This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to day three of our look through Matthew chapter 25. Yesterday we began a look at the parable of the talents and talked about these five principles we're going to look at that help us to see how you and I can invest our lives in the greatest way, be the greatest success in our lives with whatever God has put into our lives. We talked about the danger of comparing ourselves to others with whatever talents whatever abilities God has given to us and we talked about the call that God gives to us to invest whatever he's given to us in a way that will multiply for his glory. There's a third principle that you see in these verses and let me go back and read verses 22 and 23. "The man with the two talents also came and said, 'Master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I've gained two more. ' And his master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. '" A third principle is you have to be faithful with the few, with the little. You have to be faithful with the few. One of the keys to faithfulness is you don't wait to be faithful until you have a lot. You'd be faithful with the little that you have right now. Faithfulness was expressed in each of these, the one who had five talents, one who had two talents. It's expressed when they put the master's resources to work. There are a lot of people in this world who are waiting to be faithful. They're waiting for some greater opportunity, some world-changing opportunity. They're waiting until it would seem significant or maybe until a lot of people would notice. But the truth of the matter is, this is how God works. When I'm faithful with a few things, then he puts me in charge of more things. I'm faithful with more things, he puts me in charge of even more things. Now I happen to believe, since Jesus is talking about the second coming here, that there's an indication even of what's going to happen in eternity. That as we're faithful with the few things on this planet Earth, God's going to put us in charge of many things in heaven. He has things for us to do in heaven. I can't point to one verse that says that, but you get a sense from verses like this and other places where Jesus talks about the rewards we're going to have in heaven, that there's this reward of faithfulness that's going to go on forever and ever and ever. It's very easy to think about how you could be faithful if you had more. The question is, how can you be faithful with what you have? I've heard many people say to me, "If God gave me a million dollars, I would certainly give him ten percent. I'd give him a hundred thousand dollars. " That's not the question. The question is, what are you doing with the ten dollars that God gave you? Are you giving him a dollar out of that and then are you using it to bless other people? Remember that the offering that received the highest praise ever was the offering of the two widow's mites, the two pennies, the two small coins that she gave, and Jesus saw her giving and said, "No one is sacrificed like that. She gave all that she had. She gave all that she had. " So God used that small offering. It's still blessing people today. It's still teaching people about giving today. In this parable, there are two results that happen when I'm faithful with the few things that God has put into my life. Notice, I'll be put in charge of many, so there's the result of fulfillment of all that God wants me to be. In order to fulfill all that God wants you to be, both here and also to enjoy the fulfillment of that in eternity, I have to be faithful with the few things that he's put into my life. There's also the result of joy. Come and share your master's happiness. Come and share your master's happiness. Now, I hope you noticed. Last week, as we read the one who had five talents, and here as we read the one who has two talents, the master gives them both the same reward, says the same thing. You and I think that because I earned five more, maybe I'll get greater reward. That wasn't the question. The question was, were they faithful with what they had? And whether they started with five or started with two, the reward for both was the same because they were both faithful. So one of the things I have to do is I have to be faithful with the few things that God has put into my hands. That is one of the ways that you would build a life of faithfulness, build a life of true success. A fourth thing you have to do is you have to realize the danger of fear. Fear is the enemy of faithfulness. Fear is the enemy of faith. So again, let me go back and read verses 24 through 30. Then the man who had received the one talent came. Master, he said, I knew that you were a hard man harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed. So I was afraid and I went out and I hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you. His master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. You knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I've 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 to everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, it's going to be taken from him and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. What is it that keeps us from faith? What is it that keeps us from faithfulness? What is it that keeps us from beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ and growing in that relationship with Jesus? It's fear. God has designed a plan in your life. He's designed a plan for your fulfillment, for your joy. If that is true, why are so many people unhappy? Why are so many people living in a deep sense of discouragement, not only about this life, but also as they look to the next? The greatest enemy of genuine success in our lives is fear, is fear. And because he was afraid, he didn't do anything. That's what happens. Fear paralyzes us. It freezes us. Because he was afraid, he buried his talent. Fear inevitably comes down to that moment. We bury our talents. Instead of investing our lives, we find ourselves inhibiting our lives. We find ourselves not willing to use what God has put into our lives, the decisions, the choices, the money, the talents, the abilities, because we're afraid. We're afraid we won't have enough. We're afraid it's not going to work out. And so we hide it. We hide it from him. We hide it from ourselves even sometimes. Now I want you to notice why this servant hid his talent. He hid his talent because he feared the master. He feared that what the master would do would be if he lost the money, the master would punish him. So he said, "At least if I hide it, I'll have at least what I started with. " But when the master comes back and talks to him, he says, "You should have at least put it with the bankers. " And what he's essentially saying here is, "You didn't know me. If you really knew me, you would have at least put it with the bankers. " So at least you would have had interest. At least you would have had that much. When you look at your life, when I look at my life and fear begins to overwhelm my life, fear overwhelms your life because you don't know Jesus. You don't know the master. When I truly know Jesus, when I truly understand who Jesus is and the love that he has for me, it takes fear out of my life. People seem to have one or two attitudes about God. Either they're scared of what he's going to do to them or they're joyous about what he's done for them. And if you look at your life, your heart, and you think, "I'm scared of God. Even as a believer, I'm scared of Jesus. " The truth is, he loves you until it hurts. The truth is, his love for you is so deep that once you get to understand it, the fear is going to go away. John tells us about this in 1 John. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. " So if you find yourself living in fear, you need to get to know Jesus better. Because the better you get to know Jesus, the more you understand, "I don't have anything to be afraid of. I can invest with a sense of freedom whenever he's put it into my hands. Because it's not a matter of whether I'm going to lose something in my relationship with him. That's already settled. I don't have to be afraid. I am loved by him. And in that, I can risk, I can invest whatever he's put into my life. I can invest it in a way that will multiply all the way into eternity. " If you find yourself afraid, get to know Jesus better and better. When you get to know Jesus better, you realize there's no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. Now, there is a fifth thing that you and I do in the world today to build a life of faithfulness, and that is you look forward to the master's reward. Look forward to the master's reward for your faithfulness. Jesus says here, "To whoever has will more be given. " Jesus says, "Come and share your master's happiness. " There are all these statements about the joy that's to come. Now, some people look at this and they say, "To whoever has shall more be given? " That doesn't seem fair. It seems like to whoever has, we should divide it up so we all have equally. Jesus is not talking about what happens in the issues of the state and government and how we didn't need to make sure that people's food needs and health needs are cared for. So don't go down those roads. You might believe this. You might believe that about that. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. What he's talking about is the spiritual life. And he's saying when it comes to faith in me, when it comes to trust in me, if you have faith, you're going to grow in faith. If you don't have faith, then you're going to find life getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. When you have faith, you begin to look forward. You begin to look forward to this master's reward, this moment when we're going to be in his presence. And again, notice that whatever Jesus had given them, it was the fact that they invested it with faith, with faithfulness, that he rewarded in the end. He didn't reward them for how much they earned. He rewarded them for the choice that they made, the choice they made to take a risk of faith and to invest it for him. So one of the questions as we come to the end of this story is knowing all of this, knowing that you can be confident in his love, how can you live a life of faithfulness today? What risk of faith is Jesus asking you to take today? Maybe you've been afraid to take it. You've known it for a long time, but you've been reminded today there's no fear in love. What risk of faith is Jesus asking you to take today? Will you take that risk of faith? Let's pray again. Jesus, we need your strength. We know your love. We know the gifts you put into our lives. And so we pray that through the power of your spirit, you would give us, you would give us the gift of being faithful, the confidence of being faithful to take what you've given to us and to invest it, to risk it by giving ourselves our time in a relationship, to risk it by giving our money to a ministry, even though we want to hold on to it, to risk it by using our abilities in ways that we never have before, even though it scares us to death and we think we might fail, to risk it by doing what we know you're asking us to do. Lord, help us to take the first step in that today, to make that call, to make that decision, to write that check, to let that person know, to go that place. We want to take the first step today. Jesus, give us the strength to do that. We pray in your name. Amen. Well, join us tomorrow. We begin to look at a third story that Jesus tells in this chapter about how to prepare for his coming again.