A Stewardship Sermon on the Parable of the Talents

Entrusted
We are going to look at the story of the talents this morning. It was a story Jesus told about a master going on a journey. When the master leaves, the NIV text in Matthew 25:14 says that the master entrusted his property to his servants.

Entrust! That is an interesting word. The very word itself conveys the idea of trust. We talk a lot in church about putting our trust in God.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

So put your trust in God! But have you ever thought about this in reverse? Have you ever thought about God putting his trust in you?

You have been given what you have – everything – because God trusts you. He trusts you with your children, your money, your body, and your time. It is all God’s in the first place, but he trusts you enough that you will make the best use of all these blessings that you possibly can.

So when we mismanage what God has put into our lives, we are betraying God’s trust in us, and we are letting him down. Just as the master entrusted his servants with his property, so God entrusts us with what is his.


Richly Blessed
In 25:15 it says that the master gave one servant 5 talents, to another servant 2 talents, and a third servant 1 talent. Now I want you to know what a talent was. A talent was a sum of money in the ancient world in Jesus time.

A talent was no small amount of money. It is really hard to give you a modern day equivalent of just how much money this was, because of inflation the shifting value of money.

But let me do my best. In Jesus day, the common form of money was a denarius. A denarius was one single days wage for the common laborer. So if you worked a 5 or 6 day work week, you would earn 5 or 6 denarii.

A talent was equal to about 6000 denarii. So what the master entrusted these servants with was more than 16 years worth of wages for each talent. This is a truly significant amount of money to look after. It truly demonstrates the trust that the master is putting into these servants.

What is the point here? God is not in the business of giving insignificant gifts. Yes, there are some people who have more, some people who have less, but every single person is blessed in some significant way by God.


Contentment
It might have been very easy for the guy who had only been given one talent to look at the guy with 5 talents and to have been a little jealous. We do that often. We are jealous of what we don’t have, rather than recognizing the great blessing we do have. This servant had been given a talent. A tremendous sum of money.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. 1 Timothy 6:6

It is when we start to compare ourselves to others that we loose any godliness and contentment we might possess. Because the problem is that we usually compare ourselves with those who have more, rather than those who have less.

Rather than have a heart of compassion towards those who have less, we develop a heart of jealousy towards those who have more.

If we don’t enjoy what we have got, we are not going to enjoy what we don’t. When we receive more, there is always more. There is always someone out there that has more than us.

I came across this verse last week from Proverbs. It says:

Give me neither poverty or riches, but give me only my daily bread. Proverbs 30:8

There is great, great wisdom in these words. The writer of Proverbs is asking God to give him just enough, but not so much that his life spins out of control. He goes on to say: “Otherwise I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’”

So often we want more. But God knows that we don’t need more, but rather we need to learn to be content with what we do have and also to learn to properly manage that which we do have in our lives. He does not want us to go beyond the point were we begin to rely more upon our money and our things rather than him.

It says he gave to his servants, each according to his ability. God is not going to give us more than we can handle! Remember, the Scripture says, that he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Sometimes this means giving us less rather than more. The more we have, comes greater temptation! Thank God that you don’t have more than what you do have, and that you have just the right amount to nurture your relationship, faith, and trust in him.

Failure is not an option
25:16-17 The first two servants went off and it says they put the money to work. What is the result – they discover a profit. Here is the point – if we put to work, what God has entrusted us with, we cannot fail.

I always wondered about what would have happened in this story if one of the servants had put the money to work, but produced a loss. What would of happened if the first servant put his 5 talents to work, and ended up producing only 3?

Why does Jesus not address this potential situation in this story? I believe here that Jesus silence is the key! When we invest in the kingdom there is always a payback. We say it often, that we cannot out give God.

We give God our minutes, he will multiply our minutes. We give God our skill and he will enhance and refine our skill. We give God our treasures to God, and he just has this way of removing expenses.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Malachi 3:10

Investing in the kingdom will bring back a return. There is no doubt about it!

Keep in mind, we don’t give to God in order to get something back in return. The reason we give time, treasure, and talent to Jesus is because it is a way that we honor him and thank him for what he has done for us and how much he loved us to die on the cross for us. We give because we want to do what is best with that which he has entrusted us with.


Advance or Defend
25:18 - This third servant goes off and hides his master’s money. He hides what has been entrusted to him. For the longest time I read this, and it really didn’t make much sense to me. It seemed that what this servant did with the money was not all that bad. He focused on preserving what he had been given.

But that was exactly the problem. God is not as interested in us preserving what we have, but rather using what we have, sharing what we have, and building the kingdom.

We are not called to hide our faith, but to show our faith. In another part of Matthew, Jesus says:

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew 5:14

Did you catch that? It cannot be hidden.

“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.” Matthew 5:16

Letting your light shine is an investment. There is a cost involved in letting the light shine. But as you shine that light, there is a return. They will see! They will hear! They will praise your Father in heaven!


Return of the King
25:19 So after a long time the master returns. We have been waiting awhile now for Jesus to return. Almost 2000 years! But we know he will return. It is important we be ready.

We wait now and it seems Jesus may never return. And many live their lives as if Jesus may never return. They live there lives as if there will certainly be a tomorrow and a day after that. They live their lives as if there was not a master, there was not God.

But as Pastor Barry shared with us last week – there is coming a time called “too late.” A time when there is no taking back and what is done is done. No second chances.

On Friday night I officiated a funeral for a 17 year old. We never know when our life might be taken from us. All it takes is a drunk driver, a slip on the ice . . . the lives we live our delicate. And keep in mind Jesus might just return.


Faithfulness
It says the master will settle his accounts with his servants. So the first servant brings the before the master what he was entrusted with, but also the increase he had been blessed with. The second servant does the same.

Both men are complimented, and are promptly entrusted with more. The master says, “you have been faithful in a few things. I will put you in charge of many more things.”

Remember 5 talents is a tremendous amount of money, but the master said he would put them in charge of more. Do you want God to entrust you with more? Well it starts with being faithful with what you have now.

Are you managing what God has entrusted you with in a way that honors God? Because if you are not using what you already have in a God honoring way, there is no guarantee that God will give you more.




Debt
Studying this parable I began to think about the tremendous amount of debt that so many Americans are burdened with. Often times this debt is a result of poor choices and mismanaging what God has entrusted us with.

It is a time of the year when many people put themselves in debt buying Christmas presents and other expenses. We have given into the marketing that tells us we need to buy all this stuff in order to show other people that we care about them and to make us happy. All of those holiday offers to buy now and pay later, that entice us because why, because we are not content with what we have. I recently read that 10% of adults still have to pay off what they owe from last Christmas.

Do we really honor Jesus, when we put ourselves in debt to buy so much stuff that we so often don’t really need in the first place? I think it really saddens Jesus, what so many Christians have made his birthday about.

Many of us need repentance in this area of our lives. We need to cut up our credit cards. We can’t pay off our debt when we keep adding to our debt. We need to learn to be content no matter what our situation or circumstances might be. We also need to tithe.

I was listening to a preacher recently who was talking about tithing out of debt. If we believe tithing honors God, and that God will bless us in areas of our life where we honor him. How can we not tithe?

The greatest debt we have is the debt that Jesus purchased on the cross. And so we put that debt of salvation to be first and foremost in our lives. When we honor our debt to Jesus first and foremost just begin to fade away.

I am not saying that Jesus is going to pay your credit card bill. But to seek God’s blessing in a certain area of our life, it starts with honoring God in an area of our life.

In just a moment we are going to be receiving the offering. We have used this prayer in the past here at Lord of Life. I really like what it says, because it puts it all into perspective.

As we receive today’s offering we are believing the Lord for:
Jobs . . . and better jobs.
Raises and bonuses
Benefits
Sales and commissions
Favorable settlements
Estates and inheritances
Interest and income
Rebates and returns
Checks in the mail
Gifts and surprises
Finding money
Bills paid off
Bills decreased
Blessing and Increase
Great relationships with family and friends
A great relationship with Jesus.

Thank you Lord for meeting all of my financial needs that I may have more than enough to give into the kingdom of God and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Amen.

In conclusion, there is something very important to point out. Ultimately, what Jesus is talking about in the parable of the talents is not time, treasure, or talent. What he is talking about is faith.

Each of who believe in Jesus as Savior has been given a certain measure of faith. Today we have a choice. To put our faith to work, to use our faith.

I would imagine that as we enter into a new year, that God might be calling you to take a step of faith. I am not certain what exactly that step of faith might be. For each of us it is unique.

The choice is yours to hold your ground, plant your feet in the ground and stay right where you are at or to take that step of faith and to let God give you increase.