Well, thank you again for the welcome and the invitation. Let us turn in Scripture and read together from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. We begin reading at verse 14. Matthew 25, verse 14. For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability. And immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made five other talents. And likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. After a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents besides them. His Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Also, who had received two talents, came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I have gained two more talents besides them. His Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours. But his Lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given. And he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come unto you? And the king will answer and say to them, assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me Then he will also say to those in his left hand, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. Then they also will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? Then he will answer them saying, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Amen. We pray that God will bless this reading of his own infallible word. The history of our world is divided by two great events and both of those events are related to the coming of Christ The first great event was his first coming, and the history of our world is divided into B.C. and A.D. And that coming of Jesus, born as a baby in poverty, was the fulfillment of God's promise throughout the Old Testament. Ever since sin came into the world, God gave a promise that He would send a Savior. And that promise was renewed time and time again. The message of the prophets was, He is coming. The Messiah is coming. He is coming. And then, in the fullness of time, He came. The other great event is when Christ returns, when he comes this time in glory, when he comes to judge the world. Now we live somewhere in between those two great events. How long will it be before he comes back? We do not know. How should we live as we wait for his return. That we are told as we look at this parable, the well-known parable of the talents. He is a talented musician, we say. But this parable is not about musical ability. Certainly being able to play an instrument gives pleasure. It helps the person himself to be less tense. This parable is not about dressmaking or cooking or gardening or playing baseball. We might say he is a talented sportsman. This parable is about money. A talent in Jesus' day was an amount of money. It was a weight of money. And we're told it is about what a man, a working man, would earn in 20 years of labour. I'm not sure of what the minimum wage is here, but if you talk as a rough figure of $10 an hour, a talent works out to be $200,000. So to receive five talents is to receive a million dollars. Two talents is therefore $400,000 and one talent The poor man who received only one talent received $200,000. And as we read in verse 16, the first two went out and traded with their money. And the first guy, he made five talents more. Obviously, the master didn't return the next day. There was some considerable interval enough time to make this money work. So from the million dollars he received initially, he gained one million more. So here then is this familiar story that Jesus told. And as we look at it, these first two men prompted by the orders that they were given, prompted by the confidence that the master placed in them, they went out and they invested the money given. And they made it work and it multiplied. Verse 18, the third man was lazy and he didn't do anything. He went and hid it in the ground. That was a common place for people to hide things from thieves. but that's all he did with it. And so, when the day of reckoning comes, the master returns, he calls them before him. And the first two men come, and they're so excited to report what has happened. And their eyes are sparkling, and they're bubbling over, look master, look at what we've gained with your money. and they're inviting him to come and count it. And then the third man comes and verse 24, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you have not sown. This is blatantly a lie. The master was not like Pharaoh in the Old Testament. who made the Hebrews work and make bricks without providing the straw that was necessary. The master here had given in abundance. He was generous. But this servant was lazy. And so he makes excuses. And he, in fact, is blaming the master. It's your fault. I was afraid. And it's your fault I'm afraid. He is deliberately misrepresenting his master. He's falsely accusing him of being cruel. And so, the master comes, he rewards the two faithful men, and he takes away even what this third man has. So what is the point of the parable? Is it Robin Hood in reverse, taking from the rich and giving to the poor, that whatever the poor have will be taken away from them, given to those who are rich? No. But the parable is encouraging us to serve Christ and to use all that we have in that service. So as we live in light of eternity, as we wait for the return of Christ, we are to be using everything we have to serve Him. So, I'd like us to think briefly about the Master, what do we learn about Him? To look at the servants, what do we learn about them? And then to look at ourselves, what should we learn? And as we think about the master, the first thing is his ownership, his ownership. We're talking here about a lot of money, but who owned it? It was the master. And all of the, this money and all of these possessions, it belonged to him. And because it belonged to him, he has the right to do with it as he wishes. You might say, well, it was unfair that one man received five and the other man only received two, and the third only received one talent. But it was the possession of the master, and he could do with it as he wished. And we read that he gave it as he estimated their ability. So the ownership is the master's. And as he gives it, he speaks with authority. And when he gives instructions to them to use it and invest it, it's not simply advice saying take it or leave it. These are commands. He is speaking with authority. The other thing we see about the master is his trust. his trust in these servants, in giving them so much. If you had a million dollars in your bank account, would you give it to your next door neighbor and say, take this and do what you like with it, or use it and give it back to me later? Probably not. But here the Master delegated to his servants these significant financial assets. And he delegated to the servants his authority to use his money and his possessions. So that indicates a high level of trust in their ability to manage his affairs. It shows a willingness to take the risk of delegating responsibility to people who may fail. But we see the Master's trust. And we also see his expectations, because he has specific expectations of his servants. What he is expecting of them may not be easy, but It is fair, and he has every right to expect his servants to do what he says. They will be accountable to him. He is going away. There's going to be a delay before his return, but he has promised to return, and he has promised to reward them. These are his expectations. What then about the servants? And for each aspect of the master, we see a corresponding response from the servants. First of all, there is stewardship. Who owns the money? Well, not the servants. They are simply looking after it for their master. They are taking care of these assets. They are to use them wisely. They are to care for the Master's estate and make it grow and expand. And because they are stewards, they are accountable. They will have to give an answer for how it is used. One day they'll have to stand before the Master and explain why they invested these assets as they did. If you ask the question of me this evening, is that your red car in the car park? I would say yes. But of course, it is not my car. It's a rental car. And come Wednesday, I have to take it back and hand it over and hand over the keys. And the man will come out and he'll walk around the car and he'll inspect it for bumps and scratches. It's not my car. I'm simply using it for a time. So the servants were stewards. They were accountable. The second thing we see about the servants was their faithfulness. If the master showed his trust, The servants, the first two, replied with faithfulness. They showed that they were trustworthy. They showed that they were keen to serve their master and take care of his possessions. And so they were industrious. They worked hard. They showed wisdom in their investments. They weren't careless, frittering away their master's money, nor did they let the capital sit and erode through idleness. Their goal was not simply to conserve what they had, but to make it grow and multiply. And so they were intelligent in their use and they were resourceful. They were strategic thinkers as they thought about how to use this And so if the master showed his expectations, the servants also were full of expectancy. They were expecting their master to return at some stage. They didn't know when, but they were to be ready at any moment. The story is told of a large country estate and a visitor came and he was speaking to the man in charge. It was immaculate. Everything was neat and in order. The master was away. And the visitor asked him, when are you expecting your master to return? And his answer was, today. He didn't know, of course, when he was returning, but he lived with that expectation. It could be today. And he had everything in order because of that expectation. If the servants knew when the master was returning, let's say it wouldn't be for another five years, then perhaps they would waste their time. They would perhaps borrow their master's money, intending to replace it before he came back. But they didn't know. The master will return. That is his promise. and each individual will stand before him. So now the servants with this expectancy are eager to serve him and they're eager to be found faithful. So what then about ourselves? God has entrusted to us many things. He has given us our possessions. At least we call them our possessions. But as we see, we are simply stewards. We don't own them. Even life itself, it's a gift from God. And we are to use these wisely in His service and for His glory. So what we learn about ourselves is that we don't own anything. God is the owner, we are the stewards. That is true of our rental car. It's also true of your car. You may have bought it with hard-earned money, but it's the Lord's car and it's to be used in his service. That's true of the house that you live in. You may be paying it off over 40 years, many hours of hard labor, and you say, it's my house. But it's only a place to lay your head at night. It's the Lord's. As we were singing in Psalm 50, the cattle on a thousand hills are mine. Everything in this world belongs to God. Deuteronomy 10, 14. To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth, and everything in it. Leviticus 25, verse 23. As the people of Israel moved into the promised land, the land is mine, says God, and you are but aliens and my tenants. 1 Chronicles 29, verse 11, at the time of the dedication of the temple. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom. You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you. You are the ruler of all things. Everything that we have has been given to us by the Lord. Well, what about myself? At least my own body, my own life is mine, you might say. And God's answer is, you're not your own. You've been bought with a price. If you belong to Jesus, if you're trusting in him, you're doubly the Lord's. You're his because of creation, and you're his because of redemption. And so, as Paul writes, to the church in Corinth. People were saying, coming out of that pagan background, they were saying, well, my body is my own. I can live as I like. I can do with it what I want. And Paul writes, no, you are not your own. So God doesn't just own the universe. He owns you and me. And our life is a gift from God. and none of us knows how long that life will be. Christ might return this evening, or your life or mine might be taken this evening. It's possible that tomorrow I have a stroke that leaves me bedridden for the rest of my life on earth. It's possible that tomorrow I receive a medical report that tells me I have 30 days left to live on earth. But whether it's 30 days or 30 years, it is a gift from God and it is to be used for God and for his kingdom. It is to be invested in the Master's service. God is the owner. And we are stewards. And it asks in this parable, God gives us talents. He gives us these things that are precious to us. What do you have? Well, we have our possessions. Yes, they come from God. They're to be used for God. We have time and energy. whatever number of days are given to us, they are to be devoted to the Lord's service. We have Christ and the gospel. Surely that's our most precious possession. Our Savior and what he did in the cross to redeem us. And so this parable calls us to use these possessions and to invest them and to use our time as we live in the light of eternity, to use our days, to use our energy, to make Christ known to those around us. God has given us all different opportunities to serve him. And this parable calls us to do what we can for Christ and to do it wholeheartedly. And that involves all sorts of work, whether it's washing dishes or preaching the gospel. That involves all kinds of activities. It involves playing music with your musical talent. It involves playing sport with your sporting talent. and your skills of homemaking and carpentry, whatever it may be. We are serving Christ. And there are to be no spectators. This is not a spectator sport. Every Christian is involved in serving Christ. So here then is a parable. that calls us to trust in Christ as our Savior and to take every opportunity we have to make Him known. We're to look on ourselves as businessmen seeking to invest the time we have, the resources we have, to make Christ known. We have a television program in Britain called the Dragon's Den. I don't think you have it here, but basically there's a group of five millionaires And you have members of the public coming along and asking these men to invest in them. And they've got an idea, a project that's beginning, and they say, I need $100,000 and I'll give you 20% of my business if you come work with me. But that's what each of us is like if we're believers. We are the millionaires. God has given us so much. How are you going to invest that money that God has given you? How are you going to invest that time and that energy? Are you going to invest it for Christ and for His glory and for His kingdom? Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we worship you tonight as the God of grace, the God who has provided salvation for us through Jesus Christ. We thank you that he has redeemed us, that he went to the cross and he died in our place. He suffered in our stead and through him we are forgiven. Through him we receive the gift of eternal life. Lord, thank you for these treasures that you've given us. Help us then to invest all that you have given to us, to go forth as businessmen seeking opportunities to invest, seeking opportunities to make Christ known that the kingdom would grow, that others would come to trust in Christ and find salvation in Him, that the Lord himself would receive glory. So Lord, Bless your word to each one of us. Help us to see our own lives in the light of your word. Help us to live in the light of eternity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.