Profitable Service

Well, turn with me in your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter 25, not 24, 25, verses 14 through 30. This is the parable of the talents. And if you are here with us and don't have a Bible, I would encourage you to use one of the Pew Bibles. You can find this passage on page 830 of the Pew Bible. And friends, the reason that I chose this passage to preach on this morning is because all of us are so quick to lose sight of our purpose. I need this reminder every first day of the week, every Sunday, that we serve a risen savior. But friends, in our lives, we are so quick to become slaves of the urgent. We're so often carried aimlessly by the currents of life, failing to remember day by day, what am I here for? What am I living for? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to do? And scripture makes plain that this world is like a river flowing in the wrong direction. And friends, if we are not fighting upstream, we're going to be going in the wrong direction. And this parable Jesus gave to his disciples as both a warning and an encouragement concerning purpose in life. We're sort of dropping in in the middle of a conversation that began back in chapter 24 and verse 3. And so Jesus is with his disciples and they go away in private up to the Mount of Olives and the disciples ask him You know, when are you going to come? When is the end of the world going to be? And what are the signs going to be? You know, they ask the kind of questions that I think we would be tempted to ask. And Jesus responds by essentially telling them, first of all, no one knows. He says in verse 36, But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. And therefore he tells them in verse 44 of chapter 24, therefore you also be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you did not expect. And here in chapter 25, Jesus is teaching them what does it mean to be ready? How can we be ready for his second coming? How can we be ready for the end of the world? And he gives them two different parables, a pithy way to think about what a parable is. It's a earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And so the first parable is about these wise and foolish virgins. And basically the point of that parable is it emphasizes that being ready involves waiting and it involves watching. And in chapter 25, verse 13, he concludes it by saying, watch therefore, for, you know, neither the day nor the hour in which the son of man is coming. But now, as we turn to the parable of the talents, this is a parable where the emphasis is on working. And Jesus wants us to understand that being ready for his coming involves not only waiting, not only watching, but working. We have work to do and a purpose to fulfill here and now. So listen now as I read Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30. For it, now this it refers back to chapter 25 verse one, the it is the kingdom of heaven. So he's saying, for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling 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 another five 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. He also 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 I 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. So 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. So friends, what then does this parable mean? What is the point? What is Jesus wanting his disciples to understand? Well, first of all, it should be rather clear that this man who's traveling to a far country only to return again later, he represents Jesus. Jesus has been talking about his second coming. Jesus is saying, I'm going away, I'm going to come back. Jesus is the Lord, so the master represents Christ. The servants, again, I think it's fairly straightforward to understand. The servants represent us. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. And he's obviously telling them, essentially, be like these two faithful servants. Don't be like the unprofitable servant. So the faithful servants represent true Christians. The third servant represents the non-Christian, but perhaps especially the false Christian, the person who professes to be a Christian and is not, or the person who even thinks that they're a Christian, but is not. Now the talents, and for any who maybe aren't, we use that word very differently, but at this time a talent was a unit of currency. It represented 75 pounds of silver, which was a lot of money. It's hard to put it in today's terms, but that would have been about 6,000 denarii. Denarii was a day's wage, so 6,000 days wages. And that's 20 years or so of labor. So we'll call it a million dollars today. So he these talents are a significant amount of money that the master is delivering over to the servants to to manage. And I think the best way to understand what they represent. Is they represent spiritual opportunity. They represent the opportunities that we are given to invest in Christ's kingdom. We hear the gospel. We receive his word. We're given time, money, relationships, abilities, life itself. All of that represents the talents. Now when the master returns, of course, it says he's settled accounts with them. This accounting represents the final judgment. And so we see that the faithful servants, they represent those who receive eternal life. They enter into the joy of their Lord. And the unprofitable servant represents those who go to hell. And at the end of the parable, it sort of ends with this very apocalyptic sounding language where he says in verse 30, cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I think part of what Jesus is doing there is he's making very clear that he is talking about salvation here. This unprofitable servant, he's not just receiving a small or heavenly reward, he is being cast into hell. And now at this point, perhaps you're asking a couple of different questions. Two questions that I think some of you might be asking. The first would be, why is the third servant judged so harshly? Wasn't he just afraid? I mean, at least he didn't lose the talent, right? He preserved the talent. He protected it. And yet that is utterly unacceptable. Or another question you might be asking is, you know, how does this parable fit with the gospel? You know, isn't the gospel all about grace? Isn't it all about God saving us and not by works, not according to anything we do for him? And yet this parable is about profit. And the master requires profit. And so I want to come back to those questions and explain them. But first, I want to emphasize that I think the main point is already very clear. Christ is teaching us, he's wanting his disciples to understand that he requires us to invest our whole life for the benefit or the profit of his kingdom. And the question above every other question that we should all be asking as we hear this parable is this, are we profitable servants? Am I a profitable servant? And friends, I know that soon after this sermon, you will probably forget most, if not everything that I've said, but I pray that the one thing that you and I will remember that will be so pressed upon our consciences, that will be on our minds and hearts will be this question. Are we profitable servants of Christ? Are we profitable servants? And I want to spend the remainder of our time this morning unpacking that by drawing your attention to three simple truths that are conveyed, I think, very clearly by this parable. So three truths. And the first truth is this. Number one, we are God's servants. We are God's servants. To put it another way, Every hour of every day, you are on the clock for God. See, according to the Bible, God created us and therefore he owns us. And everything you have is a gift from God, even the very life and breath and all things. It's God who gives them to you. Everything, your time, your money, your abilities, your mind, your body, God gave you all of that. And therefore God owns it. God owns you. And you and I are servants of God. Now for some of us this may be a real paradigm shift. I speak to a lot of people and basically the way they think of their relationship to God is sort of like this. They think God is this cosmic law enforcer. You know, kind of the way we think about police officers, right? And, you know, God exists for the purpose of making sure that there are certain rules and laws that are obeyed. And if you break those laws, well then God will come and deal with you. And you will have to give an account for that. But if, as long as you just live a good life and you do the right thing and you don't break any laws, Well then, you know, God, like any police officer, he just leaves you alone. Or another way that people sometimes conceive of their relationship to God is we think of God as sort of this universal father. You know, that God sort of exists to provide for us, to guide us, to help us, to enable us to grow up and to fulfill our potential and pursue our dreams. And friends, it is true that God is the judge of all the earth. And for those who are in Christ, it is a great and a precious truth that God is our Heavenly Father. But just notice the paradigm that Jesus is talking in here. I mean, think for a moment about showing up at work. And you get there and You know, I'm sure your office probably has office rules, and you obey all the rules, right? You clock in on time. You keep your desk neat and tidy. You obey the dress code. You obey all the rules. But you don't actually do any profitable work. I mean, what employer will be pleased with that? I mean, that's exactly a picture of what this third servant is like. He's a servant. His job, his responsibility is to be serving the Master. The Master provides for him. The Master gives him food, housing, all that he has. His job is to serve the Master. And what does he do? He just doesn't do as the Master said. He buried it in the ground. He just lives for himself. He just lives for himself. And friends, the point is this. Just as no employer has a place for unprofitable employees in his business, so Christ has no place for unprofitable servants in his kingdom. And I know that many, if not most of us, we've known that. But friends, are we living it out? Are we honestly living as if 100% of our time and our money belong to God? Now let's make it really practical and just imagine for a moment that God comes to you and he says, you know, I have this job for you. I want you, there's this guy Bill over here, and I want you to design a budget and make a schedule for Bill. And here's the criteria, here is the purpose. I want you to make that budget and design that schedule so that Bill will bring me maximum profit for my kingdom. That's the goal. Just think for a moment. How would you go about designing that schedule and making that budget? What would he spend time doing? What would he invest his money in to bring maximum profit to the kingdom of God? And let's think for a moment. What about your own budget and your own schedule? Are you thinking that way? Are you living that way? And friends, the reality is we have a great deal of freedom. I mean, just like the servants in the parable, you know, the master didn't tell them, we'll invest in this, this, this, this. He gave them the money according to their ability. He knew, okay, this guy's competent. These are competent businessmen, they know what to do. I've given them, they're smart people. And God has given us brains, he's given us minds. And he said not, pray five times a day this way, read your Bible this much, do this, do that. But he's given us his word. And he said, invest your life for me. See, we have great freedom, but we have great responsibility. And we really do have to use our brains and think hard about what we are going to invest our lives and how we are going to use our time. How can we bring maximum glory to God? And friends, as you hear this. The last thing we should be thinking is what a burden. Oh man, we're servants. I don't get to live for me. No, friends, we should hear this and realize this is a great honor. This is a great privilege. I mean, first of all, this is actually, ironically, realizing you're a slave of God is actually quite freeing. I mean, think of Jesus when he's talking on the Sermon on the Mount. He says, therefore, realizing God's your master, Don't worry about your life, what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink or about your body, what you're going to wear is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing. I've given you something greater to live for. And then he said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you. And friends, we are called to serve the king of kings, the king of the universe. I mean, if you were called to be the secretary, of someone really important like the president. I mean, there would be some honor in that just because of the dignity of the office of the person you're serving. How much more to serve the king of the universe? And not only that, but think about the significance of the work we're called to do. You see what we are called to do in serving Christ and living for his kingdom. It's more significant than what the work that the president of the United States is called to do in serving our country. Because this nation is a temporary kingdom. We're called to serve. What counts for eternity, I mean, we have been given the gospel. To make a difference that will last into all eternity. And friends, I think if we understand that, we start to appreciate something. I don't know if you've ever read the epistles and noticed the way that many of them start. It might be quite striking. They start with things like this. Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ. Peter, a slave of Jesus Christ. James, a slave of Jesus Christ. Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ. But they realize the honor and the privilege of being servants of the living God. So, friends, we are God's servants. Now, I would like to draw your attention to a second simple truth. And it's this. God expects profit. So we are servants and God expects profit. And I think one of the things that this parable makes very clear is that in our serving of God, our job is not mere safekeeping, but investing. Okay, obviously the master, he entrusted these talents to the servants so that they could actually make a profit. And just like in the parable, God does not entrust to all of us exactly the same gifts and abilities and opportunities. There's differences. But he's entrusted to all of us a lot. And we will be accountable, regardless of how little you think you have, for how faithful you were in investing what you were given. So God expects profits. I think it would be helpful to pause and ask the question, what kind of prophets does God want? I mean, what can man give to God? What does this even mean? I was reminded of Psalm 50. where the people actually thought that they could pay God back for their sins. They thought they could sin and then present some sacrifices to kind of make up for it. And listen to how God responds to that. God says, I will not take a bull from your house nor goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all its fullness. And you can't pay God back with what already belongs to him. So what kind of prophets does God want? Well, actually, if you keep reading the next couple of verses in that psalm, it says this. So first God says, will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Of course not. Then it says this, offer to God thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. And the point is this, the kind of prophet God wants is glory. That's the only thing man can give God. Glory, glory by worshiping him, glory by praising him, glory by dependence on him, he says, call upon me in the day of trouble. Glory by giving him thanksgiving, offer to God thanksgiving, not bulls and rams. And glory to God by offering him obedience, pay your vows to the most high. And so friends, God gives us talents, that is life and breath, time and money, minds and bodies, friends and families, so that we might bring glory to him. That's what he originally created us for. And yet that is what the scripture says we have all failed to do. Romans chapter three says there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. Listen to this. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. You see, God made us to bring him the profit of glory to his name. And yet what does man do? Either denies his existence or worships false gods instead. We exchange the truth of God for a lie. Although they knew God, they did not give him glory as God. And all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So what did God do? Well, it's very important that we understand how the gospel relates to this parable. And friends, God sent Christ, why? To restore our profitability. He restored, he sent Christ to bring about what he had originally intended. And I want to show you briefly, if you turn to Ephesians chapter two, look at verses eight through 10. This was, we already looked at this in the scripture reading. And I just want you to catch the how and the why of salvation. It's a very familiar passage, so Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And so friend, if you're here today, And you're hearing this message and you feel convicted and you're thinking, you know, I've not been living for God. And so what I just need to do is I need to start trying harder. I need to live a better life. I need to devote more time and resources to serving God. While that may be true, but that won't get you salvation. That will be insufficient. But what God has done is he has sent his own son into the world. To live a perfectly profitable life. And to take our sins on his back and to die on the cross to pay the price so that whoever believes in him. Might receive the gift of salvation, might receive salvation freely as a gift. And yet don't miss verse 10. So we're saved by grace, that's how we're saved, but then verse 10 tells us why we're saved. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, God saves us so that we will live lives that honor and glorify him, lives of good works. And so, friends, here's the point. Either God's purpose in salvation failed or there's no such thing as an unprofitable Christian. Because God's whole purpose in saving people is so that we might become profitable. You see, the grace that saves is a grace that transforms. And that's why without holiness, the Bible says no one shall see the Lord. And so as we think about this second truth that God expects prophets, we need to see that it it begins here. Profit profitability begins with personal holiness. It begins with growing in Christ likeness. God gives us talent, spiritual opportunities so that we can be transformed and bring him glory. God doesn't just give us knowledge to make us smart, but so that we can live it out, he wants profit. But as we continue to think about God expecting profits, we should see that this really helps us understand that profitability always involves going outward. Yes, it begins with personal holiness, right, so that we might glorify God. But part of how we glorify God is by helping other people glorify God. And so as we heard last week, right, if you are going to be faithfully glorifying God, well, Be making disciples. Be about discipleship. Be about helping other believers glorify God too. And then also be about helping unbelievers glorify God. Be looking for opportunities to share the gospel with them. and realize that when you grow in personal holiness, you help the world glorify God like this, not by being a monk and hiding in a monastery, but as Jesus said, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. And then he said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. One final thing as we think about God expecting profits and profitability with our lives. I think we should see that profitability involves risk. That's the nature of investment. And you know, think for a moment about those who are so afraid of saying the wrong thing that they never share the gospel with anybody. There's a story about D.L. Moody. Someone comes up to him and says, you know, sir, I don't like your way of doing evangelism. I don't like your methods. And he says, well, so what's your method? How do you do it? And they're basically like, well, I don't. And he says, well, I like my way of doing evangelism better than your way of not doing it. And friends, there's a great deal of truth in that. You know, are we going to be like the servant that just buried it in the ground and says, oh, I was afraid? Are we at least going to go out and try and invest? I mean, there's those who will never serve as leaders in the church because they're so afraid of failing. There's those who will never do anything physically dangerous or financially risky for the sake of the gospel. Those who are too afraid to confront evil or to confess sin. Friends, there's risk involved, and yet, at the same time, we serve a sovereign God. And so all that risk is really not that risky in the grand scheme of things, because God is in control. I mean, notice, there is no fourth servant in the parable that went out and invested everything and lost it. And friends, go through the whole Bible. Is there ever a case where any man has trusted God for the sake of God's honor and God's name, and God hasn't come through? Never. So friends, we are God's servants. God expects profits. And third, simple truth, thirdly and finally, God's grace compounds. God's grace compounds. So look for a moment at verse 29, and here, if anything, is Jesus giving us the point of the parable. And he says, 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. Now we hear that and it's kind of confusing because we think about grace and we tend to think about fairness and equality and we think, well God's grace, the effect of God giving grace to us would be that sort of everyone is going to kind of come to be about the same. Well, Jesus is teaching us the exact opposite. He's saying that, no, the effect of God's grace is not equalizing, but polarizing. That there's this compounding nature. That there are those who receive God's grace and they grow and they get more grace and they grow and they get more grace and they grow. And there's those who receive God's grace and just kind of wilt. and receive grace and bear thorns and receive grace and wither away and have everything that they had taken. And so as we reflect on this parable, we need to ask ourselves, how are you receiving God's grace? The talents that God has given you. How are you investing them? How are you receiving them? You know, are you more like a bowl that's being poured into that your own soul may be nourished and that then you may pour out into others? Or are you like a sieve? Grace just flows right through. Are you like a fruitful field that receives the grace of God and is growing up a great harvest? Or are you like a briar patch that's just growing thorns and briars? You know, I think of Jesus speaking to the woman in John chapter four, and he's giving a picture of this where he says, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. This picture of grace upon grace just welling up from within. And that's contrasted with the picture we read of of others in Hebrews chapter six. where he says, for the earth, which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful or profitable for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. So how are we receiving God's grace? And friends, the root difference in how you receive God's grace This parable helps us to see it's this, it's how you see God. What is your view of God? You see, the first two servants, they knew that they were servants. They knew that their master was good and kind. They counted serving him an honor and a privilege. They faithfully invested their lives to investing their master's talents. And their reward was to hear their master's approval and to be counted worthy of serving in even higher degrees." Friends, I mean, think, what would be heaven to you? For the Christian, it's, I get to serve God even more. That's the greatest privilege. That's the great joy. In contrast, the third servant, he thought the master was hard, and unreasonable. Look again at at what he says when the master comes and asks him to give an account. Verse 24. 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. He calls his master a hard man, an impressive, exacting, unkind master. And then he says this sort of proverbial saying, reaping where you had not sown, gathering where you had not scattered. And I think it's just a proverbial way of saying that to the master, your expectations are unreasonable. I mean, who expects to reap a harvest where he didn't even sow seed? Right. You expected too much. And then he's like, I was afraid. I mean, why even try? I was just going to make things worse. I mean, whatever I could do, it was just going to be not good enough for you. That's his picture. That's the way he viewed the master. That's how he excused himself. So what about you? You know, maybe God's demands and God's laws seem unreasonable to you. Maybe you're someone who has all sorts of objections and arguments that just kind of ready for Judgment Day. But friend, what if God responds to you the way the master responded to the servant in the parable? Look at the master's response, verse 26. 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. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers. Now, what is the master saying here? He doesn't defend his character, right? He doesn't get into a debate to say, oh, no, I'm not hard and unreasonable. He basically just uses the servant's own words against him to prove that the servant is the one who has deceived himself. What he's saying is, oh, so you knew me, you knew I was like that. Well, by your own admission, you knew I expected profit. Even you agree that I expected some kind of profit. And if you thought my expectations were unreasonable, and you were really just so afraid, why didn't you at least do what seemed reasonable to you? Right? I mean, even you can't argue that depositing in the bank was unreasonable. But what you did, even you have to agree, was unreasonable. And this is the point of what I'm saying. If you think God is so unreasonable and God's laws are just so harsh and God is this oppressive master. Well, I just want you to look in the mirror for a moment and ask yourself, what if God were to judge you by your own standards? Would you really do any better? I mean, surely you have some expectations of yourself, some moral standards. And which of us would be prepared to stand before God and the world with the video screen of our life, of what we've thought, what we've said, what we've done, playing in the background and argue that, no, I have been righteous and I'm justified in the sight of all, even by our own standards. We would all be terribly afraid because we know. That we have done things we ourselves are ashamed of. You see, we are so fickle. We can't even be loyal to our own standards and our own convictions. We're tossed to and fro by our moods and our desires. And the reality is all of us, like the third servant, we have deep seated wickedness and laziness in our hearts. We have contempt for the God that made us. And laziness that refuses to serve him. And yet we still have the audacity to challenge God. when we can't even seem to agree with ourselves. Friends, let's now take our eyes off of ourselves and look at Christ. Look at this God. It's God who created you, who made you, who's given you life and breath and every good and perfect gift that you have. And even though you shook your fist at him and did not live for him, yet he has loved you so much to come and die on the cross so that you could be saved. He offers you life and salvation freely as a gift. Turn to him and believe. And friends, those of us who have known this salvation, what? What a joy, what a privilege to now be able to live for Him and to seek to invest our lives to bring Him honor and glory. You know, I'll end with a quote by George Mueller. He was a pastor for many, many years. He was a man who was spent and was spent for God. He invested his life to serve orphans and to care for them. He never accepted a salary as a pastor. He would pray long hours of the day. He would try to minimize his sleep at night just so he could be more profitable to the Lord. And yet, listen to what he says. He writes his autobiography to try to tell us it wasn't like he was trying to say these things and say, look at me, look at how faithful I've been. So you can be impressed. He says, I've written all these things, why he says I have not served a hard master, and this is what I delight to show. He sought to live his life in such a way that someone would look at him and not think, wow, look at how he serves God, but look at him and think, wow, what a God he serves. Friends, that is our purpose. That is our calling. So let us go forth and serve Him in hopes of that day when we might hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray.