If you have your Bibles, I'd love for you to join me in Matthew chapter 25. It is not often that we can be intentional in our preparation with really specific instruction on how to hear, well done, good and faithful servant. I've never met anybody that doesn't want to hear that they've done a good job. Simple words of praise. The fact is, when we arrive in heaven and hear it from our Master, the Lord, it means that much more. As we conclude our study in generous living, we will learn another basic yet very important truth with this passage of scripture this morning, and it is this. Besides the blessings of a generous life, the blessing of giving, there are eternal rewards associated with giving as well. Naturally speaking, spiritually speaking, according to the scripture, it is more blessed to give. But the fact is, we'll learn this morning, that there are also eternal rewards associated with it. It is an inescapable fact that you, as a believer, have been given talents. They represent opportunities. abilities that are unique to you. I have some as well that are unique to me. God has given them to us to steward them and to invest them, and someday there will be a day of reckoning where He will hold us accountable for what we have done with what we have been given. God is going to grade your test. God is going to assess your behavior. When you think about that, it is a sobering reality, but it is also a liberating thought. Strikes the perfect balance of putting fear in me, reverence for God, but also compelling me with the reward to steward. The simple question is, what will you do with what you have? What are you currently doing with what you have been given? How will you and I make the most of the talents that God has given to us? That very question is what Jesus puts to his disciples in the form of a parable here in Matthew 25. Jesus is conveying to them the reality that I'm not here to set up my kingdom now, but there will be a delay from my leaving until the arrival of my kingdom. And you must know what my expectation is for you to do in the meantime. And by the way, we're still in the meantime. It's been some 2,000 years of postponement, but that is where we find ourselves. Jesus begins this parable in Matthew 25 and verse 14 by saying this, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man." It's metaphorical. It's just like this. Jesus is saying, I'm going to tell you a story about the kingdom of heaven. It's as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. That verse teaches us much. The master is leaving on a long journey. He calls servants that already belong to him unto himself, and he distributes to his own servants his goods. Not theirs, but his. Jesus is the nobleman in this story. Jesus, talking about traveling to a far country, is referencing His ascension to heaven where He will be seated at the right hand of His Father, God. Jesus is talking about the gifts, the abilities, the resources, the opportunities, the capacity that He is gifting to His followers while He is gone. This is just like this story for you and me. That's what Jesus is saying. And then Jesus gets really specific, and I'll be honest, this is a pretty pointed passage of scripture, beginning now in verse 15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one. To every man, according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me two talents. Behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. And then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee, that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine. His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant. Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." You conclude that segment of verses and it strikes the proper tone of reverence and fear for God. There is a day of reckoning where God will judge His servants based on what they have done with what He has given to them. He assesses their stewardship. He grades their faithfulness. And he is communicating this to his disciples in the form of this story. Jesus' original word that he uses here, talent, is a very large sum of monetary value. People whose net worth was one talent were well off. People whose net worth were many talents were very rich. Now, for us, we understand the word talent in the English does not mean only money, but it refers to abilities or giftings. If you're a talented person, you have gifts, a skill set, some capacity or ability, which allows us to expand this thought that Jesus is sharing beyond only stewarding finances, though clearly that's what Jesus is saying in context. But it definitely expands out to the opportunities or the abilities that we have. It's a whole life policy. One pastor very practically said this, there's one thing in life you don't want to see sitting idle. In fact, you wanna see it moving forward. And that is your investments in life. The trouble is, we rarely think of ourselves as God's investment, that God has invested himself in us, that he has then invested us into the currency of life, and he wants to see his investment at work. How many of you desire to retire extremely wealthy? Yes, not many people raise their hand in the first service either because you're like, dude, it's not happening, I'm not dreaming, I'm not gonna even play along with you. All of us would desire to someday retire and if we could retire wealthy, it would be awesome. When we get our statement and we take a look at our investments, there isn't one of us that says, man, it's been six months and my investments have been stagnant. That is so comforting. Not one of us looks and sees that our investments have gone backwards and think to ourselves, oh, I hope that trend continues. That makes me so, I'll sleep well tonight knowing my investments are losing money. But there is that little surge of joy and enthusiasm when we get that statement and we look at it and we make note that our investments are actually moving forward. They are increasing. It's getting better and better. Have you ever paused to consider on the practical level that that is how God is viewing us now? He has invested himself in us, his only begotten son, Jesus. He has then given us charis, spiritual gifts, and invested us into the currency of life. And he looks, and he assesses, and he hopes, if I might humanize in that moment, to enlarge our understanding that his investment is moving forward. The question is, is it? We'll walk through this story and see three simple principles. The first is this, talents are given. Talents are given. The first thing to notice about the servants in the story that Jesus tells is that each of them were given their talents. Verse 15, unto one he gave five. Unto another he gave two. Unto a third he gave one. According to his several ability and straight way, that is immediately the nobleman took his journey. He gave. That principle alone is enough to humble the quote-unquote self-made man. If you have it, I'm not saying that you did not work hard, I'm not saying that you did not labor diligently, but the fact is God has been gracious enough to allow you to have it. If you are feeling less than, it is somewhat comforting to know that God has given, and that you still must be faithful with it. The Master, by the way, was not obligated to give any of His resources to His servants. It is His gracious disposition that enables Him to give, and each servant received the talents they received, and it was all a grace gift by the Master. That's an interesting phrase, according to his several ability. What that means in effect is according to his or her ableness. God gave according to their ableness. If you and I walked into a mess of a room, and the mess in the room was made by a 10-year-old child, a 5-year-old child, and a 2-year-old child, we would hand out responsibilities for cleanup based on their ableness. The 10-year-old child would certainly have a higher level of responsibility. The 5-year-old could help to some degree, but not to the degree of the 10-year-old. And the 2-year-old, you just hope they keep their finger out of their nose. We understand ableness. And I don't grasp how it works, I cannot convey to you the sovereignty of God, but I do know this, ableness pre-exists the talents that are given. And that God, as he looks at his servants, distributes those gifts according to ableness. And because we know that God in heaven, sees us and fashions us, even when we are in the womb, God, from the very onset, equips us to be stewards of what He gives us. We then don't need to resent someone who has been given more or look down on one who has been given less. It is distributed by His grace according to ableness. Some are given more, some are given less, But all are given much. That talent is an enormous amount of money as I've already referenced. This use of this word for Jesus, this monetary value was intended to shock the listener, to arrest their attention. But the fact is, Jesus gives great gifts. There isn't one person seated here that should or could boast of anything they have been given. After all, it has been given you. The Apostle Paul, speaking along this line in 1 Corinthians 4, says in the second part of verse 7, If thou didst receive it, and when you see if, think since. Since you received this, since it was given to you, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? If everything you have is a gift from God, why would you have the audacity to behave like it wasn't a gift from God? This is corrective to our behavior. God gave the talents to you and to me, the resources, the opportunities, the ability, the capacity gifted to us. And God graciously entrusts us with a certain amount of ability and a certain amount of capability. And that brings us to the second principle. Talents have been given, thus, we have a stewardship. You and I, right now, are operating as fund managers for God in heaven. And it expands, as we've already established, beyond just monetary things, out to the very opportunities and abilities in our lives, but we have a stewardship. You have one. Jesus would often share this principle as he spoke. Luke tells us that Jesus was telling this story and he writes this in Luke 19.12. He said therefore, now Jesus is going to tell a story again, preaching in another place. A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto them, Occupy till I come. Now in Matthew's account, we have a servant who received five, and a servant who received two, and a servant who received one, and in another place, Jesus is telling the same principle. He's conveying the same truth, but here it's 10 servants, a talent of peace, and then Jesus sums up by saying, the master then looked at his servants and said, occupy till I come. Occupy is a strange word. Occupy. But here, occupy specifically means to invest with the intent of increase. Occupy until I return. Invest with the intention of increasing what I have bestowed on you until I return again. Literally, he is saying, do business. Occupy till I come. Do business. Get to work with my investment. Put my money to work while I am away. Use your talents. Use your gift set. Use your opportunities. Use your abilities. Do you realize this same language gets outside of the parabolic story of Jesus and enters into the letters to the churches? Paul was writing in Romans 12 about transformed lives, you and I who are believers, and he says this in verse 5, so we, being many, are one body in Christ. and everyone members one of another. Now get this, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us. This is now inside the church and here's the principle. All of us have been brought together for the sake of unifying as one to do God's work. But not all of us have the same skill set or charis, spiritual gift upon us We have unique, singular, and specific gifts that God wants to bring together into the body to accomplish His work, which means you have a role to play. That's what's being communicated, and your gifting has been given to you. You cannot miss that principle throughout Scripture. Jesus is effectively saying He has made an investment in us as members of His household. He's put something into our hands to manage, to steward, to use for the sake of His kingdom. And when we start to understand this, it makes a very clear implication. Do not undervalue what you have been given. Do not undervalue what it is that God has given to you. Do not esteem lightly your role in the body. Jesus says in Luke 12 verse 48, For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. And Jesus is making it clear in both of these parables, much has been given to His servants, so it is not audacious for the Master to ask more. It's not audacious for the Master to ask much, because after all, He has given much. What is audacious is to sit as a spectator and to squander our opportunities and our abilities and our capacity and our resources when God has bestowed them upon us. That's audacious. What is audacious is to not put to work what the master has given us. To not occupy until he comes. That's audacious behavior. That's selfish behavior. That's truly behavior that acts out ignorant of the day of reckoning of God himself coming. That's why the master was so angry at the servant who did nothing with the talent he was given. It seems extremely harsh, wicked, and slothful servant. The servant, of course, makes an excuse. He tries to blame his master's character. His excuse, in effect, was, I know how demanding you are. You put your investment in me, and that's a no-win scenario, so I decided to play it safe. I decided to keep it to myself. I decided to stay out of harm's way. I decided to not make a mistake by going out there and using your investment the wrong way. I decided to just sit on it to dig a hole and to hide it in the ground. And the master looks and says, no, you're wicked and slothful. That seems like such strong language. It seems so mean. It seems like a harsh assessment. But I will tell you, foolishly, many of us will live out our lives as believers. And every Christian funeral that we attend will hear something along these lines, well, he or she by now has certainly heard, well done, good and faithful. And according to this passage, we're allowed to ask the question, really? Has she heard, well done, good and faithful? Have they heard, well done, good and faithful? Or have they heard, wicked and slothful? The opportunity has been squandered. I'll say to you, we must reckon with ourselves. Because the day of reckoning is coming. We must reckon with ourselves because the Lord Jesus is returning. And when the Bible commands us to occupy, it doesn't give us a termination point. It says, until He comes, which means you're not off the clock yet. You still must be investing with the intent of increase now. Talents are given, thus we have a stewardship, and that stewardship requires faithfulness. Faithfulness. Keep in mind that this parable does not focus on giftedness, but rather it focuses on faithfulness. None of those that were rewarded really received any more than the other. It wasn't about five or two. Both of them had their rewards doubled. None of them though would receive a reward for sitting down, folding their hands and doing nothing. Both those who had put their master's money to work heard, well done thou good and faithful servant. Both of them had a three-fold reward. They received the Master's praise. They got more responsibility. They were invited to enter into His joy. No matter how many talents we receive, the Master's looking for faithfulness. It's not about how much. It's about how faithful. The Bible says this in Hebrews 6 and verse 10, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. God is not going to overlook your labor on his behalf. God is not gonna forget to reward you for what you have done for his sake. Imagine just for a moment the graciousness of God, who allows us to be co-laborers with him. We have the privilege of serving God with gifts and abilities and resources that he has given to us. And then he will reward us for serving him with what he has already given us that is incredibly gracious. He has given us talents and he values them highly. One author said it this way, true faithfulness to God is not as simple as give all you have away, go live in a box under a bridge and pray a lot. He said, actually, that's pretty easy. True faithfulness to God is much harder than that. Faithfulness is the hard road, he said. Why? True faithfulness is looking at the house God has given you and asking, how can I leverage this house to multiply the kingdom of God? It's looking at your bank account and asking, what is the most faithful way I can use this money to the glory of God? It's using our talents well, seeing that everything we have has been given to us by God, and we're to steward it by multiplying it, and we must remember that Christ is returning to judge, and no one is off the hook. God has called me to pastor. Now, I would say one of my spiritual gifts is that I am Gifted to preach. Now, I always am careful to say I am not saying I am a gifted preacher. I don't need you to tell me that. I know. I don't even go back and listen to myself or look at the videos. I don't need to be reminded that my hair looks like this, that my voice sounds like this, that my content is like this. But what I am saying is this is what God has given to me and what God expects of me. If I were to simply walk away to pursue my own life's goals, I would be neglecting the gifting of God. I would be failing my master. I would be hindering his work. And it's easy for you to see that in me, because after all, I'm a pastor who works one day a week. But it's a really hard day. But are you aware it's the same for you? You may not be here, and this may not be your gifting, but you've been given something. And for you to sit on it, for you to hide it away, for you to excuse your spectating self is no different than me neglecting and walking away from this place. God values His investment highly. The question is, are you moving it forward? That grace given. Paul loved that phrase. He used it in referring to himself. He said, for I say, through the grace given unto me. Paul's recognizing that God has placed him in ministry. He realizes he has a unique authority. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 3.10, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder. Here's what he's saying there. I have been given a unique ability to plant and grow churches. He doesn't mean I'm good at it as the apostle Paul. He means this grace has been given. This is my calling. God had entrusted him with those unique abilities. He writes in 1 Corinthians 15 10, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. He's literally saying, yes, I have worked hard. Yes, I have labored diligently, but I am only what I am by the grace of God. He told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, I am now ready to be offered. The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." Do you see it? Paul is saying, look, I am what I am because God's been gracious to me. I am aware that my calling as a church planter, as a wise master builder, is a unique capacity that God has gifted to me. Everything I am is because God has done that. And so when he says, I'm ready. I know with conviction that I will be rewarded by the nobleman. At that day, he will give me a reward. That seems like such a boastful statement, but it's truth. Because he lived with the awareness, talents were given, you have a stewardship that requires faithfulness, and all he's saying is, I did it. I was faithful. He told this about the church as I've already referenced in Romans 12, 6. Grace given to us. He says in Ephesians 4, 7, unto every one of us is given grace. The only thing Paul can't do for us, which he could do for himself, was he could write the end for himself. I have kept the faith. I have finished my course. I am ready now to be offered. I know that the master will reward me. He is saying to us, but you too have a gift. You too have something. The only thing he can't write for us is the end of the story. Have you kept it? Have you done anything with it? You aren't stuck here, man. You have something to do and you have something to do it with. Don't be slothful. Don't be wicked. He wants us to focus on being faithful with what he's given us. All the way until he returns again or he calls us home and it is in that act specifically that we can hear well done, good and faithful servant. Would you please for a moment just bow your heads with me? Thanks for listening this week to the Graceway Baptist Church Podcast. For more information about our church and our ministries, head on over to our website at gracewaycharlotte.org. We are a church located in South Charlotte. We are growing and our ministries are doing big things for Christ. If you're looking for a way to get plugged into what we're doing, email us at info at gracewaycharlotte.org. Also, stay in the loop with everything happening by following us on Facebook and Instagram. Our handle is GracewayCharlotte. Thanks again for listening to the Graceway Charlotte podcast. We'll see you next week.