Good morning, everyone. Before we get started, while I was in the lobby, someone got a text about an emergency in their family. Can you bow your heads? Father, we just pray right now for this situation that's going on. There's no knowledge of what's happened, but we know that it's life threatening.

So, God, we pray that whatever it is, you know who it is, you know what's going on. And we just pray in the name of Jesus that you would intervene. And God, there may be room needs in this room even now that God, we need to stop and pray. We don't need to suggest solutions. God, we need to come to the one who can solve the problem.

So, Lord, we pray that today that you would touch, that you'd minister. Lord, as we crack open your word, God, let it crack us open. In Jesus name, amen. So I want to welcome you as well. I see a lot of new faces for our Toccoa Falls students.

Welcome today. I hope that move in went well and as you start your classes, you're not already brain dead. And so we hope that everything goes well with that. We're going to be in Matthew 25 today. We have spent the last two to three months actually in the kingdom parables of the book of Matthew, and today is the last one that we will be doing.

I want to invite you next Sunday to come back for a very special treat. We got one more message in the book of Matthew and I don't want you to miss that out. And in two weeks we'll start a series for the fall on the names of God. And so I hope that, you know, use it as an opportunity to invite a friend, somebody maybe, that maybe they need to know that there's hope in the name of Jesus. But there's variations of that hope.

And so I hope that you will. My hope is for your hope and that it will encourage you as we press forward. I gotta be honest with you, I got a lot to say.

How many of you remember going to school? And I was a former math teacher and nothing would light my fire more than when I would give an assignment and give specific instructions. And the student would say to me, well, that's not how my teacher did it last year.

To which I would say, I don't care. I'm telling anybody in this room, if you want help with algebra, I'll help you out, but you're going to show your work. Y' all are laughing. And some of you went, ugh. How often I would help a student and just say, look, I Can't tell what's going on in your mind.

If you don't show your work, and if you don't show your work on the test, you might get it right. But if you get it wrong and there's no work, it's completely wrong. That's 12 or 15 points. Some of the high school students going, yeah, I was that teacher. But it was interesting to me how something would change.

And there was a resistance to that change.

But no one would ever consider, like, maybe if this new is so good, there might be a blessing that comes from it. Because here's the truth. Like, you could be that student that decides, you know what, I'm not going to change how I'm doing things. Well, when you get to the end of the year and you got an F, don't be shocked. You know, it's just like we talk about the teeth brushing stuff a lot.

You can choose not to listen to your parents, kids, and not brush your teeth. And when you're my age, you're going like, there's no teeth in your head. Don't be shocked. Because we make choices based upon future values, do we not? We have been talking for weeks about the kingdom of God and how Jesus and John the Baptist all preached, the kingdom has come.

And right now, our king, King Jesus, didn't stop being king after he ascended to heaven. He is seated in heaven making intercession for you and me. But the kingdom of God didn't cease. It didn't stop. We're longing for a day when Jesus will return and all the kingdoms of the earth shall be under his direct sovereign rule.

But right now, in the economy, we live with sin rampant in our world. The kingdoms of the world are in rebellion against the kingdom of God. And so our king came and he gave us a new syllabus. Y' all with me now, right? And the way this kingdom works is totally opposite the way the kingdoms of the world work.

I mean, I'm already disgusted with politics again. It's already election cycle and who's going to run and all these things. Jesus said, it is not this way with you, that the first would be last and the last would be first. You see, he came to take that idea of kingdom and flip it upside down. And so the things that we've been studying, in fact, all my notes, I went through there and I retraced again the word kingdom in the book of Matthew all the way to the beginning of chapter one, when it's heralded the genealogy of Jesus the Christ, the anointed one, the king.

To chapter two. When the Magi appear and said, we have come to worship the King of the Jews, we saw his star, and we've come to chapter three, when John the Baptist begins to preach, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. To chapter four. When Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan says, if you will submit to me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. And Jesus like, are you an idiot?

I'm already in control of all the kingdoms of the universe, and I don't have to submit to anyone because I am the king of the universe. And so he comes back out of the wilderness, and what did he preach? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

Then he gets to chapter five and he continues talking about this kingdom when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sakes, for theirs is the kingdom of God. When he taught them how to pray, he said to pray thy kingdom come. He gets to chapter seven and he says, there's going to be those who say, lord, Lord, we did these things in your name. And he said they would not be coming into the kingdom.

All of the parables that we have covered has been to present this idea of the immeasurable value of the kingdom of God. And it's been given to you, and it's been given to me that it started with the parable of the sower, where the seed of the Word of God came and was implanted in good soil. The intention being that that seed would germinate and begin to grow, and that in growing it would become a plant. And that that plant, according to the wheat and tares, would be sown into the world to make an impact, even being sown with the tares that would suck nutrients away and try to take away the growth of the plant. But then you see how God intended for that plant.

You and my growth together, coming together to grow into this tree. The kingdom of God being like a mustard seed that when it was planted, would grow into a tree that the birds could come nest in. This idea that undercurrent, maybe sometimes unobservable. This kingdom is growing like leaven in bread. It's beginning to expand even when you can't notice it.

But it's growing, you see, it's growing and should be growing like a fire. But the reason it doesn't grow like a fire is because the people in the kingdom aren't on fire.

Are you following? Because Then we got to the parable of the hidden treasure. And this man finds a hidden treasure in a field. But what does he do? He does the right thing.

He goes and he buys the field. But let me kind of, if it's okay, I want to embellish the story a little bit. What if. What if in that story, the person who found the treasure buys the field, digs up the treasure, goes, oh, wow, this is so pretty, and buries it somewhere else? What good is the treasure to him?

You see, Jesus has given us the kingdom. You go on to the costly pearl. I mean, we should pay any price because this kingdom is more valuable than anything that we'll ever have. Like the scribe who becomes a disciple, Remember, the seed was the word of God who goes into the treasures of his house and brings forth things that are both good and old and new from the treasure trove of the Word of God impacting a life, that growth is expected, that growth expands, that growth goes forth. Why?

Because the kingdom of God is to work through our lives to continue growing like the leaven of that bread. But if I don't see the value of that kingdom or it's not impacting my life the way it is, then I'll just go and bury that truth to myself. How many of us in this room, if we were being really honest, either don't think enough of the kingdom or don't think rightly about the kingdom? There is no one in this room above another at all. We're all equally called to the work of the kingdom, which is to reach people with the gospel and make disciples of the saints.

That's our mission. That's the mission of the church.

But if I decide, well, it's just not that important to me, I'm just gonna take wrap it back up and go bury it back in the field because I'm afraid that I might mess it up. Well, you know what? You can't mess it up. When I do a wedding for people, I look at them before we get started and I say, y' all know y' all can't mess this up, right? That in about 30 minutes y' all gonna be married.

And even if you trip on your garments, you're going to be married. You can't mess it up. Well, guys, I'm telling you, too many of us are afraid to do the kingdom work, and we're missing out on the blessings of the kingdom because of that. And as you begin, continue tracing, you jump over to chapter 18. And we talked for two weeks about forgiveness.

Why because the kingdom of God is turned upside down. We have a king who came and sacrificed himself for us, and so he expects the people in the kingdom to do likewise. God's plan for your life and my life is no different. We're to be conformed into the image of Christ. And there's only two reasons that I could think that that would not happen.

Either one, I just refuse it, which is disobedience. Or number two, there's so much sin in my life that I can't let go of that I can't be effective. And that's why, I mean, think about this, the context of these parables, and is this increasing rejection of Jesus as Messiah? And so he begins to address the Pharisees, the scribes and the priests, the threefold parables of 21 and 22, the two sons, where the two sons are told, one said, hey, I'll go obey, and never does. And the other one says, no, I won't obey, but eventually does.

And he says, I'm going to take the kingdom from you Jews, and I'm going to give it to somebody else. The next parable, where he talks about the landowner who just wants to have his produce, and he comes to those servants, they drive away his messengers, the prophets, and they kill his son, which is about to be Jesus in a few days. And he says to them, I will take the kingdom away from you and give it to those who will produce fruit. And the one that Fred shared with us about the great wedding banquet that you and I may have an idea about how we get into the kingdom, but if it's not being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we do not have a seat.

And all of these parables were addressing the Pharisees and the Jewish leadership that because they had not stewarded the kingdom of God and had not stewarded the people of God, he took it from them and gave it to a people that would produce fruit. In fact, in chapter 23, I didn't know y' all were gonna get a lesson on Matthew, did you? In chapter 23, he looks at those same as he's pronouncing woes against the Pharisees, he says, woe to you who would keep someone from coming into the kingdom. They were a stumbling block. Remember the stumbling block from Matthew 18.

Remember how I said that if we choose not to forgive, we actually are a stumbling block to the Gospel? How can I preach forgiveness of sin to a lost person without hope if I'm unwilling to attempt to extend the same forgiveness to those who wrong me? And then we got to chapter 24, and Jesus begins to answer those two questions. When will the temple be destroyed? And what are the signs of your return?

And we talked about the parable of the ten virgins. And the main primary point of that parable was this. You don't know when Jesus is coming back. It could be right now. He could return right now.

But are you expecting him to return? And in expecting him to return, how are you expecting him to return? Now? I don't mean the means. We know he will appear in the sky.

I mean, if we take the Bible literally, we will hear noises and we will see things happening in the skies. But how many of us would say that when he returns, we'll be like, oh man, it's time. He's back. He's back. Guys, this is it.

This is it. And I mean, according to what I read, we're going to start levitating if we know Jesus, and we're going to start seeing the ground bust open because the dead is going to be raised. I mean, it's going to be freaky.

It's like living dead kind of stuff going on. But we're going to know. It's like, this is it. This is it. This is what we've been waiting for.

This is what we've been expecting. But how many people will drop to a knee, say, no, Jesus, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. No, no, no, no, no, no. Go, go, go back.

I'm not ready. There was so much to do that I didn't do. There were so many things I wanted to say and so many people that I no, no, no, no, I'm not ready. You're like the. The five virgins whose job was to light the way of the bridegroom and in their lack of preparation, didn't bring any oil with them.

And the bridegroom showed up when they least expected it. Even the shop owners were expecting it because they had oil to sell. And when they got back, the doors were closed. Let us in, let us in. And it's too late.

See, time is not a renewable resource in the kingdom of God. We don't know when he's going to come back. And our question today as we read this parable of the talents money is are you doing what God has asked you to do? So would you stand with me as we read Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse number 14? Just going to read a few verses to get us started, and then we'll pick up from there.

And I do hope that as we're listening to this, my challenge would be this. Am I sowing what God has sown in me? Am I investing what God's invested in me? Or am I missing the blessing of the kingdom because I'm still hiding my treasure in my backyard? He says in verse 14.

For it's like a man. I mean, this goes right off the heels of not knowing the day and the hour. For it is like a man about to go on a journey who called his slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one, he gave five talents to another two and another one, one each according to his own ability. God knows your capacity.

Do you know that God's not a fair God when it comes to doling out resources for responsibilities? We don't like that in culture today. To think that God's not a fair God. Well, if no one's ever told you God's not a fair God, I'm telling you God is not a fair God. God is a just God.

Verse 16. Immediately the one who received the five talents went, traded with them and gained five more. In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. Father, you know my heart.

You know their hearts. God, let this scripture and this parable read us today. And God, if we're struggling, if we're struggling, means that my intention is to go in a direction, but I'm just having a hard time. God, may this give us the motivation and affection we need to recommit our lives to doing whatever it takes for the gospel to go into the world and to see your saints discipled in Jesus name. Amen.

So I'm going to do a little more teaching today than preaching, but that's all right. I want you to see there's a little bit of. Of a straightforward outline with this parable, and we're going to read the rest of it as we go along. The first word I want you to hear me say, you can write this kind of in the margin of your notes or if you have a journal, expectation. The master had an expectation.

And that expectation meant that the servants had a responsibility and that responsibility took work. So the second word I want you to hear is exertion. There is an expectation followed by some exertion on my part that leads to earnings. Now, when I say the word earnings, we get a positive connotation of that. Like, you know, I check my 401k or something like that.

I say, oh, I've got a little bit of profit. How many of you watched it about 10 years ago and you saw it doing this? You know, like I'm gonna confess, I'm making a confession. I own Dogecoins.

Like an idiot, I bought them thinking I could resell them. And as soon as I was late in the game and as soon as I bought them it went like I bought, I don't know, I bought them for like 10 cents and now they're, now, well they're worth some, a little bit more now. But like if you know anybody that does day trading, you know, you kind of do this, you like buy something and then try to sell it and buy it and sell it, try to make a little bit of money. But I know I got bankers in the room. How many people have ever invested and doubled their profit or doubled their investment?

Now it may be possible, but even today, I mean you've got CDs that might earn 3 to 5%. That's not doubling the amount of money you put in the account. You're making a little bit back. But did you hear what, in just a minute we're going to hear that each one of these doubled their investment. But you know what it took?

It took work. It took work. In fact, if you look at, I just kind of did a blanketing. I typed in the question into Google and said, how many hours does the average investor spend a week working? It's not a 40 hour job.

Sometimes it was upwards to 100 hours a week. Why? Because if you're going to get something out of something, you got to work. Like if you want to get in shape, no offense, because I probably need to run myself. If I get out here and say, well, I'm going to run half a mile a day and that's it.

Well, eventually I need to step up and run a mile and then two miles and more. Why? Because I need to stretch myself if I'm going to be healthy. It's the same way with investment. You've got to put in the work if you're going to see a return from it.

If you want better grades students, just reading the text and doing the minimal homework isn't going to cut it. I told you I was a former teacher, I was going to get in your stuff. For example, if you were in my math class, I might say go, alright, I want you to work 10 through 23, do the odd problems because the answers are in the back of the book. It'll help guide you. I was that student who bought the solutions manual and I worked all the problems.

You're going like, are you a nerd? Well, yes, I am. Because. Because I knew if I stretched myself a little bit more and I didn't just do the minimum, there would be blessing. So, yes, I did have 110 in linear algebra.

No, I'm not lying. I did. But I put the work in.

God has an expectation based upon your capacity to do something. And if I refuse to do what it is that God has called me to do, that's called disobedience, how will I ever experience the blessing of that investment? I can't. Now, let's jump right in here to this point. Number one, God supplies generously based on his expectation and enablement.

The reason I put enablement is this. There's a lot of debate about what these talents represent.

And the first one, which I would say is not the correct interpretation, is to say, well, talents are talented. That's cheating in my mind because the word talents, money and talent, my ability to play an instrument, are not the same thing.

But there are some good scholars who believe that it's natural ability. In fact, Warren Wiersbe and Chuck Swindoll in the past have taught that view. John MacArthur, who passed away this year, taught that it was spiritual gifts and opportunities. While I agree that it is spiritual because of the last servant. Yeah, I'll get there in just a minute.

I think it's a little bit more than just spiritual ability. And I'm going to give you some verses, so don't just kind of track with me. D.A. carson and R.C. sproul believed it was gospel opportunity.

Is that true? I believe it is too. I believe it is the gospel opportunity. The kingdom has been given to us not to keep it to ourself, but now to go and proclaim the good news of that kingdom, right? The good news of Jesus.

Like if I'm just a recipient of the benefits, but I'm not a proclaimer of what God's done in my life, then how will the kingdom grow? John Piper, David Platt and I'd say this is where I kind of land with this would say it's all of God's entrustments. It would be my time and my treasure, my testimony, my resources, my influence. Whatever it is that God has dropped in my way out of his sovereignty is opportunity for the kingdom of God to spread.

And if I live my Christian life thinking that it's just my natural ability, that's a lid to What God can do. Are you with me? God is the one who provides the resources. The Master gave them immeasurable wealth. Y' all remember when we talked about the unmerciful steward and we were talking about how much the money was that he owed?

It was like countless amount of money that the first servant owed. Well, let me walk through the math, since I've already talked about algebra. If one talent equals 6,000 denarii, that was the conversion rate we used a few weeks ago. Then the first servant received 30,000 denarii. And if you divide that by 3, 313.

Now what's 313 represent? Six day work week. They were Jews, they didn't work on Sabbath. So you divide it that. The first servant received 97 years worth of money, common wages.

The next servant received about 50 something years worth. So I don't know anybody in my life that worked 57 years. It's possible, but not very many. You get about 40, 45 years and you go into retirement, right? And the last one, the one who received one, received about 19 years worth of wages.

Now let me ask you a question. Wouldn't you like to have a check for 40 years worth of earnings you have had? Anybody, Anybody want to sign up for that? Or how many of you went and bought that lottery ticket? I used that illustration and this week it's like, well, I don't even know what it is.

But here's the point. There was no cap to what the Master could give them. It's almost like he just randomly walked up, said, here you go, here you go, here you go. Like he had it wadded up in his pocket. I knew a guy who owned a store down where I grew up, and he kept a wad of hundreds in his pocket.

It always blew my mind because he wore rags. Like he never spent the money on himself. This guy grew up in the Depression. He just whipped this money out. I just kind of imagine the Master said, here you go, here you go, here you go.

But how did he dole it out? Based on their ability. And God has given to you based on your capacity. What sets your capacity, your faithfulness.

At the end of this parable, we're going to hear, if you've been faithful in a few things, I'll make you faithful or responsible over more. If I'm faithful to take what God has resourced me to do, and I see how valuable the kingdom is, then I will do whatever it takes to see that kingdom spread and go forth. Do you have that kind of fire in your heart. Because if we want to set a world on fire, the people of God have to be set on fire first. Y' all missed that one.

Good. I want you to wrestle. Somebody came and shared with me about the message two weeks ago, and I thank God that I can make you think. If you leave this room and you haven't thought while you've been in this room, I have failed. I want you to think.

I want you to wrestle with this. I want it to stir you. Why? Because I want it to set you on fire. God, out of his resources, and I've given you a lot of verses and I'm trying to track with my time, but I want you to hear a few of these because we know that Psalm 24:1 says that the earth is the Lord's and all that it contains.

So God doesn't need you and me. He already owns it. He turns around and gives it to us to do his work. Ephesians 1:3. That we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 2:10. That we're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, our abilities, our natural abilities, or the very fact that you and I have been created in the image of God. But that image is defaced because of sin, but it's not erased. God can still use your natural talents and beauty. But wait.

In the new covenant, we receive something very special called the Holy Spirit. We receive anointing and wisdom and power and enablement to do what God wants us to do, even if I can't naturally do it. So I can't limit this by based on me. I have to look up Ephesians 3:20 says now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything that we ask or imagine, based on what? According to his power at work in us.

So when I stand before God someday and say, well, God, I just didn't know how to do it, that's not going to work. You say, God, I just didn't have the ability. That's not going to work. When you submit your life to God and say, God, whatever you want me to do, I'll trust that you'll enable me to do it. If you're calling me you, you'll give me what I need.

That right there will set a world on fire. When you flip over to Philippians 1:6, for I'm confident in this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it to the day of Christ Jesus. That responsibility of the gospel isn't just for the evangelists and the pastors in the room. It's all of our responsibility. How are we stewarding that?

For it's God at work in you, both to will and to work. For whose good pleasure? His My favorite at the end. And I gave instructions last service. I'll give it to you now.

If you don't know this verse I'm about to read, go get you a three by five note card and write it on there and put it on your dash. Philippians 4:19. And my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory. You'll never out give God, you'll never out serve God, you'll never outdo God. What God wants to do is show out in you.

God wants to take a humble vessel that says I can't and show that you can. When there's walls and there's obstacles, God wants to flip it around and make it opportunities. But when I'm focused on me and not on the riches of glory, the riches of the kingdom, the treasure that's hidden and buried in the field, I don't focus on what God has so rich given and generously continues to give. Then my Christian life is like right down here where he's calling me to experience a blessing that's way, way up here. And these guys, they took the five talents, he invested it.

Two talents, he took an investment. And it would have been hard. It would have been hard work to do what they did. They didn't have banks and investment firms and all these other things. They either had to go out there and buy a piece of land and sell it.

Buy a piece of land, sell it. Buy a piece of land and sell it. Or they maybe signed up and bought a fishing company. And you know as well as I do, if you're in farming, you're in fishing or harvesting of any nature. One year you may have good product, next year you may not.

Ebbs and flows. But these men, over a period of time the master was gone and they worked their backsides off to turn a profit. Why? Because point number two, we're responsible to do the work for which God supplies. Pick up with me in verse 19.

Now, after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Again. This parable isn't like the virgins parable where it was like, you don't know when Jesus is going to come back. This one is. The reality is he's coming back, but it may be a long time before he does.

And there's an expectation that while he's gone, do the work. He said, the one who had received five talents came up and brought five more, saying, master, you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more talents. And. And he's proud of it.

He's proud of it. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.

Also the one who received two talents, same formula came up, said, master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I've gained you two more. His master said, well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many.

Enter into the joy of your master. We are responsible to do the work for which God supplies. When I say no, two things happen. Number one, I'm in disobedience and sin. But number two, don't ever think God's not going to get it done.

God's not up there going, oh, no, Fred didn't obey me.

God will get done what God wants to do. Because God is sovereign in his will. When you and I come to accept that even good or bad, God will accomplish his good and perfect will, how much better is it if I say, you know what? I'm going to be along for the ride because I want the blessing that comes from being right alongside with what God's wanting to do. But if I take my treasure and go, oh, this is just, man, I got to go hide this.

I can't, I can't. When I do that, when I begin to look at the things that God has given me as something I keep to myself, I will miss the blessing. There's two blessings actually in this passage if you look at it. One was that the Master was very well pleased.

And it says that they entered into the joy of their master. In John chapter 15, when Jesus is talking about abiding in him so. So that you will produce fruit, he said, now this completes my joy. That's what God wants for your life and mine is to abide in him. And by abiding him, we're producing fruit.

The fruit first of righteousness, but also the fruit of the kingdom to reach people and make disciples. We're called to that. I don't know anything else that lights my fire more to witness somebody who's been impacted by the word of God in such a way that their life begins to change, producing a humility that leads to loving service. It's beautiful. It's a Sculpture that you can't put into words.

It's a painting that can't be repainted. It's gorgeous. And you are that painting. You are that poema, that workmanship that God's working in. And he has equipped you with everything that you could possibly ever need out of the excesses of his riches to make it happen.

Why? Because someday we will stand before the Lord. You'll either stand before the Lord to be determined whether you're lost or saved and going to hell, or you will stand before the bema seat. It's called bema because it's the Greek word for judgment seat. And in that time, in the Roman times, they had these seats where the judge would sit on the seat and make judgment according to 2nd Corinthians 5.

If you want to mark this verse, 2nd Corinthians 5, 10. He says, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that we may be recompensed for our deeds done in the flesh. You know what that means? Listen to me, because a lot of us really do. I'm glad that Kevin is teaching a class on heaven.

I want you to hear me. Your living now is preparing you for the living in the future. When he says, I will put you over many things. We hear that and we're like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna get more to do because I did my job good. That's what you want.

That in the kingdom of God, as Paul said to Timothy, we would reign with him. I don't know what that looks like. Maybe I'll be put in Australia or whatever Australia looked like after everything's redone and I'll be over kangaroos. I don't know. You don't know either.

But my living now is preparing me for my living in the future. And if I'm squandering the treasures now, what will my eternity look? I mean, do you really want to get to heaven by the skin of your teeth and stand before the Lord at the bema seat, saying, I did nothing good my entire life. I squandered all the riches of the kingdom? Or do you want to stand before him and hear, well done, good and faithful servant?

Did you take what I gave you and invest it so that it would grow? And that's my question for us today. Here's something you need to really think about When I say, you're missing the blessing if you don't invest. How do you know what blessing you're missing unless you do invest? Like if you don't go and put $100 in the savings account.

You'll never know how much it's going to draw because it didn't happen. What I'm telling you is the blessing you experience by sowing into the kingdom is unfathomable. He said, enter into the joy of your master. What we're going to read in just a few minutes is that this wicked, lazy servant didn't really know the master. He didn't know his expectations.

He didn't care about them, or he wouldn't have hid the money. He intentionally hid the money, knowing he said, take and do something with it. What are you doing? What are you doing with what God has given you? What are you doing with your time?

What are you doing with your talent? What are you doing to discover your spiritual gift and employ it? What are you doing with the resources that God has blessed you with? What are you doing with those capacity abilities that might make a difference in somebody's life? Or are you, like most people, living life for me?

Like, I could take my tithe and I could go buy three Lego sets. Nobody else in this room wants to buy Lego sets. I see you kids missed a great opportunity for your parents to buy you a LEGO set. They're looking at me like, don't look at me. Because, I mean, God expects fruit.

He expects fruit, but if we don't work it, it's not going to come about. Remember Matthew 13:23? He said that when the seed is sown, it grows and produces fruit, some 100, some 60, and some 30 fold. Matthew 21:43. He tells them in that parable, I'm going to take the kingdom and give it to a people that will produce fruit with it.

In John 5. 8, he said, My Father is glorified in this, that you bear much fruit. We will stand before God someday and we will give an account for what we did. How do you want to stand before Him? Because if I understand that I'm responsible to do the work, I can stand before him.

As we read in that passage in Second Corinthians, chapter 9, at the end of it, he talks about seed and being given seed to sow. And he said, for the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. That's joy. That's joy as God supplies to us. In the context of that passage is in giving physical money.

When I sow what I've been given, there is Thanksgiving. There is Thanksgiving. Right now, our team is on the field in Brazil laying brick for. For the wall of a church.

Do you think that the people of that church, when they show up and see that building, do you think they're going to come with Thanksgiving if they don't have what you have? That's why American Christianity is so tainted. It's so, so tainted because we have everything we could ever want. And because of that, we're no different than the Church of Thyatira. In Revelation, we're neither hot nor cold because we don't desire the things that God wants to provide for us.

Because I don't need anything. Maybe the key, maybe the key to stepping forward is realizing I'm actually spiritually bankrupt and the only way I'm going to proceed is when I empty myself of all these tangible things and receive the eternal things that God wants to give. Let me jump to point number three. It says this. We are held accountable for if and how we steward what God has entrusted for us.

Let me back up and let's pick up. In verse number 24, he says, and the one who had received the one talent came up and said, master, I knew that you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid. I went and hid the talent in the ground. See what I have is yours.

How arrogant that was. Like he's trying to stand before him just like the other two and say, hey, look. Look what I did.

I saved it. You know, the difference between somebody that's rich and somebody that's poor is that rich people don't look at money as something to spend. They look at it as something to invest.

Sometimes the reason people are poor is because they get a dime in their pocket and they spend it. Is that right or wrong? That's a natural. That's a real life parable right there. Do we do the same things with spiritual things?

He goes on to say. 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. Well, because he's sovereign over all things. But also, this slave did not know the master.

Y' all get that, right? He had a misconception of the master, and because of that, he held back on serving. He says, you ought to at least put the money in the bank. And upon my arrival, I would receive my money back with interest. Why?

Because he would have been faithful to what the master asked him to do. He would have rather brought in just a little bit of money. Rather than doing nothing, being faithful to what God has given us, he said, therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10. Now catch this. For everyone who has more shall be given to him, and.

And he will have an abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have will be taken away. Can y' all turn backwards for a minute to Matthew, chapter 13?

After Jesus told his first parable of the sower, the disciples asked him in verse 10, why do you tell these things in parables? Jesus said in verse 11, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it has not been granted.

For whoever has to him more shall be given. And he who has an abundance, he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. It is not by accident that Jesus repeated that phrase. God has given to you and me, and he's entrusted us with his word.

Now, this wicked, lazy servant, was he saved or was he lost?

The last verse of that parable kind of tells the truth that he was lost. He was cast where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And some scholars try to twist that to go, well, maybe he's just not receiving the fullness of the rewards in eternity. I don't buy that one. This servant did not know his master gave excuses and did not do what his master told him to do.

Why? Because he didn't value it. He had a misconception of what the master expected and he squandered it. Today, you and I sitting in this room, we have an awesome opportunity to take what's been given to us and make more of it. Because I wonder in this room today what blessing you may be missing out on.

Maybe because you're not investing relationally, you're missing out on the opportunities to be encouraged.

Maybe you're missing out on opportunities and blessing because maybe you've decided, you know what, I can't give. And the one thing that the Bible teaches us, that God said, test me on Malachi, chapter three, was he said, ty give and it'll be given to you. Right? That's what Jesus paraphrased it said. But in Matthew 3, he said, well, give and see if I won't overflow you with blessing.

Now, that's not formulaic, it's not prescriptive. But I wonder how many of us might be missing out on a blessing because we're not giving of our tithe. Tithe is physical. You can't say, well, I'm just giving up my time. That doesn't equate.

We give of our time, we give of our talent, we give of our resources. And we do so in faith that we say, God, take this and use it for the building of your kingdom. Right? How many of us might be missing out on a blessing of growth because we don't want to be in a group or we don't want to connect with other people? I'm just saying.

I'm just saying, are you missing out on something great because you're taking that treasure and hiding it in the field? For to everyone who has given more shall be given. The kingdom has come to multiply what God has invested. You take all these parables and you link them together and you see this beautiful tapestry that God has implanted in you. His Word.

He wants that word to take root and grow. He wants you to become a plant that is bearing fruit. And in bearing that fruit is multiplying the kingdom. And if we want to see a world set on fire for Jesus Christ, it has to start with his people.

How many times have we heard in the news of a forest fire being started because somebody flipped a cigarette out their window? A little spark, not even a glow. I mean, just a little bitty glowing ember with the right conditions, sets something ablaze. Now, for you and I today, I don't know what your need is in this room, but let me just start with the basic thing. And I want you to bow your heads and I just want you to listen to me as you process this.

I don't want you to be called that wicked, lazy servant.

And if the kingdom of God is not producing fruit in your life, you may say, Well, I was 7 when I was saved. That's great.

But the evidence of that salvation is what it's doing in your life. Now, you know the story of Peter's conversion. You know Paul's conversion, but you know what? The other disciples, you never heard their conversion stories. Why?

Because they were living out the gospel. It had impacted and changed their life, and they were pressing for. For you. Is that true? When Jesus comes back, will you.

Will you stand looking at the heavens with dread or with hopeful expectation? How has the word of God, the gospel, impacted you? And how is it continuing to impact you? Is it leading you to increase in knowledge and faith and sanctification, separateness from the world and adequate service to our King? And maybe in this room today, you're like, you know, I really want those things.

I really want to be profitable for Jesus, but there's just stuff in the way. Well, stop carrying that load and carry it to the Lord and say, lord, I need you to take this from me. You know what? He may not immediately take it from you. He may have other plans to work that out of your life.

But if you say you can't before you give him the opportunity to do it, I can guarantee you it won't happen. Yield ourselves to the Lord and let him do the work inside of us. So pastors will be down front. We know we have prayer partners that will come and pray with you if you have a need. But I want to challenge everybody in this room to ask the question, what is my next step?

How am I investing the kingdom of God, the righteousness of God in my life, so that it is affecting the kingdom of God and its growth. If you're not saved, come talk to one of us. I presented the gospel at the beginning of the service. But I remind you again today to repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ. Accept him as your Savior.

And as Rylan so beautifully put it, that day I talked to him because Jesus promised it. Because of the word of God, he will save you. Father, work in us now. Whatever need is in this room, Lord, I pray that we come and lay it at this altar where they are, that they would yield it up to you. But Lord, I pray for effective application.

Lord, speak to our hearts. Speak to our lives. In Jesus name, Amen.