This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day two of our look through Matthew chapter 25. We're
looking in this chapter at three specific stories about how to be ready for the
return of Jesus Christ, what difference it makes in our lives today. And
yesterday we talked about the fact that it makes a difference in our
preparedness to wait, our preparedness to be ready for what Jesus is going to do
in our lives.

Today we're going to look at the long story that Jesus tells about how you
invest your life on a daily basis based on the fact that you know he's going to
return. What difference does it make in the way that you live? Let's take a
while to look at this story that Jesus has to tell us.

It begins in verse 14. "Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who
called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five
talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each
according to his ability.

And then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went
at once, put his money to work, and gained five more. So also the one with the
two talents gained two more.

But the man who had received the one talent 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 the five
talents brought the other five.

'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five
more. ' His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.
Come and share your master's happiness.

' The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me
with two talents. See, I have gained two more.

' The master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been
faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness. ' And then the man who had received the
one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting
what you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered.

And so I was afraid and I went out and I hid your talent in the ground. And see,
here is 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.
Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents.

For everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance. But
whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that
worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth.

' What a story about how you and I invest our lives. Those who use their
talents, by the way, notice the talents were given by the master. Those who use
the talents that were given to them were blessed.

And those who hid their talents, the one who hid his talent, was cursed. You
look at your life, my life, the word 'talent' here has to do with a certain
amount of money. It's not too difficult for us to think about the talents and
abilities that God has put into our hands as well.

Not just the money, but the abilities that he's given us. God has placed things
into our hands that we have while we're waiting for him to return. Visible
materials and invisible talents and abilities, money and relationships and
opportunities.

What does it mean to be alert to the return of Jesus Christ? It means that you
use those things for his glory until he comes back. It doesn't mean you hide
those things, it means you use those things.

And the word that comes up again and again in this parable that Jesus told is
the word 'faithfulness'. The idea of being faithful. This story tells us about
the power of faithfulness in our lives.

It tells us that truly to be successful in this world is to be faithful in this
world. It's okay to want to be successful. If this was a management seminar and
I asked people to raise their hand, do you want to be successful?

It's easy. Everybody raises their hand. In church, do you want to be successful?

Well, I don't know. Should I raise my hand or not? Yes, you should want to be
successful.

God promises us success. It's okay to desire what God promises. But the Bible
goes beyond the question, do you want to be successful?

To tell us this is what real success is. The question is, what do you want to
succeed at? It's no good to succeed at the things that are never going to last.

Do you want to be successful at the things that are never going to last? Yes, I
do. You do.

So how do you do that? And Jesus tells us here in this story, you do it by being
faithful with whatever God has given you. By being faithful with whatever God
has given you.

We're going to look today and tomorrow at five steps to greater faithfulness
that you can see in this story that Jesus told. And the first step is you accept
what God has given you. Whatever God has put into your hands, you accept that
and you use that.

You don't get caught up in what God has given others, what God hasn't given you,
what God should have given you. You accept what God has given you. You trust Him
and you trust Him and use it for His glory.

You watch out for the questions, for the how come it happened this way kind of
questions. For the how come he got five talents questions? Or how come I got two
talents questions?

Or how come he got one talent questions? You watch out for those kinds of
questions. When you start asking how come he got five talents, you're comparing.

And that means I'm jealous. I'm caught up in jealousy instead of investing what
God has given. When you look at yourself and you think how come I got just one
talent?

Or how come I just got two talents? You can start to think I'm unappreciated.
God doesn't see all the talents that I have, all the ability that I have.

I should have gotten more. And instead of jealousy, you get caught up in
bitterness in your life. Or sometimes you can look around and think how come
they just got one or two talents and I got five?

And in that case, you're caught up in pride. I got more than everybody else.
Jealousy, bitterness, pride, all these things that result from you and I
comparing the number of talents or abilities or the amount of money or the
opportunities in our birth or whatever it is, all these things that come from
comparing cause us to not be able to use what God has given us.

Because we're all caught up in thinking about ourselves rather than thinking
about investing. Now you may look at your life and think God has somehow
under-evaluated you, hasn't given you all that you deserve, all that you need.
The question isn't how much he's given.

The question is what are you doing with what he's given? You may look at your
life and think he's over-evaluated you. He's given you too much, too many
opportunities.

And it makes you feel like how can I deserve this? And there is almost a sense
of guilt in what he's given. The question isn't how much he's given you.

The question is what are you doing with what he's given you? You can get caught
up in focusing on how little he's given you. You can get caught up in focusing
on how much he's given you.

And in either case, that can keep you from investing what he's given you. The
truth is most people are not satisfied if they look at it from a human
perspective with what God's given them. There are very few that would say I am
content with what God's given me.

Those who have little are looking at those who have much and they're not
content. Those who have much are looking at those who have more and they're not
content. And those who have the most are looking at the fact that the most that
they have has not met their deepest needs and they're not content.

The question is not in trying to find life and joy in what he's given. The
question is whatever he's given, am I investing it for him? Am I investing it in
other people?

Am I investing in ministry? Am I investing it in prayer? Am I doing the things
that he'd want done with what he's put into my life?

That's what it means to invest. The master gave you that ability. He gave you
that money.

He gave you that strength. So the question is are you investing it in a way that
would please him? You accept what God has given you and then you, number two,
you invest what God has given you.

God gave them these talents. They invested them, two of them, and there was
return that came because of that. And out of that came reward.

Out of that came joy. God has given you ability. He entrusted you with
properties, entrusted you with a certain opportunity or responsibility.

Those are God's opportunities. It's God's ability. Now you may think somehow you
manage your abilities or you manage your opportunities.

You're giving yourself way too much credit. I understand. We learn and we grow
and there's things that God asks us to do to develop our abilities.

But God created you. And even the opportunities that come our way, there's a lot
of miracle in those opportunities. And the question is do you recognize those as
opportunities from God?

Do you recognize those as abilities given by God? Once you acknowledge that,
then you see that your life is not a matter of luck or chance. Your life is not
a matter of what you've built into it.

Your life is a matter of the opportunities and the abilities that God's put into
your life and how you can invest your life at those moments, with those moments
in a way that pleases him. God's place, God's timing, that's the key to
understanding God's will in our lives. So let's take a moment to pray and ask
him that he help us to see that today.

Lord Jesus, we pray that instead of getting caught up in comparing, you would
help us to live our lives investing. We don't want to be comparing ourselves to
others all the time thinking about what we have or what we don't have. We want
to take whatever you've given us and we want to use it in a way that pleases
you.

Use it in a way that lasts all the way into eternity. Investing ourselves in
people's growth, investing ourselves in people coming to Christ and investing
whatever you've put into our hands into change lives for your sake. And so Lord,
show us how to do that today.

Give us wisdom in doing that today. We pray it in your name, Jesus, amen. Join
us tomorrow.

Continue to look at these principles of faithfulness in our lives.