The 5 Habits of a Christian Life: Gratitude, Generosity & Stewardship

This morning, we’re continuing our series, The Five Habits of the Christian Life. We’re focused on building a devotional life with God. The message this morning is on generosity, generosity and stewardship, and so we’re going to be in Matthew, chapter 25, verses 14 through 30. So if you have your Bibles or your smartphone, would you stand with me? And we’re going to read from Matthew 25, I’m going to start in verse 14. And I’m reading from the NIV version, and it’s going to say bags of gold, but many of your versions are just going to say talents, okay? So the talent was a form of money in the days of Jesus, so my version says bags of gold. Don’t let that throw you. Okay, Matthew 25, verse 14. Again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth or his property to them. To one, he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put the money to work and gained five more bags. So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more, but the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money. After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. Master, he said, you entrusted me with five bags of gold, see, I’ve gained five more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s joy. The man with two bags of gold also came. Master, he said, you entrusted me with two bags of gold, see, I’ve gained two more. His master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s joy. Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. Master, he said, I knew that you’re a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here’s what belongs to you. His master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags. For whoever has will be given more and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken from them and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we’re thankful for your word and we’re thankful for these parables that teach us about the kingdom of God and how we can live in your kingdom, serving you and pleasing you. Lord, I pray today that you would teach us about stewardship, but more than just teaching us about stewardship, Lord, I’m praying for my heart and for every heart in the room today that you would grow generosity in us. Lord, help me to be more generous, not just with my money, but with my time, with the way I treat people, my kindness. Lord, grow generosity in our hearts, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. God bless you. You may be seated. So over the last many weeks, we’ve been talking about building a relationship with God. We’ve been looking at five habits. And so we’re not saying five decisions, we’re saying five habits. Aren’t you glad that there’s moments in our life like we can come to the altar, we can pray, and we can have a moment with God? I love that. But after you have that moment with God, you’ve got to get up and walk out your faith. You’ve got to live for God. And so that’s why I haven’t entitled this five decisions for God or five resolutions of the Christian life, but I’ve entitled this the five habits. Another way we might say is the five disciplines. Like we have to live our life of faith. We can’t just focus just on our experience at the altar. Although I’m so glad I can look back in my life and I have moments when I know I talked with the Lord and he talked with me. I have moments in my life where I know I had an experience with the Lord Jesus. But after those moments, I’ve got to get up and live for God. I’ve got to walk that out. And so that’s what these five habits are all about. If you want to build a relationship with God, you’ve got to cultivate your life of prayer. You’ve got to become, not your grandmother. I’m so thankful to have a mom who prays. I’m thankful to have a wife who prays. I’m thankful to have deacons who pray. But as a Christian, as a pastor, I’ve got to pray. And so we can point to this person or that person that we know is a person of prayer, but God wants you to be a person of prayer. So if we want to build a very close and intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we’ve got to cultivate a prayer life. And we’ve also got to live in the word. And that’s more than just knowing the word, that’s the starting point. Yes, we’ve got to know the word, we’ve got to read the word, we’ve got to memorize the word, but we’ve got to use the word of God like it’s a sword of the spirit. Isn’t that what Paul says? The word of God is the sword of the spirit, Ephesians chapter 6. And so we’ve got to live in the word. We’ve got to begin to use God’s word to do battle against negative emotions, spiritual attacks, deception, and untruths that the world and the culture of this world would want us to think and want us to believe. We’ve got to use the word of God to battle those deceptions in our lives. We’ve got to live in the word. And then if we want to have a close relationship with God, we’ve got to live to serve and serve to grow. It’s when we serve others and we keep our focus off of ourselves and we focus on others, that’s when we’re able to share hope with the people around us. And as a church, that’s the kind of church we want to be. We don’t want to be the kind of church that’s us for and no more. We don’t want to be the kind of church that says, well, let’s build a fortress and just celebrate our own church family until Jesus comes. No, we want to be concerned about Hickman High School. We want to be concerned and pray over Jeff Middle School, and our fire people, and our police, and our city council. I’ve been praying for our city council. The Lord just put a burden in the last many weeks to pray for our city council. I’ve been praying for our mayor that she would come to know Jesus, that she would have a born-again experience, that she would know Jesus personally, and that she would begin a relationship with the Lord. And I want to be the kind of church and the kind of Christian that’s not just focused on me, but focused on the community. Lord, help us to share hope in our community. And last week, we looked at the importance of making church your home, and I could preach a whole another sermon on that today, but I won’t. That’s not the message. But I know especially when we lived overseas, it was such a joy. Sometimes people would be in that big city for only two years on assignment, and they’d come and they’d find the local church. And that church became like a home away from home. They built such great relationships, so that when they left, they remembered those relationships for the rest of their lives. I remember we were back probably 10 years stateside, and there was a couple. He was actually the ambassador of India, and he had passed away. And his wife sent us an email to let us know. I mean, it had been 10 years, but those were the kind of relationships that you build when you’re in church. You get to know one another. You become brothers and sisters in the Lord. And so I want to encourage you, if you want a close relationship with the Lord, build church relationships. They will encourage you. They will help you in your walk with the Lord. And the message this morning, of course, is on generosity. If you want to have a close relationship with the Lord, let the Lord enlarge your generosity for other people. You can’t outgive God. It’s so true. Every time I put God first in my finances, he blesses me. He helps me. When I give to the Lord, another thing I love about tithing and giving offerings to the Lord is when I give to the Lord, it creates a gap in my finances that only God can fill. You see, when I go month by month and say, oh, I don’t have anything to give to the Lord, what I’m really saying is, I got this. I’m going to handle this on my own. Have you ever, you know, raising kids or any of you who are teachers or you’ve been a coach and you’ve been coaching or teaching a young person who just keeps telling you, oh, I got this? I mean, they are so confident. I got this, but they miss the three-point shot every time. It’s like, eventually, as a coach, you’re like, you don’t got this. Have you ever been there? I mean, I’ve been there. I’ve been there at times as a parent. I’ve been there at times as a coach. I’ve been there many times as a teacher. When someone is just like, I got this, you know, no problem, I got this, it’s like, I’ve been watching, you don’t got it. I think God must feel that way about us sometimes. We just keep telling God, no, no, no, no, I got this. My finances, I know I’m going through some struggles, but I got this. And God is just patient with us. But you don’t got this. And what happens when I begin to put God first in my finances, and I say, Lord, begin to change my heart about money so that I’m not the slave of money, but I’m the master of the money in my life. And really, it’s the Lord who’s the master of the money in my life. What begins to happen is I, as I put God first in my finances and ask God to change my heart, I create a gap in my finances where I, rather than looking to myself, I’m saying, okay, God, you see the bills that are coming in. You see the bills that I have in groceries, and as I’m trying to raise my kids, I’m going to put you first, but now I need you to come through. And God comes through every time. Before we dig into Matthew chapter 25, I just wanted to take a few minutes, and I’ve written out a number of scriptures in my notes. I’m just trying to think about generosity. What does the Bible teach us about generosity? Well, the first thing I see in scripture when it comes to a theology of generosity is work. Work allows us to give generously. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 28, anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with their own hands that they may have something to share with those in need. Friends, if you don’t work, you don’t have anything to share with other people in need. The Christian message is so different and opposite the message of socialism, for example, which says, when I don’t have need, the government should swoop in and take money from other people who have to meet my need. What the Bible says, if you have nothing to give someone else who’s in need, it’s because you’re not working. You’re not getting out there and working. And so work is such a blessing because it allows us to be generous. The second truth we see in the Bible as it relates to generosity is God rewards those who give generously. There’s a reward, Matthew chapter 6, 3 and 4, and I’ll just read verse 4, then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Isn’t that amazing that when you are generous, sometimes, most of the time, in secret, nobody really even knows who gave that or how that happened in the church or the local community because someone stepped up and gave. There is a spiritual reward. The third truth, God loves a cheerful giver. I love it that everywhere through Scripture, Scripture is giving as voluntary. God’s not coming and saying, you have to do this. God is saying, you get to do this. I get to be generous. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9, 7, each one must give as he has decided in his heart. So you’re not giving. I love the old joke. During offering time, we used to joke around and say, I want everyone to give. In fact, I want you to give like you always wanted to give. Would you just reach over to the pocket of your neighbor, grab his wallet, and give like you always wanted to give? Oh, we can have fun with that. But I’m so glad that God wants us to give out of a cheerful heart. God wants you to give what you’ve decided in your heart to give, not what the pastor thinks you should give, not what your friend thinks you should give, not what social media pressures you into giving. God wants you to give voluntarily and from a cheerful heart. God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9, 7. As we think about generosity, we know from Scripture that God is concerned for the poor. And if God is concerned for the poor, we should be concerned for the poor. We should be concerned when someone has a need, when someone has a lack. We should, like Jesus, we should be concerned. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need and has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 1 John 3, 17. Doing good to others is important to God. Hebrews 13, 16. And do not forget to do good and to share with others for such sacrifices God is pleased. Sacrificial giving is important to God. Jesus taught us that in the Gospels. It’s not always the amount. In fact, it’s never the amount. It’s what’s in your heart. Mark chapter 12, verse 43, calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. Because she gave out of her need. She gave out of her sacrifice. Generosity brings God’s blessings into your life. And there’s so many verses. But my favorite is Proverbs 11, 24 and 25. One person gives freely yet gains even more. Withholds unduly but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. That’s Proverbs 11, 25. You might hear me quote that from time to time. I love that verse. I’d love to say it the way the original reads, whoever waters others will themselves be watered. It’s a wonderful idea that as you allow God to turn your heart to others, turn your heart to generosity and kindness, there’s a blessing in there for you too. God’s going to bless you as you look for ways to bless others. I do want to mention tithing this morning. Is it my one time of the year that I get to just preach a little bit on tithing? Praise the Lord. Thank you, Pat. You know, over the years, I’ve heard some say, well, tithing is not really in the New Testament. And that’s largely true. There’s not much said about tithing. In fact, I think it is assumed because in the New Testament, all the early Christians were Jewish in background. So I think tithing is assumed. But some will say, well, tithing is from the Old Testament. It’s under the Old Covenant. So I don’t need to tithe. But there’s an interesting story in Genesis chapter 14. There’s a battle that takes place between four kings and five kings. Abraham, Abram gets caught up in that battle because Lot was at Sodom and Lot got taken. And so Abraham, the Bible says, grabs all of his, I think something like 300 fighting men and he goes after Lot and he gets back all of Lot’s family and all of the plunder. And you know what the Bible says Abraham does? Abraham gives a tenth of all of it to Melchizedek. Hebrews tells us that Melchizedek is a type of Jesus. And this was hundreds of years before the law of Moses was given. So what does that tell me? It tells me that we tithe not to be fulfilling the law of Moses. We tithe out of our hearts because we want to put God first in our lives. That’s what Abraham did. Could somebody say amen? So that tells me the tithe is not just an Old Testament law. The tithe is a New Testament gift to you. You get to tithe. And Malachi tells us in chapter 3 that when we don’t tithe, it’s like we’re robbing God. The people said, well, how are we robbing you, God? And God says, you are not tithing to the house of the Lord. And so I want to encourage all of us today, if you’ve never tithed, if you’ve never put God first in your finances, let today be the day that you say, okay, God, I’m going to give this a try. I’m going to begin to tithe. It’s going to be the first check or the first bill pay or whatever that I do. I’m going to give you 10% of my income and then I’m going to watch. I’m going to say, okay, Lord, I’m putting you first. I’m trusting in you and God will come through for you. I promise you. I’ve got 35 years of evidence that when you put God first in your life, he will take care of your finances. I’m going to keep moving. Seven truths from Matthew chapter 25, from the parable of the talents. The first truth as it relates to generosity and stewardship is God has entrusted you with resources. There’s no doubt about it. The parable of the talents is about money. Now it’s about more than money, but talent was about, if you had five talents, that was a lot of money. It was 75 years of work. So the person in this parable who is getting five talents, it’s like they’re given this really big responsibility because that talent was actually a lot of money. And what we see in scripture, let me read it again. Matthew 25 verses 14 and 15 is we see that God has entrusted each and every one of us with time, talent, and treasure. For it will be like a man going on a journey. And it is the kingdom, right? So all of these parables are about the kingdom of God. What is it like living with Jesus and seeing the heavenly kingdom through Jesus come into your life and come into your church so that now you’re living the kingdom of heaven way in the middle of an ungodly world, right? That’s what these parables are really about. They’re about how to live in the kingdom of God on this earth. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. I love this word ability because it’s the same word for power. It’s deutamous, deutamous. And I’ll deal with this in just a moment where the servant that dug a hole in the ground, it says he was fearful. He was afraid. The Bible tells us God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power. That’s the same word, deutamous. So the word here for ability is deutamous just like when it says God has not given you a spirit of fear, he’s given you power and a sound mind. So he’s given you ability to serve him. And I love that here that one person has the ability, they have the power and strength for five talents. Another person has the ability or the power or strength for two talents. And then another person is given one talent. And we don’t know a lot about how God does that. We just know that we’re all different. We all have different abilities. We all have different strengths, different capabilities, but each one is required. It says he entrusted them. You’re entrusted with abilities. You’re entrusted with time, talent, and treasure. And so whether you’re the five-talent person or the two-talent person or the one-talent person, God is still asking you to go to work with the entrusted resources that he’s placed in your life. If you’re like me, you have more moments feeling like you’re the one-talent person than moments in your life where you feel like the five-talent person, right? I mean, let’s be honest. I remember when I first started out in ministry and I was at Bible College. I had just left the University of Missouri, headed down to Bible College, and we had a guest speaker in one of our classes. And I mean, this guy could do it all. He was a successful youth pastor at one of the largest churches in the Assemblies of God. He had a gold watch. He had a necklace on. I mean, he was happening. And I sat there in that class that day and thought, I don’t have a gold watch. I don’t have a necklace on. I can’t sing. I can’t lead the choir. And sometimes people don’t even like me. And I did. I had kind of moment with God that week going, why have you called me into the ministry? This ain’t going to work. I can’t even play the piano. But you know, it wasn’t long. I got out into ministry and God began to show me that actually not being able to do everything is a gift. Because when you don’t show up and say, I got this and I got that and I knew this, other people have to start stepping up. And so it’s actually a gift when you can’t lead the worship and you can’t play on the piano and you can’t count all the money and you can’t do this or that or be the D because other people have to step up and use their gifts. And so sometimes in life, we do feel like the one talent person. But friend, you’ve got talents. You’ve got treasures. You’ve got time, capability, abilities that God has given you. And God’s not looking to the person next to you. He’s not looking to the neighbor that you’re looking at comparing yourself to. He’s looking to you and say, will you use the talent or the talents that I’ve given you to use? Will you go to work with those talents? Because you’ve been entrusted. You’ve been entrusted. And when judgment day comes, and that’s how this parable ends, by the way, in verse 30. When judgment day comes, God’s not going to be looking at you and saying, well, what did you think about that five talent person? No, he’s going to be looking at you and say, what did you do with the time, talent, treasure that I gave you? What did you do to develop the life that I gave you? What did you do to develop the call of God on your life, not the call of God on someone else’s life? You have been entrusted with gifts and talents and resources. The second truth we see here as it relates to stewardship and generosity is God does expect us to go to work. Verse 16 and 17, he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them. That’s another way of, he went out and did business, right? He became a business person and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. God wants us to go to work. Life is not to just let the sun go up and sun go down and to just let the years go by. God has you on this planet because he wants you to go to work. He wants you to be productive. He wants you to be creative. He wants you to be an inventor. He wants you to get out there and make this world a better place. We see that throughout scripture. If you know me at all, you know I love Genesis 1, 26 through 28, the creation mandate where the Bible teaches us that we, as God’s creation, we are a special part of his creation. We’ve been created in the image of God, which means you have the ability to reflect God. You have the ability to represent God on this planet. And when Jesus came, all of that authority and all of that capability is restored in your life as you are in Christ Jesus. You see, when I’m just living in sin and wandering out in the world today because of the fall and because of sin in my life, I’ve lost that capability. I’ve lost that power, that duty in my life because I’m just out wandering through life, living in sin and a world of evil like everyone else. But when I come to Jesus, when I commit my life to Christ and begin to follow the Lord, he begins to restore and redeem the dominion that was given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1, 26 and 27. God said that Adam and Eve, they’re going to rule over. They’re going to have dominion. They’re going to multiply. They’re going to be fruitful. God wants all of that for your life. God wants you to be fruitful. We see that in the gospels. God wants you to be productive. God wants you to love your work, right? And we don’t always love our work. I don’t know. Well, I’m pretty blessed. There’s some Mondays I don’t love my work, but you get a little tired, get a little down. You’ve been up like this on Sunday. You kind of go like this on Monday. We all have those moments, but God wants us to embrace work. I believe Christians to be the most productive, most creative, most ingenious people on the planet because we’re in tune with God’s purposes and intentions for us as human beings. We’ve been created in the image of God. We’ve been given the authority to take dominion and rule over and be fruitful and multiply. God wants that for you. He expects you to go to work with whatever time, talent or treasure he’s put into your life. A third truth from this parable is hiding your talents displeases the Lord. Pretty obvious, right? I didn’t have to dig real deep underneath the text to find this truth. It displeases God. You know, there’s some things in life that please God. There’s some things in life that displease God. There’s there’s behaviors and attitudes and actions that can cause God to smile in your life and there’s behaviors or attitudes and actions in life that can cause God to frown, if you will. He’s not pleased. It displeases God when we leave our calling undeveloped. It displeases God when we when we leave our gifts undeveloped. When we know that God has put a call on us to be a teacher or to be a Sunday school teacher or to be a pastor, but we just leave it undeveloped. That displeases God. If God’s given you gifts, if God’s given you talents, God wants you to go to work. He wants you to put those into practice. He wants you to begin to develop, to be a learner, to be someone who’s growing. God doesn’t want us to dig a hole and just say, well, I don’t know what to do with this or I’m not really wanting to put much energy or effort towards it. Remember that one of the descriptions of the wicked servant is what lazy, lazy. It was just too much work, too much work. Verse 18, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Another thing we see from this parable is that God’s perspective is often long term. My perspective is actually short term most of the time. And I ask the Lord all the time, Lord, help me with that. Help me to have a long term perspective because that’s God’s perspective in your life. God has a long term perspective. Verse 19. Now after a long time, and there’s actually, if you look in Matthew 24 and 25, there’s three parables here and at least three different times we get an idea that Jesus is saying that he’s going to go away, but it may be a long time before he comes back. Look with me at Matthew 24, verse 48, there at the end of 48. I’ll just read the whole verse. But suppose that that servant is wicked and says to himself, my master is staying away a long time. And then Matthew 25, verse five, the bridegroom was a long time in coming. And then our verse here at 19. So three different times in these parables, we get an idea from Jesus as the master that his return may take a long time. God has a long term perspective in your life. We need to remind every young person, every young adult, every child, every grandchild, when they get a little frustrated about God, what are you doing? We need to remind them that Joseph had to wait more than 13 years to see God come through. And Jacob had to slave and work for 14 years before he received Rachel and Leah. You know that story, that little trickery there. You see, in our culture today, because we have so many things that come to us so quickly, you’re hungry, you pull up to McDonald’s. At home, you need something heated up, you use the microwave, right? I mean, we’re just, we are a microwave culture. And it can begin to affect our view of God. God has a long range view for your life. And he always keeps his promises. So church, I want to encourage you to not give up or to let go of the promises of God in the short term. Because we have a tendency to do that. Let’s keep holding on to the Lord. Let’s keep pressing into God. Let’s keep believing in his promises, because God has a long term view of what he wants to do in your life. And one of the truths that we all need to hear and our young people need to understand is that short term, this world’s got a pretty good thing going. Let’s be honest. You’re a young person and you’re trying to figure out how to walk with God and suddenly you get out there and start to meet people who aren’t serving the Lord and they’re partying, they’re having fun. And life starts to seem, well, maybe I’ll give that a try. You know the story of the prodigal son. It describes it in Luke 15. And life can seem really fun in the short term. But I know a lot of those same people who did all that in the short term and in the long term. Well, let me just share a little story. I remember one time when I was a chaplain over at Boone Hospital, I got a call. I would always, as a chaplain, if you’re an on-call chaplain at one of the local hospitals, you only get called when someone’s about to pass or just passed. And I got called because there was a gentleman that was having significant heart problems and he was very close to death. By the time I got there, he was shaking. He was frightful. He was scared to death. And I tried to talk with him and understand what was going on in his life to try to give him peace, to try to offer to him some hope. And he just struggled to get there. And as I began to listen to his story, he’d lived his whole life for himself and he really didn’t have any loved ones. He described how he used to love dancing and drinking and he used to, he got really big into the dancing scene and he’d lived a party life. And now he was laying there and there was no one to come to his side. There was no family member to be with him. He was all alone and he was scared to death. I wish I could say to you today that I led him to the Lord. I tried, but he couldn’t get past his fear. He couldn’t get past what he was feeling. He couldn’t get past his self and the life he had lived. The truth is the world in the short term might offer you something that seems better, but there’s nothing better than walking with Jesus in the long term. When you choose to follow the Lord, God will begin to produce blessing after blessing in your life. God will begin to change you into a better person. You’ll start to become more like Jesus. Long term, there’s nothing better than serving the Lord. A fifth truth we see in this parable is faithfulness leads to bigger things. Now we could say that in the inverse, right? Unfaithfulness leads to less. Verse 20 through 23, his master replied, well done, and this is just a part of that. Those three verses, his master replied, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And this is what the two talent person and the five talent person heard. They had taken what was given and what had been entrusted to their lives. And we all have different situations and circumstances in life. And that’s why I love this story because Jesus obviously knew it, right? So he didn’t just tell the story about the one talent guy. Jesus understood that we all have different situations in life. We all have different talents or capabilities. So there’s the one, there’s the two and the five. But in every case that the person took what was entrusted and went to work and did the best they could to invest it and to develop it and to be productive with what the master had given. What do they hear? They hear well done, good and faithful servant enter into joy and happiness. You see, when you’re faithful with what God has given you, it may be hard in the short run, but in the long run, you’re going to hear well done, good and faithful servant. And you’re going to experience joy this year. And you probably hear me say this more than once this year. Jenny and I will celebrate 35 years of marriage. And I know for some of you, that’s not very long. Thank you. But and we’ve had so many good years and we’ve been blessed with just very few difficult times in our marriage. A lot of times the difficulties was around us that we had to fight together. But I can tell you it and many of you, you share a similar story that there’s yes, in the short term, there’s challenges and there’s sacrifices that have to be made. But in the long term, those sacrifices pay off. In the long term, you begin to look and go, wow, God, look what you’re doing in my life because I was willing to sacrifice my flesh. I was willing to sacrifice what I thought I needed in life for what you wanted for my life. And friend, I’m telling you, if you’ll do that, you’ll begin to see the bigger things, the abundance of God being poured out into your life. And no, it’s not all about finance. Talents are about money, but it’s about so much more. The spiritual blessings that God will begin to pour into your life as you’re willing to say, yes, Lord, I’m going to go to work in your kingdom for you. I’m going to put you first in my life. God will begin to return on your head blessings and rewards. Now, one of the very important truths here in the parable is is this this something I mentioned already is is the one talent person who went over and dug a hole in the ground. Why did he do it? He did it because he said, oh, I know you’re a hard you’re a hard master and you’re a shrewd businessman. And I was afraid, well, he didn’t have a very good relationship with the master, did he? He didn’t understand nowhere in the parable is the parable telling us that that’s how God is or that’s how the master was. It’s just that was the perspective of the one talent guy. So the two talent person didn’t have that perspective of the master, the master and trust you with two talents and you go and you say, OK, master, thank you so much. And I’m going to go and put that to work. But it’s the one talent person because of their view of the master, which in this story represents Jesus or represents God. Friend, be very careful about your attitude towards God. Your perspective of God, people right next to you can have a wonderful attitude towards God, they can be full of faith and understand that God is good and God is at work in my life, even when I don’t see it. I know God is at work in my life and I’m going to trust him. God, you are good. You’ve entrusted me with this life. I’m going to go invest it. I’m going to go grow it. I’m going to invest in my marriage. I’m going to invest in my kids. I’m going to I’m going to do the best I can for you, Lord. You see, what was it that really kept the one talent person from experiencing the abundance that God wanted for them? It wasn’t the master. It was their own perspective. It was their own heart. It was their their own attitude. And so fear will hinder what God wants to do in your life as you walk with Jesus in the kingdom. I already mentioned Second Timothy one, seven. God has not given us a spirit of fear. And I feel like this is such an important message for our culture today because so many young people today are struggling. If you just do any Google search on the statistics of what young people are struggling with today, they’re struggling with anxiety and fears. And fears can be good, right? Fears can protect me from putting my hand in the fire. Fears can protect me from running out in the road when a car is coming by. If I see a lion in my backyard today, I’m running into the house because I’m afraid. Right. So fear can be healthy. But too often in our lives today, we are living with unhealthy fears and phobias, unhealthy anxieties that is causing a disconnect between us and God. And that’s why the Bible talks about faith, because faith overcomes fear. Lord, help me to have a heart and an attitude of faith that believes in your goodness as my master, as my Lord. I don’t want to live with fear. I don’t want to live with a misunderstanding of who God is in my life. You see, fear will hinder what God wants to develop and grow in your life. And so I’m praying for us, Lord. Help us not to be fearful, help us to have attitudes and hearts of faith. And then seventh and finally this morning. God rewards faithful servants. God rewards faithful servants. So take the talent from him and give it give it to him who has the ten talents for to everyone who has. Will more be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now deal with the second part in just a moment. But the first part of those verses remind us that when you invest yourself in the kingdom of God, God is saying you’re going to have more. And when you when you don’t develop the gifts and the talents that God has given you in his kingdom, you’re going to even lose out on that. Remember the old saying, if you don’t use it, you lose it. I think that applies here. If we don’t use the talents and the treasures that God has put us in our life for the kingdom of God, we’re in jeopardy of losing even what we have. But but if we take the talents and the time and the treasure that God has given us and we say, Lord, I want to be faithful to you, Lord, I want to honor you. I want to be the best husband I can be. I want to be the best Christian I can be. I want to be generous and kind to people around me. I want to be a blessing to the kingdom of God. God’s word is telling us in this parable, good news, you’re going to have even more opportunity. You’re going to have more opportunity to witness. You’re going to have more opportunity to be a blessing to people around you. It’s interesting how many times in this last part here is about a final judgment day. The Bible tells us repeatedly that it’s appointed unto man once to die and then the judgment that’s in Hebrews. We are all going to be under judgment. There’s a day coming when we’ll all be judged. And it won’t just be about what we think is fair, but it will be about what God says is just what God says is true. And Jesus, he multiple times, I think like seven times in his parables, he talks about weeping and gnashing of teeth. Gnashing of teeth is when you grind your teeth. You’re just so full of regret. You’re so full of anguish. You’re just that kind of looks funny for you to even do it. But that’s why I’m up here and you’re there because I get to look funny. Seven times in the parables, Jesus says there’s a day of judgment coming and some people are going to be gnashing their teeth. They’re going to be full of regret, they’re going to be full of anxiety because now it’s judgment day. They’ve squandered what they’ve been given, they’ve squandered what God had invested in their life, entrusted in their life, and they didn’t do anything with it. But now, now it’s too late. And cast that worthless servant out of the kingdom of God, cast him out of the kingdom of God, cast that worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus, many times in his words to us, he’s full of love, he’s full of compassion, but there are times when he speaks to us and it’s actually very direct and it’s almost seems harsh to us today. Jesus is warning us. That, yes, God rewards those who are faithful, but those who choose to squander God’s blessings and squander God’s gifts in our lives, we are in danger of judgment. I’m praying for all of us today that we would have a new heart of generosity, and that’s something God can produce in our hearts. Matthew 25 really is a lot about being a good steward. Being a Christian steward is recognizing the Lord Jesus and his Lordship over every era of your life, recognizing that God has given you gifts and talents and he wants you to use those in his kingdom. He doesn’t want you just to dig a hole in the ground and just sit on your talents. He wants you to go to work with his with the talents that he’s given your life. But this morning I felt led not just to talk about stewardship, but to talk about generosity. And maybe it’s something that if the worship team would go ahead and come, maybe it’s something just that the Lord’s working on me, but I hope he’s I hope he means it for you as well. I feel like in some ways in life I’ve been an OK steward, but what about my generosity? And maybe you feel that way this morning. I mean, well, you know, I’m managing work. OK, I’m I’m doing OK with my household finances. We’re pretty good stewards. But but what about your generosity? I’m asking the Lord to help me to come into a new season of generosity. And yes, that’s about my finances, but it’s also about the way I treat people. It’s also about kindness. It’s also how I just sort of reorganize my schedule. Lord, help me to be able to have pauses in my schedule where I can just look up and look for people and love people and go out of my way just to say, hey, I noticed you. How are you doing? Anybody feel like you fail at that? Yeah, I think we all do. Right. We we all do. Because especially if you’re a task oriented person, you’re going to have a hard time being a person, you got a lot going on. We all fail in that way. But Lord, give me a heart of generosity. I don’t want at the end of my life, God to say, well, you were a good steward. But your generosity was way down here. Lord, give me a heart of generosity to be a blessing. I want to invite you to stand with me this morning and we’re going to wrap up with worship, but as we’re doing that, that’s the that’s the simple request today. Lord Jesus, help us to be generous, help us to be a generous group of people, help us to be generous. I don’t know, maybe you’re not as generous as God would have you be because you’re fearful. I don’t know. Maybe you’re fearful if if you’re generous, if you give that to the Lord or you give that to someone who’s in need, then you your needs won’t be met. May the Lord deal with that fear for you today. Any time you put God first in your finances, he’s going to take care of you. He’s going to come through. Lord, help me to be generous. Lord, we just pray today that you would work in our hearts as your followers. Lord, thank you that we’re in the kingdom. Thank you, Lord, that we’re walking with you in the kingdom of heaven on this earth. Lord, our world today is in such need. Our world today is in such need of hope and generosity. And generosity, Lord, I pray that you’d fill our church up with generous people, fill our church up with generosity, our hearts full of generosity. Lord, let kindness and love flow out to you and flow out to others. We pray in Jesus name, Jesus name. Let’s worship the Lord. I am Pastor Tom Ragsdale. I’m Pastor Elvis Benes and we’re from Columbia First Assembly. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know. And we will be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special at our church and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi-generational church. We have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the word. We’re a church of the spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with him. And we want to help you know God. We want to help you grow in God and we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.