May 19, 2024

  BEYOND WORDS: USE IT OR LOSE IT

May 19, 2024

Pastor Jonathan Falwell

Life is filled with times in our lives when we become adept at doing something as a job or a hobby. Perhaps you once played a piano, only to let years go by without touching one. You try again, and find your fingers don’t move very quickly, your sight-reading isn’t what it was, and missed notes abound. Inevitably, someone remarks, “Well, if you don’t use it, you lose it!” Today’s parable, that of the buried talent, can be seen as an analogy, as the servant buries his one talent, not using it at all while the master is on a long trip. When he returns, the servant produces the talent, unused and unprofitable. The master is angry, taking the talent away, and giving it to another servant who will use it. Which type of servant are you?

Focal Passages: Matthew 25:14-30.

The Call:

• Read Matt. 25:14-15. Does someone recall why Jesus taught the people in parables? How many people were involved here? Who were they? Who does the master represent? Who do the servants represent? What did he give them? What did he expect them to do with the talents? What did the master do then? How did he decide how much to give to each servant?
• Read Eph. 4:7. Why does God give believers spiritual gifts? How would you describe a spiritual gift? Is it something to be used now or later? What are some examples of spiritual gifts? What are they to be used for? How does He give them to us?
• Read Eph. 4:11-13. How does this list illustrate the reason God gives us spiritual gifts?
• Read Esther 4:13-14. What did Mordecai tell Esther? Did she have a choice, like the third servant? Would she have lost out on the blessings if she had not done the job?

Our Faithfulness:                                                                                                                         

• Read Matt. 25:16. How do Christians multiply their spiritual gifts? What is the main objective of spiritual gifts?
• How does the example set by the third servant remind us that our faithfulness is always seen by God? What does He expect when He gives us gifts to use for others?
• What are some ways in which we can be “unfaithful” to God?

The Reward:

• Read vv. 28-29. If you were giving gifts (money, abilities, etc.) to your children for their watch care, to whom would you give the most? Who would get the least? The third servant, then, had the least ability. Is this why he showed such slothfulness in doing something with it that would have shown a return on it? What about you?
• How were the first two rewarded? Whose (money) had it been that they had been faithful with? The third servant buried the master’s money. Was that the same as stealing? Why did the master throw him into “outer darkness”?
• If you have been given five “talents,” will God hold you responsible for more than that? If we have only one, will we be responsible for ten? Why?
• What does God count as faithfulness? Does He expect those with little ability to be Billy Grahams? What are some things we can do where we are today, at our age and with the ability He has given us?

TAKE AWAYS:

• Understand God’s call on your life. See Prov. 22:6. What were you created to do?
• Focus on the call NOW, not later! See 1 Cor. 4:2. God wants us to serve where we are!
• Don’t stop until the right time comes! See Ex. 7:7, Gen. 5:32, Luke 1:7. Does age matter to God?

Close: 

                  How do we as believers become faithful to Him who has called us? We do it by walking every day as if it would be our last. Young people do not yet understand the concept of 2 Pet. 3:8, where Peter writes, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day.” One learns that by aging—by experiencing the years of walking with God, when it seems like “yesterday” that we became a Christian. It seems like a few years ago—not forty, fifty, or sixty—that we married. It seems there’s no way our kids can be fifty, or sixty, or seventy. Time flies—or it stands still. During the dark days it goes so slowly. It lasts forever. But it passes.

Yet the length of days assures us that we can look back at His faithfulness over the decades and see He has never once left us or forsaken us. Sometimes it seems like He has forgotten us. We get in a valley, (and it doesn’t have to be of our own making), and we cry out to God for help. When it does not come “speedily” we think He hasn’t heard us. We think He doesn’t care. He seems to allow evil to triumph, and Satan to be victorious over us, sometimes even killing when he has prowled around to devour us. We don’t get it. That is where you must remain faithful. You must believe by faith that He is with you. You must believe the promises He makes in His word. They may not make sense; they may seem as if this time they are wrong—but hang in there. This, too, shall pass. “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the Word of God stands forever.” His promises are sure.

By Sandy Day                                                                                                                                                                                                                May 19, 2024