The following sermon was delivered on January 19th, 2025 at Free Grace Baptist Church in Poulsbo, Washington. The speaker is Roy Linberry on the Parable of the Talents. Turn with me, if you would, to the book of Psalms, Psalm 100. This is a very short psalm, but one that is actually quite profound in its call to worship God, to be thankful to God, to give Him all that we owe Him. So let's read from Psalm 100 beginning in verse 1. Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God and it is He who has made us and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts Well, as we continue our time together, I'm going to ask you to turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter 25. I'll be reading verses 14 through 30 this morning. We'll continue the synoptic survey and in particular our time in the all of it discourse from Matthew chapter 25. Go ahead and take a moment to turn there. Matthew chapter 25 beginning in verse 14. Hear now the word of God. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. Immediately, the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents. In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents saying, master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained you five more. 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. Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, and I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man. reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. 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 scattered no seed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worth the slave into outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Amen. Well, I pray that the Lord would add his blessing to the reading of his word and the preaching of it. this parable here, the parable of the talents, very well-known parable, and it's continuing for us Jesus' discourse on the kingdom of God. Now, it's part of the larger discourse, what's known as the Olivet Discourse, comprised of Matthew chapters 24 and 25. And you remember that discourse is answering the questions of the disciples. When will these things be? Speaking of the destruction of the temple, remember they were pointing out the temple buildings and Jesus says, I tell you, not one of these will be standing, that will not be thrown down, one stone from another. And they ask Him, when will these things be? And then they also ask, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Now, having spent chapter 24 speaking of those signs that the disciples were to be looking for regarding the coming judgment on Jerusalem, in chapter 25, he turns to the period of history that follows, the kingdom of God. When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And he spends chapter 24 explaining to them how they will know. These things are coming upon this generation. That's when they will be. not giving you the date or the hour, but here are all of the things by which you will know that the time is near. And he gives them all of these signs. He speaks of the things that were gonna be happening as that age draws to a close. And then in chapter 25, as we saw last week, he says, then at that time, or from that time forward, the kingdom of heaven shall be comparable to, and then he gives the parable of the 10 virgins. It will be comparable to these ten virgins. And then now our passage starts with, for it is just like a man about to go on a journey. He's not changing subjects here. Still speaking of the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Now last week, what did we see? We saw that His kingdom is the rule and the reign of Christ over His people. We talked at length about His kingdom. We saw that that kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. It's an everlasting dominion, one that will never end. It has been established and it goes on in perpetuity. We found out not only that it was an everlasting kingdom, but that it's a present reality, that the kingdom of God is here, that it's present, that it has been established. It's not something out in the future. This is not simply something that we look forward to. It's not something that we stand here waiting for that kingdom to arrive, but rather Jesus brought it at His first coming. The kingdom came in the person of Christ, and we looked at where the scripture explains that for us. We saw also that it's a spiritual kingdom, that it's defined not by geographical boundaries, but defined by obedience to Christ. We saw also that it has an outward component, a component of those who profess faith but whose works will eventually betray that profession as being false. The parables of the soils, the wheat and the tares brought all of that out back in chapter 13. We saw also that the kingdom starts very small, but it progresses into something very large as a mustard seed grows into a tree, that it's something that has progression to it, that it starts very small. If you remember, like 40 people in that upper room, 11 left of the 12 original disciples, that's where the kingdom of God started with that small and now billions around the world. It grows. And then, in the same way, we see that the kingdom progresses as leaven or as yeast working its way through the loaf. That kingdom progress in the world is slow, but it's steady. It's slow, but it's sure that it takes a long time. It's a progression. The growth of the kingdom Jesus could have, though he didn't, just simply come and say, it's all done right now. And here it is. But he didn't do that. Rather, He came and He put an end to all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, making atonement for sin on the cross. He did all of these things and He inaugurated the kingdom. He brought it to start. He began the growth of the kingdom. And then, even as our parable tells us, He went on a journey. If you look at the parallel in Luke, it specifically says that he went to receive a kingdom. Now, these are two different parables. Apparently, as somewhat of an itinerant preacher, Jesus would use material that is very similar, different contexts and at different times. So the parable in Luke is a slightly different parable, but I'm including it here as the parallel passage because they share so much in common. But Jesus inaugurated the kingdom in His first coming and it will be consummated in His final coming, but we live now in that kingdom. Now all of that together, understanding what the scripture teaches us about the kingdom of God, demonstrates for us that we are ambassadors of the kingdom in this world and that we are a part of the kingdom's growth. Understand that I think one of you brought up after the message last week when we were talking about being dual citizens this this dual citizenship that we have Because we belong to this spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and our citizenship is in heaven, and yet he has us here, and we belong to the citizenship here of earth as well. We belong to this earthly kingdom. So we as Christians are dual citizens, and therefore we act as ambassadors between those two. We proclaim the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven to those who don't have yet any citizenship in heaven. We proclaim that He is King, that He is ruler, that He is over all, that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. We proclaim the gospel of forgiveness of sins. We speak of the things of this heavenly kingdom, the things of this kingdom that is not of this world, and we bring it to the people who are of this world. We are ambassadors of the kingdom of God. The parables here that we're looking at in chapter 25, the parables of the virgins and the parable of the talents, they speak to our responsibility in this age, our responsibility here in the kingdom. The primary focus of the parable of the virgins was that of preparedness. Be prepared. It is our responsibility to be prepared. We must not be found to be unprepared when that announcement goes out. Behold, the bridegroom comes. There are many people that call themselves Christians who sadly will find on that day that their profession of faith was not founded on the merits of Christ, it was not founded upon His blood, then they will be sent away at that final coming. The unwise virgins represented those who are Christians outwardly only. They make a profession of faith, but they have not experienced the inward grace of God regenerating and transforming them. They are not truly converted. Those who were wise have diligently ensured that they are prepared for His coming. 1 Peter 1 verse 10, Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. What Peter is saying is, look to yourselves to be certain that He has called you, that He has chosen you. Be certain that you are a Christian, that your profession is not merely in word only, but rather that your profession is matched up by your life, that the grace of God is at work in you. And there's a lot of ways, and we could really break this down, that's not the point of this morning, but for us to do that. Do we love the things of God? Do we love His people? Are we growing in our desire to know Him more? Are we growing in our... our desire to be in His Word and to spend time in prayer? Are we desiring to see His Gospel go forward and for people to be saved? Do we love the truth of the Word? Those are the kinds of things that we ought to be looking at to validate whether our profession is just simply one in Word only. Are we experiencing the growth that the Scripture tells us to? Are we being transformed by the renewing of our minds? It's very easy, especially in today's culture, today's day and age, for somebody to make a profession of faith and to say, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm with them. Yep, I follow Jesus. It wasn't always that way. It wasn't that way in the early church because the persecution was so harsh against Christians. And that same condition exists in many places in the world. People don't make a profession of faith casually in many places in the world because it would cost them dearly. But where we live, it doesn't really cost anybody anything, and so false professions abound. And certainly, even as Peter was talking about this, there must have been the potential even for those false professions in the New Testament age. And therefore, he encourages and urges Christians to be diligent to make certain about their calling and their having been chosen by God. Are you truly a Christian? That's really what the parable of the virgins was about. Are you prepared for His coming or will you be found to be wanting, to be lacking? The wisdom of the maidens who are prepared to meet the bridegroom is shown in this. They kept watch over themselves to ensure their readiness in the same way as the Apostle Paul. We read in Philippians 3, verses 12 through 14, Paul says this, not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but, I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. He's making it His aim to press forward, to press on, and to recognize that He is not perfected yet, but He's pressing forward for that, with that goal in mind. He says again in 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24 and 27, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? So run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. And they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore, he says, I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I discipline my body and I make it my slave so that after I've preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. Paul is speaking about the very things that the parable of the virgins brings out for us. This idea that we need to be certain about our calling and our election. to not simply rely on the fact that I made a profession of faith one day at some point in my life, or to not simply rely on the fact that you were baptized once when you were younger, or to not rely on the fact that you go to church week in and week out, but rather, is the Spirit of God at work in you? So then we come to the parable of the talents. And as we do, we see that the theme continues. instead of wise and foolish virgins, we're now given a picture of faithful and unfaithful slaves. Now, the abruptness of the introduction And I've already alluded to this. It tells us that the introduction to the first parable is still applicable. The kingdom of heaven will be comparable too. And then we see this parable of the ten virgins and he continues on. For just like a man about to go on a journey. Or with some of the additional words for clarity. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey. This parable really is an amplification of the last one. He talks about being prepared and then he goes on and he digs a little bit deeper. Now the basic picture that we have here is that of three slaves. Each given an amount of money while the master is away. And as we're going to see, this isn't really about money. The picture is money. That's the picture that's used, but it's not really just about money in terms of the application and what Jesus is trying to convey. So they're each given an amount of money while the master is away. And then the parable really comes to a head when the master comes back to settle accounts with the slaves. So he gives them the money, he expects them to do something with that money, and then he comes back to settle accounts. And as we just read this morning, we have the first one, the first slave who was given five talents and was able to turn that into five more. And the second slave who was given two talents and was able to turn that into two more. And then the third one who was given one talent and was able to retain that as one talent. And it's very easy for us to think that the third slave was given very little and that he didn't have very much to work with. One measly talent. But a talent, this is an interesting thing because we don't really use this terminology. How much money is a talent? What does it really equate to? Well, we can't really speak of it in terms of dollars, because that changes all the time, right? How many dollars is it? How many, any unit of money that we might think. A talent is a unit of weight, but basically, here's what it equaled. Here's, we could look at it in purchasing power. A talent is about 20 years wages for a laborer. So even the slave who was given a single talent was being given a huge responsibility. He was being entrusted really with much. It's important for us to remember because we have been given a trust. while the master is away. We have been given a trust that is hugely important, and we are to be working for the glory of God and the building up of His kingdom. He leaves us with that. He leaves us with that mission, with that responsibility. And what's interesting about this and something that I want you to take away as you look at this parable is recognize that it's not about how much each one is given. It's about what each one does with what they were given. The person who was given two is treated the exact same way as the man who was given five. There's nothing here to condemn one who was given less. There was no excuse for the one who was given less to say, well, I didn't turn it into five like the other guy did because I wasn't given as much. None of that matters. Has nothing to do with how much the master entrusted. Rather, the real focus that Jesus is bringing is what did the slave do, what did the servant do with that with which he was entrusted? forget how much you've been entrusted with, what did you do with it? That's really at the heart of this parable, the parable of the talents. In fact, if you were to look at this parallel parable in Luke, you would find that in that instance, when Jesus told that parable, each one of them are given the same amount. They're not given differing amounts. So he's bringing about the same principle and the same concept in a different parable, but each one in that parable is given the exact same amount. Now this, as I said, is a very common parable, and you may have heard it taught before, and you may have heard it taught in this way. Just simply use the gifts you're given or else they're going to be taken away. That's not really the focal point of what Jesus is saying here. Sometimes we hear it preached as a generic call to faithful living, but the thrust of the parable goes deeper than that. See, the master is giving a tremendous responsibility to his slaves, and he expects them to get to work. Now, I want you to note at the very outset of this, that these aren't gifts that are being given. Jesus isn't giving them some gift. This isn't theirs now. These five talents didn't now belong to that slave. These two talents didn't now belong to that slave. The one talent didn't now belong to the third slave. He's not giving them gifts. This is the master entrusting his own possessions into the care of his slaves. They still belong to the master, but this is him entrusting his own possessions into their care. They are, as slaves, as servants, they are stewards of the master's possessions. Their task is not to accept something as their own and then go use it wisely. Their task is to accept the responsibility of stewardship of those things that belong to the master and to go steward it appropriately, steward it faithfully. And we would do well to recognize that everything in creation belongs to God. And all even that we possess is His. It doesn't really belong to us. So whether it be your family, whether it be a house, whether it be property, cars, whether it be the things that you fill your house up with, all of those things, they don't really belong to you. They belong to God. God is the Lord of all creation. Nothing exists that was not created by Him and for Him. And so even those things that you have are things that belong to Him, and you are a steward of it. And everything has been entrusted to you for a purpose. And as we see in this parable, there will come a time when accounts are settled. There will come a time when you and I will answer for how we stewarded the things that God has entrusted to our care. Now, notice the two servants, the two faithful servants, They immediately went to work. This is the first servant. He began trading immediately. When he went away, Immediately, this is verse 16, immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents. He's trading. Now we use the word trading and that often gives a little bit of the wrong imagery. We think of the stock market, you know, trading, that kind of a thing. He was engaging in business. When we talk about trade, he's engaging in commerce. He set up some sort of a business and a way to take his master's money and multiply it and turn it into more. Again, recognize that the picture is about money. The picture, the parable is using money to paint the portrait or the concept. But Jesus is going much further than just money and we'll get there. But he's engaging in business in order to multiply the possessions of his master. Faithful servants increased that which was entrusted to them through their diligence and their wisdom and their approach to how they would steward these things. And here then is our major focus from the parable. The Christian is to be diligent in working for the growth of God's kingdom. Don't forget the context here. For the kingdom of heaven is like. This is how we're to understand the kingdom. And the kingdom of heaven is like the master entrusting his goods to his servants. Goes on a long journey. And when he comes back, he calls them to account. A Christian is to be diligent in working for the growth of God's kingdom. And just as it isn't about the amount entrusted to you, neither is it about how big your results are. This is not going to be Joe and me standing up there trying to compare whose results are bigger or better or anything like that. That's not what the parable is getting at here. The person who gained two talents received the same accolades. He received the same reward as the one who gained five. And if the third man, even as the parable tells us, if he had just given his back with interest, he would have heard the same words, well done, good and faithful slave. Understand this, that Jesus is not simply telling us, go do. What he is saying here is, go invest. Go invest. And when you understand the focus and the picture here of investment, at least it did in my own thinking, it completely changes the way that you understand this parable. Rather than understanding it as, go do, just go be faithful with this, be faithful with that, whatever God has, you see that He is saying, go invest. Investment means that there's, it's not just, you're doing something good with this, but rather there's a purpose and there's a goal and there's an aim for which you are, to where you're heading. The imagery actually here is beautiful for us because we are so prone to look only at immediate results. We live in a culture and in a time where we're looking for immediate results. Everything is about, is it getting done now? Is it getting done quickly? And what that does is it teaches us to only look a few feet in front. I know when I was learning to drive a car, I don't know if you guys can all remember, you probably all had a similar situation. But when you're first learning to drive a car, you tend to do this a lot when you're first learning. And my instructor gave me the answer, the solution. He says, quit looking right in front of the car and look out there. And when you start looking further ahead, you're able to drive straighter. You have a point of focus, a point in mind, and it's a goal that's out there in the future rather than simply looking right in front of where you are. The parable here ought to cast our eyes much further forward than tomorrow, much further forward than just this afternoon in order to recognize that even the small investments that we make in the here and now can have enormous dividends out into the future. You remember how we've been talking about the time shift in the discourse here between chapters 24 and 25. Chapter 24 concerned itself with those things that were going to be happening immediately for the disciples. by immediately within their generation. They were going to see these things. And Jesus took his time to speak to them about that. And then he flips the script in chapter 25 and says, now let me tell you what's going to happen from that time. From that time on, the kingdom of heaven will be like this. And he starts talking about these things that have a long term view. The parable of the virgins gave us that idea. There was a delay and it wasn't until late into the night that the bridegroom finally came. Here we see this man, this master, going on a long journey. He went on a long journey. What does verse 19 say? It tells us when the master came back. Now, after a long time, the master returned. Verse 19, so he's giving us this idea and he's giving us this picture that we need to own as Christians. We need to own as the church. We need to have a long view of history. We need to have a long view of the kingdom and where it's going. We can't simply be thinking about just today or just tomorrow or even just next week. In fact, the idea of investment really helps us understand that picture. Because if I look at my financial investments that I've made, and all I'm doing is looking at day to day, boy, I'd get scared. There are some days I would, and I've seen people do this. Things get a little bit rocky, they pull their money out. And then turns out if they'd have left it in, they would have really benefited from that financially. The idea of investment is you're looking long-term. You're not worried, you're not looking at the bumps in the road day to day to day to day, but rather you're seeing the investment and the increase that comes further down the road. Now, Why is that important? Well, it's important because really of what we see here with this third servant. Jesus, He takes issue because the guy didn't do anything. He went and hid what He had in the ground. You could have at least gave it to the bankers and given it back to me with interest, something so small. But the thing is is when we can look further than just tomorrow, we might think that the little bit that we can contribute today isn't really going to do a whole lot. And you know what? That might be true for tomorrow. That might be true for next week. The little bit that you have may not do a whole lot in the next week, the next month, or the next year. But if you invest that now, in the kingdom of God. Now, again, we're not just talking about money here. We're talking about how we invest of ourselves, how we steward that which God has given us into the growth of the kingdom of God. And if I do something even so small right now, I have no idea what God is going to do with that years, decades, centuries, or even millennia down the road. How big might a five, to use the financial term, how big might a $5 investment today look 1,000 years from now? But we're almost trained not to think 1,000 years into the future, aren't we? Well, I'm not going to be around. Well, my, you know, my kids will all be long gone by then. But what is God doing in the world? What is God doing in the kingdom? The encouragement is that we would lift our eyes and not just look right over the front of the hood of the car and that we would look further forward so that we would see that God is doing something and that the investments that we make today, while small, the investments we make into the kingdom of God can reap tremendous benefits in the kingdom over time. Those investments can take so many different forms. It can be investments of prayers and intercessions for one another, praying for the lost and the dying world. It can take the form of preaching and teaching. You know, let me just step aside and expand on that one a little bit. Most of you know that I struggle with discouragement often. And if you know, Some of you were here when I first came to this church. And the church was, I don't want to say large, because you compare it to other churches, but it was certainly larger than it is today. And it got much smaller than it is today. And that can be very discouraging. And yet, as this church continued to pray and to seek for God's guidance and God's blessing, by His grace, it's growing again. But even that, in my mind, if I'm being discouraged by exactly where we're at today, what does that say? That says I'm just looking in front of the hood. I'm just looking right in front of the car. No idea what the ministry that takes place today is going to do or to pay off in generations to come. I don't know everything that God is doing here. One of you, one of you might be the next international missionary to bring the gospel into a place where it's never been before. Or maybe it will be your grandkids. We don't know. But the faithful ministry of the gospel, the faithful preaching and teaching now can do so much further down the line. That's something for us to really grab hold of and to recognize. It's the same thing to be thinking about as you're praying, as you're interceding for people, preaching, teaching, being another one, serving in various ways in the local church. I know there's a lot of things that get done in this church that might seem like they're not really a huge thing or a huge impact. But if what you're doing in the church makes a visitor feel welcome, and they continue coming, and they hear the gospel, and then they go out, and whatever they're doing in their life, or again, this could be a generational thing, and it leads to the salvation of other people, it brings the gospel to the lives of those who might otherwise never have heard it, then isn't your saying hello, shaking a hand, and making somebody feel welcome a big deal? And that goes for all kinds of things that we might think of as just small or tiny or they don't really, you know, we often think that they're not that big of a deal, but it's because we don't have a long view. That's why it's so important to grab a hold of this, of what he's saying. I believe that if we were given a glimpse at the entire tapestry of history, we would be amazed to see what great things God accomplishes for His kingdom through the smallest acts of faithful obedience. If God was to lift the veil and let us see what your humble and faithful attempt to speak the gospel to a friend, Or even to share the love of Christ with the homeless man, through the giving of a warm meal, or whatever it might be. That any of these little things, to see what they might accomplish in the future of things. Generations down the road, maybe not even in your lifetime, maybe not in your children's or your grandchildren's lifetime, but to know this chain of events is set in motion because you have been faithful with the trust given to you as God has given it and said, go forth and invest in the kingdom. And we cannot understand what Jesus is saying here rightly if we don't have that long view of history. If we have an escapist theology, if we have a theology that is focused on Christ returning at any moment, how likely is it that you'll be investing yourself in things that may not see a return for decades or centuries or even millennia to come? How likely is it that you're gonna go invest the time, the effort, the energy, maybe even, yeah, the money. How likely is it that we invest in that in something, if we believe Jesus is gonna be here in a week or two because there's another war breaking out in the Middle East, how likely is it that we're gonna invest in those things that may not even see a bit of fruit for generations? But if you take Jesus' word seriously here, that the Master wasn't coming back for a long time, and He says that you're not going to know when it's going to be, He's not even giving signs at this point. All of those signs that He gave were for His return in judgment to Jerusalem. And if we take His words seriously, that He's not coming back for a long time, as we read, until He has subdued all of His enemies, made them a footstool for His feet, then how much more can you be thinking of how your actions will now impact generations after you for the sake of Christ? And it might be little investments. Too many Christians think that you need to be doing some huge ministry in order to be obedient, some glorious, great, grand thing in order to be obedient. But not necessarily so. Not necessarily so. There's ministries in the local church. There's missions work. Absolutely. There's Bible translation work. There's education and literacy. There's raising up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There are all of these ministries, all of these things that we do to invest in the kingdom. And if you're investing in the kingdom, then nothing is small. Nothing is tiny. Missionaries like William Carey, David Livingston were sustained in their work with the assurance that their work was not in vain because they knew that others would be coming after them to build on what they were doing so that if they spent their entire ministry their entire life in the heart, in Kerry's example, in India, and not seeing conversions, judging it by what was right in front, judging it by only what he was able to see, boy, that would have discouraged me. I would have been like, wow, man, what am I really doing here? But he was sustained by the knowledge that God has promised to take that faithful investment and to build upon it. He believed that there would be those who would come after him that would build on his work. And it might be generations down the road, but that God will do something with his faithful investment. When you're trusting what the Bible tells us, that the kingdom of God will conquer all other kingdoms. The kingdom of God is that stone that was cut out without hands, that crushed and shattered the kingdoms of earth, and then it grew into a mountain that filled the whole earth. That belief undergirded their faith and their ministry. They're trusting in that. If we recognize that, if we can get a hold of that, we will not be shy about even the smallest act of faithfulness for the Kingdom of God, recognizing that it's not just simply a matter of obedience right in the here and now, but rather it's a matter of investment into the future. It's a matter of investment into the Kingdom of God. Now as we look at the idea of investing of the kingdom, and I meant to tell you, I didn't really have this parable broken into points. So if you're waiting for those, this is the closest you're going to get. I have a couple of applications, things that will help us, I think, as we look at understanding the idea of investment when it comes to the kingdom. Number one, investment requires work. Investment requires work. As I said, this parable isn't a picture of the stock market. And let's just roll the dice and hope that we get lucky. That's not what this is. This is about going and engaging in business. And if any of you have ever tried to engage in business, if any of you have ever tried to start a business, that you understand how much work there is involved in doing it. You don't just say, hey, you know what? I think I've got the next million dollar idea and here it goes. People work. You have to work. You have to invest in yourself. And to invest in the progress of the gospel is to give of yourself for the cause. It requires work. It requires efforts. Time and effort, they're required to reach your friends. It's required to reach your co-workers. It's required to reach your family with the gospel. It requires effort. It requires recognizing that I need to set aside time to go do this. Well, this isn't one of my points, but this will probably follow right on then. It also requires prioritization, doesn't it? Investment requires prioritization. If I'm going to, again, think financially, if I'm going to invest my money here, that means I can't invest it over here. I can't be putting it over here. Well, guess what? If we're going to invest in the kingdom of God and we think about our time, we think about our effort and our energy, even our finances, if we're going to invest it in the kingdom of God, then that means that we can't invest it over here and a lot of these other things that we might want to. If I'm going to invest my time into the kingdom, then that means my time is not going to be able to be spent in other leisure activities or whatever other things that might vie for that time. It takes work to start up a ministry. It takes work to forge relationships. It takes work to take the gospel abroad. There is no multiplying the trust that God has given you apart from investing your time and your energy to do so. I'm going to repeat that. There is no multiplying the trust that God has given you apart from investing your time and energy to do so. Investment requires work. Number two, investment carries risk. Investment is, by its very nature, risky to some degree or another. So to invest yourself in the kingdom of God, you will have to take risks. Risks might be financial, they might be time, might be risks of your reputation, It might be risks with your relationships. But you will have to take risks to invest yourself into the ministry of God's Kingdom. To invest in the gospel work is also to assume risk in faith. You're assuming risk in faith that God has promised victory of the kingdom. This is not just risk that is kind of out there, and boy, I sure hope everything goes okay in the way that our financial investments often are. This is risk, but it's risk that is being taken in faith that God has promised the victory of Christ's kingdom. He's promised that the risks that you take will pay dividends in the future, that the risks, even if you don't see it now, even if you don't see it in your entire lifetime, but that those risks will pay off, that they will bear fruit. We're often so timid to alienate friends and family, aren't we? We're so timid and not wanting to somehow break some of these things, but if we're placing Christ before those relationships, if we're placing our love for Him above our love for these other things, if we're placing our desire to please Him above our desire to please other people, then it may very well cause a rift. That's a risk that those who are gospel-centered have got to take. And that's not saying that we go out being brash and looking to try to destroy relationships. That's not at all what the Scripture teaches us. But recognize that it very well may happen. But it's a risk to take for the sake of the gospel. That's why Jesus said that we must love Him above all other relationships. Finally, investment focuses on long-term gains. We've kind of already touched on this. But investment focuses on long-term gains. If our view is short-sighted, if it's focused only on those results we see in front of us, then we are tempted to follow trends that give us those short-term results. Your behavior will be driven and affected by what your goals are, by the things that you're trying to accomplish. And if your focus is on short-term goals and short-term results, then that's what you're going to be looking for. That's what you're going to be working for. But preaching Christ in season and out of season is a long-term effort. Many are the churches who have strayed from the scriptural mandates for what they would consider short-term successes. Many of the churches who have downplayed what the Word of God says in certain things so that they could retain members in their church, or that they could attract other visitors, or so that they could try to somehow bolster whatever their particular short-term goals are. The long-term view is measured not simply in the next year, but perhaps in the next several generations. And if we take that view, if the success of the ministry of this church is measured in that way, is measured in not simply the next year, but in the next several generations, then we can faithfully move forward and we can be encouraged in the day-to-day faithfulness of God working through His people. The faithful servant, going back to our parable, the faithful servant is ready to take that which God has entrusted to him and reinvest it into the building up of God's kingdom because it all belongs to him and all of our work is for his sake. Everything that we pray for, for the growth of our church, for the growth of the kingdom, even outside of these walls, all of the things that we're praying for that ought not be for our own glory or so that people might exalt us or to think that we are so great or anything like that. If we're doing it for any reason other than for the glory of Christ, then we're not doing it for the right reason. We're investing in the wrong place. But if we do it for the glory of Christ, now we understand. We want to see people saved. Why? So that He would be exalted. We want to see the church grow. Why? So that His name would be magnified. We want to see ministries popping up. It doesn't even need to be our church, but gospel preaching churches that are out reaching into the community. We want to see these things. Why? For the glory of His name. It all belongs to Him and all of our work, as I said, is for His sake. Now, the unfaithful servant then comes into our purview as we read through the through the parable, and you'll notice that he simply sat on his trust and he did nothing with it. Go bury it. Now, don't make the mistake of believing his excuse, because all he's doing here is giving an excuse. It wasn't because he was afraid of the master, as he said. Listen to what he says. In verse 24, the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid and I went away and I hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. basically saying, I knew you were one who would exploit your workers, and that I wouldn't see anything of it, that you reap where you didn't sow, and that you gather where you didn't scatter any seed. And so I knew that none of this was even, I wasn't even gonna share in the blessings of any of this, if I brought forth any gain. And if I lost it, boy, then I, Then I might incur your wrath." That's basically his excuse. He wouldn't have shared in any of the profit, and if he lost it, he would face his master's wrath. But this is just an excuse because verse 26 gives us the real reason. Verse 26 tells us the real reason. The master answered and said to him, you wicked, lazy slave. You see, the master calls him out and says, no, the real problem is that you were wicked and you were lazy. And then he says, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Now, I want you to understand, this isn't the master agreeing with the slave's assessment of him, but he's showing the fallacy of the excuse. He's saying, if you truly believed that I was like that, if you truly believed that that described me, then you would have at least made minimal effort to increase my possession with little to no risk. You would have at least put it in the bank and returned it to me with interest if you really believed that. But it's not because of what you think of me that you didn't do it. It's because you are a wicked and lazy slave. The unfaithful servant is the one who has no concern for the building up of the kingdom of God, the one who has no concern for the ministry of the church, the ministry to the saints, the building up of the church of God, the preaching of the gospel and the expansion of the kingdom. Jesus says that the person who has no concern for these things, He calls them wicked and lazy. If you can't be bothered to lift a finger for the furtherance of the gospel, do you truly love Christ? I would say no. And here was the one who couldn't be bothered to give of himself. in order to increase that trust that had been given to Him. Now we're going to look at the judgment itself in much greater detail next week that will finish out chapter 25, but you can see it here in the parable. Those who faithfully serve the Master are elevated in His service. Understand that, they are elevated in his service. Depending on how you phrase this, some people will look at that and go, oh, they were just the ones that did a good job, they were rewarded with more responsibility. Well, that's kind of true, they were. But understand in the service of the master, that responsibility is not a bad thing. It's not like going and working for your boss out there, where sometimes we reward the hard workers with more work. This is being elevated in the service of the Master, being given more responsibility, being entrusted with more in the Kingdom of God. He was also not just elevated in His Master's service, but He was greeted into joyful fellowship with Him. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master." You see, the excuse that the wicked and lazy slave gave, this idea that, well, I wouldn't share in any of the prophets, it was basically there was nothing in it for me. How must it have cut to hear what the master says to those who were faithful? You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master." In the end, your gifts and your opportunities will avail for nothing but only how they were pressed for the sake of Christ. And we know that that only happens because of His work in us. It is Him who is at work within us to will and to do for His good pleasure. But I'll ask you this as we close. What investments are you making for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of God? And as you think about that, be encouraged. Don't underestimate. how God will use even the smallest act of faithful obedience now to accomplish great things for the kingdom in the future. Again, think of that tapestry. If we could see what that one thing now will do 100 years from now or 200 years from now, we would be amazed. We would be on our knees in thankfulness that God has allowed us to be a part of this, that He's given us this charge, that He's entrusted us with such a beautiful and heavy and weighty responsibility. Let's not take it for granted, but let's seek to be faithful even as the two slaves, the two servants here in our parable. Let's pray. Our God and Heavenly Father, I thank you that you've given us this day. I thank you that you've given us this time that we might gather together. I thank you for your word. I thank you for the beauty of it and for the things that you teach us in it. I thank you that you have not left us without a word, but rather that we have this from you so that we might better understand who you are and who we are. We might better understand how to honor you. And as we think about investment in the kingdom, we pray, Father, that you would give us a mindset that looks much further into the future, that looks way beyond simply the day-to-day ups and downs and cares of right now, and rather looks towards those goals that are far out in the future and recognizing your promise to bless those even small acts of faithful obedience. Father, I pray that we would have a heart for the growth of the kingdom, a heart for the progress of the gospel, and a heart for the lost. Father, may we seek to see your kingdom grow and expand. May we seek and diligently desire and to work for the progress of the gospel and the conversion of those who are lost. that we know that all of these happen only by the power of your Holy Spirit. And so we ask your blessing on these things. Use us for the honor and glory of Christ's name we pray. Amen.