what delights God is what he's going to give to delight us.
He's going to thrill us.
He's going to entertain us.
He's going to show us what joy is literally all about.
And if you trust that by working and obeying Jesus on this earth right now,
That he is going to give you pleasures that you can't even fathom or bring about for yourself on earth, then you don't need all of the pleasures of men.
You don't have to be, uh, you don't need money and sex and fame and power and influence and leisure of this life, because you know pleasures that are actually good and will not
ruin you are coming if you.
Continue obeying Christ and taking care of what he's given you.
This has been another thing that has been hugely helpful to me.
Instead of seeing myself as the giver of my own joy, if I see and trust that Jesus knows what will make me happy, that he controls my joy, I don't have to, I don't have to think
about how I can make myself happy.
I can trust that to him and just be obedient to him.
And there's just a joy that's in you when you're obeying that you know that that is coming, even if you're going through even if you're in a time in your life where you don't
have pleasures, where things are not satisfying to you.
All right, finally, the third way to be ready for judgment day.
The third way to be ready for judgment day.
Work because you know Jesus to be good.
So far, those first two things um may have sounded wrong to you.
Okay, like work, okay.
I have to do works with what Jesus has given me.
And then do I really just work for what Jesus gives me?
Am I not supposed to be working.
For Jesus himself.
And what this passage is going to show us is you need to love Jesus first because that's how you actually are able to work with what he's given you.
And that's how you will receive the benefits that come from Jesus.
So work because you know Jesus to be good.
We see that in this passage because it's the exact thing that the wicked servant does wrong.
This is the biggest difference between the faithful servant.
And the wicked servant.
We see it in verse twenty-four.
He also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.
So first he says, I knew you, meaning his perspective of the master.
was skewed.
This is his perspective.
Clearly, and we'll see that in a moment, the master was not a hard man.
But what does he mean by a hard man?
Let's just enter into the wicked servant's mind.
He knew him to be a hard man.
Well the word hard here is the same word for hard-hearted that we hear throughout the Bible.
He's stiff-necked.
He's stubborn.
So the wicked servant sees his master set in his ways
He's not going to change.
Well, what are his ways?
This is what he thinks his master's ways are reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that he sees his master as one who does not work, who makes others work for him, and then he takes what the fruit of their labor and he just keeps it to himself.
He just uses it for his own good.
He takes all the credit and doesn't let them enjoy the fruit of their labor.
That's what he's saying.
This master he reaps, like he harvests where he never sowed, and he uh he gathered where he scattered no seed.
So what what then did this make the wicked servant do?
He says, So I was afraid.
Well, why was he afraid?
Well, because he was given these talents by
The master.
And he thought, I don't know how long the master's going to be away.
If I work and work and work my tail off, he's going to come back and take everything that I worked for away from me.
And I'm not going to see anything of it.
But I know this master loves his money.
And if I take this money now and I squander it for myself, he's going to be so mad when he gets back and he's going to kill me.
So I don't want the master to get any more than he deserves.
But I also don't want to be dead when he returns.
So I'm just gonna put it in the ground.
He's gonna get what he gave me back to himself, and I'm gonna be fine because I didn't lose the money.
Is that what happens?
Oh no.
Verse twenty six.
But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant.
The master turns the tables on the servant.
The servant thinks
This master is a greedy swindler because he's only in it for himself.
But what has the servant revealed about himself by the way he acts?
He's the greedy swindler.
He won't do anything.
He will serve no one.
He will love no one unless there's something for him in it for himself.
And unless there's something in it for him, he's not going to do it.
He's not going to work.
He's just going to seek after his own self.
And that's why the master says, You are wicked and you are slothful.
The master continues, You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
That's not the master saying, Oh, you actually knew that about me.
I thought I was I was trying to hide that.
No, he's like, if you think that, let's assume, let's assume that I was a wicked master, and assume that you were a good servant.
What would a good servant do who had a wicked master?
He doesn't want to work anymore, but he still wants, he doesn't want the master to take away from him his own work, but he also wants the good of the master.
Well, it would take him the same amount of work to dig a hole in the ground and put the money in it than it would be to go to the bank, give it to the bankers, and
And see it invested without him doing us picking up a his finger and doing anything at all.
So that's what the master says.
You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest.
So then, what does the master do?
First, he reviles him, he says, You are a wicked and slothful servant.
And then he demotes him.
He says, Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents.
And then finally,
He abandons him.
Verse 30.
Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now, if you're hearing this and you're feeling convicted because you see evidence of wicked service in your own life, and that like actually scares you.
Like, what if that's my destiny?
That means you you look at yourself and you think,
I have not been a good and faithful servant.
I've squandered something Jesus has given me.
Maybe you've been slothful with what He's given you, or you've been using what Jesus has given you just for your own gain, not for His, not for anybody else's.
Or maybe you've been working with what Jesus has given you to earn the praise of men instead of the praise of God, or the promotion of men, or the pleasures of men.
Maybe you've just been working in such a way that shows that you don't know Jesus as good, as the best thing.
And maybe, yeah, maybe if that is what you you're feeling or what you're thinking, there is very good news right now.
This parable comes to you as good news because judgment day has not yet come.
I'm still preaching.
The Lord hasn't come down.
You know, we're not raised up into the sky.
Judgment Day hasn't come.
It is coming, and we don't know when it's coming, and it may come today.
So if you feel that conviction, you have the opportunity.
Take the opportunity today with this sermon that Christ has given you.
Not I'm not Christ, but you know what I mean, the Spirit through me, then you have the opportunity to confess your sin to God, repent from those ways.
And believe in Jesus.
You have the opportunity to heed this command, to be very careful how you live.
This comes from Ephesians, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
Don't be foolish.
Understand that this is the will of the Lord for you today and for the rest of your life until he comes.
Now, for those of you who
Who after hearing this, you're like, there's relief in some sense.
Like, okay, that's what Jesus wants me to do.
And by his power, I can do that.
Um, again, it's not that you are earning his favor, but he will judge us according to our works, even those who are Christians.
Not that it's the end, or you you understand what I mean, hopefully.
But for those who are faithful servants who will be found as faithful servants on the last day.
There's even better news, because Judgment Day will not ultimately be a judgment day.
It will be a wedding day.
It will be a wedding day, because on that day, as the book of Revelation says, we will hear the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of
mighty peals of thunder, crying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.
Let us rejoice, exult, and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and look what it says, his bride has made herself ready.
It was granted her, that's by Christ, to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Let's pray.
Father, we come before you grateful again that you've given us this passage and that you've revealed uh your will to us, that you've revealed the way that you reign and will
reign when you come back.
I I ask just for myself and for those in this congregation that uh that you would use this sermon in a way that would benefit them.
They would see and understand you as their master more, that they can tell what you have given them.
And use it in accordance in a way that is uh pleasing in your sight, in a way that is worthy of the salvation that you've given them.
And Father, I r I pray that each one of us would be able to experience your praise, your promotion, and the pleasures that you have at your right hand, because they come from you
and we believe and see you as our greatest good.
In Jesus Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.
To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.
or visit our website at Kingstreechurch.org.