Welcome everyone to this good day that the Lord has made. I'm Joe Van Hoogen and this is the Bread of Life. Our program is presented by the International Disciple-Making Ministry, Church Partnership Evangelism. I encourage you to learn more about the amazing work we're doing all around the world. Just go to traincpe.org. And to learn more about this radio ministry and our missions fellowship in Boise, Idaho, go to breadoflifeboise.org. It's from this fellowship that we share with you God's Word. In Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30, the Lord Jesus shares the parable of slaves who are presenting the results of their business endeavors to their master. The master has given these slaves riches to invest for his own business, and they now present the reward of their labors. And the master answers their presentation with great reward. The true believer will not talk the talk. They will take what has been given to them and lovingly give themselves to tending to their master's business. We become debtors to you because of this and your response to Christ and your faithfulness to him is our source of great joy in the presence of the Lord Jesus when he comes. That in itself is enough reward. Just the joy of coming before our Savior and Lord and saying, Lord, you gave me one talent, but look, there's been more that's been gained. A little boy spends his day crafting on some little picture that he's drawing of his home and of his parents and of himself and he's working on it and he's investing his time and energy into it because he's trying to give an expression of the bright sun that's shining over his house and of the love and appreciation and honor that he has for mommy and daddy and then he goes and he takes that picture to his parents and Just the presenting of the picture is a reward. It's a source of joy. There's satisfaction in it. Just that. But there's more here. There's more than just the satisfaction and the joy of presenting this to the Lord. There is a promised reaction from the master himself. He says, well done. The word here could be excellent, excellent. And here the comment is not upon the individual, but upon the labor. What a good job you've done. Little boy brings the picture to his daddy and his daddy says, fathers listen to me, what a good job. What a nice picture you've drawn. Oh, I see all the effort you put into it. And little boy's chest swells with pride at the appreciation the father or the mother are giving to his stick figure people with their balloon heads and wobbly eyes, you know. His little heart swells with joy. God is watching over our labors for him. He wants us to give our hearts and our souls to his enterprises. And he is preparing excellent for his sons and daughters. And this praise will bring delight to us throughout all eternity. What a good job. But there's more than this. Not only does he praise the work, then he praises the worker. Thou good and faithful servant. Thou good and faithful servant. Now his praise turns to the individual and this is even better. Here there should be a sense of delight to know and this should be the great desire of our lives that we might be the recipients of his praises upon us. We hear the sound of our voices at times praising him. Faintly at times we might feel the blessing and the sound of His praise over us. But one day heaven will open up and we'll not just be before our throne praising Him, but our ears are going to be opened up to hear His praise upon us. 1 Corinthians, Paul writes through the Holy Spirit, In chapter 3 of the great trial by fire that will come to all the believers in which our works will be tried and everything that is wood, hay, and stubble will be burned away and everything that's gold, silver, and precious stone will remain. And then Paul presses on and he writes about a day when the Lord Jesus will return and he says in verse 5 of chapter 4, he will bring to light all the things hidden in darkness. All the hidden things that we've done to serve Him. All the unnoted things of our prayers and our service of Him. Everything else is burned away. What remains now is all that was gold and silver and precious stone that maybe no one else saw and we thought was completely unrecognized and unappreciated. And He will bring to light all the things hidden in darkness. And then it says, each man will receive his praise of God. What a day is that? Just this alone should cause us to anticipate this moment, this moment which the joy of bringing to Him what we've done, the joy of His praise upon our labor and our work, and then His praise upon us, will ring out through all eternity. What an exciting thing. Again, I can't help but think of the moments in which, as a little boy, I heard the praise of my father and mother upon me. Oh, how talented he is. We ought to put this boy in art class. He's got such a gift. Look at that expression on that face, mom. Look at that smile. How wonderful. Stop right there and it's enough. Heaven's enough for us with just that. Just that, it's enough. But there's more. He says, you were faithful in a few things. I'm gonna make you ruler over many things. Heaven's not a place in which we disengage from the service of our King. It will be a place of empowerment to pursue greater dominions and domains of service and worship. We're to rule and reign with Him. And the one who loves the Lord Jesus finds this promise compelling because they delight in serving Him. And the delight is to think they can serve Him more and more. We'll spend eternity discovering the expressions and expansion of our service to Him, our delight in Him. But there's more. Jesus will then say, enter into the fullness of my joy. Come inhabit with me the fullness of my joy. Everything that God has done in planning our salvation, all the agonies that the Lord Jesus experienced on the cross, the unimaginable agonies that He experienced on the cross for us was done in order that He might acquire the unimaginable joy of saving us to Himself. He delights in it. We now in this life experience drops of heavenly joy dropped into our lives, but one day we shall sail on the sea of Christ's infinite happiness. His joy. A full, unsullied experience of all that He wanted to save us to and all that He stored up to give us as co-heirs with Him. Enter into the fullness of my joy. What a great privilege, what a great honor. We have two sermons here. I would like to end on that point, but let me just point out to you very quickly the fourth thing here. The unfaithful slave has no love for his master and no delight in his enterprise. He buries what's been given to him and contents himself that he at least is not abusing it. But what he doesn't understand is that what God gives us is to use for a service. And if you don't use it, you lose it. Life is like that, isn't it? Any talent you have, any ability you have, you don't hone it, you don't use it, you neglect it, you forsake it, you lose it. Well, God's economy is the same way. In this case, the slave has no love for his master. He sees his master as a hard and demanding person who will take whatever he wants without putting any labor himself. He'll make me do all the work and make all the sacrifices and he'll take all the gains because he harvests where he doesn't even plant his own seed. That's what he's saying. That's his excuse. And actually he accuses in a backhanded way his master of being unfair and unjust and profiting from his labors. And so he says, take back what's yours. If you've claimed the name of Christian, but done nothing with what Christ has given you in riches and in advantages, you're running out of excuses for not tending to his business. And not tending to his business begins to reveal that an attitude is settling in your spirit. Something like this. God can get done what he wants with or without me. Let him do it without me. What right does he have to ask me to risk my life in his service and his enterprises? I have my own business to attend to. God can get on all this without me, and so let him. I won't be responsible for losing anything that's his, but I also won't be countered upon to gain anything for him. It's not the attitude of those who love him, is it? It's not the attitude of those who truly know him, is it? It's not the attitude of the individual who's seen themselves as the recipient of his outpoured riches, is it? They only see God as a hard individual demanding from them All that they could provide in some austere way, they're looking at God through the smoky glass of their own self-interest and their own laziness and their own rebellion. And sadly, the reality is this is all finally they will know of God because God will accept their assessment of Him and send them out from Him forever. The day will prove what servant, what slaves we are, whether we loved Him whether we appreciated all he gave us, whether he cared for his community, whether we sought our communion with him, whether we were committed to his enterprises and tended to his business. I had some time ago, this is not the first time this happened, this happened multiple times, a rebellious individual meeting with me in my office in the pastor's study. I reminded them of the debt that comes upon those who receive Christ's salvation. Maybe I reminded them of Paul's statement that I'm a debtor to the Greeks and the barbarians and to the wise and the unwise because he knew the power of the gospel to save to the uttermost. I extolled and kind of pressed upon them and exhorted them to yield to that power and yield to that grace and surrender to that Grateful debt that had been put upon them when Christ died for their sins and surrendered our lives to him. But the sullen response that I received was, I never asked him to die for me. What enslaves a Christian? What ingratiates the Christian, what indebts the Christian to the service of our Master is the mercy and grace of our Savior dying for us to set us free from our sins. It's the undeserving receiving of that mercy and grace that makes us debtors to Him and to all. It claims us and it conquers us. We're slaves of Christ, bound with the chains, not of coercion and power, but bound with the chains of eternal, infinite, undeserved love and grace. We're conquered by that amazing love. It proves itself in our lives by our readiness to risk all to tend to His business. Let's bow our heads and let's pray. Whether, oh God, a delay has taken place, a turning of attention from the things that you tug at our hearts to do for you, to do the things that tug at our desires and appeal to our eyes, whether a delay has taken place or not. Here now, O God, bring all of us present under the overwhelming indebtedness of the cross, the outpoured love of our Savior. We turn our eyes upon you, Lord Jesus. We know you and your victory and your resurrection. Let us see you and your suffering for us, for our sins. The crown platted for you, the crown of rejoicing, you wanted to give us. Oh, indebt us to you, dear Savior, with a debt that we don't ever want to finish repaying. Well, thank you for listening to the Ministry of the Bread of Life. To learn more about our ministry, let me suggest you go to one of two websites. Go to traincpe.org to learn more about the work we're doing all over the world to equip and engage the body of Christ in personal evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Or to learn about our work in your community, go to breadoflifeboise.org. Until the next time, God bless you.