Own The Vision Trading Up? or Digging Down? (Both Take Time) Mat 25:14 Mat 25:30 Description: Encouraging God s people to choose what they do with their time with eternity in mind. BEGIN: Let s talk about one of our most precious commodities. And by that I do not mean Silver Or Gold Or Platinum But I m talking about the precious commodity that Jesus mentions in His parable that we began looking at last week. How Jesus said Matthew 25:19 Now after a long (What?) TIME the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Time is one of the most precious commodities most of us will ever possess. Time is one of those rare commodities that the LESS we have, the MORE it s worth! Hebrews 9:27 says...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: And some people find themselves at the end of life willing to give everything else they ve got just for a little more (What?) TIME! Time is a precious, precious commodity. It was the most precious commodity the three servants in Jesus parable were given as well. Not the five great big gobs of gold or silver the first servant was entrusted with. Not the two great big gobs of gold or silver the second servant was entrusted with. Not even the one great big gob of gold or silver the third servant was entrusted with. Because, as we learned last week, that wasn t their money. They were simply Managing That Which Belonged to Someone Else. Remember? At the end of Jesus parable each servant was called into account as to how they had managed their master s money while the master was away. The only commodity that each servant could rightly call his own was the TIME each servant was given to prove his or her own faithfulness. And the first servant put his TIME to good use, didn t he. Jesus said... AM101418-1
Matthew 25:16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. HOW MANY OF US WHO LOST MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET LAST WEEK WOULD LIKE TO HAVE HAD A FINANCIAL GUY OR GAL WHO MADE US A 100% RETURN ON OUR INVESTMENT INSTEAD! No wonder when the master returned and called his servants into account Matthew 25:20...he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents; here <The Greek actually has the man saying, Here See! LOOK! LO! BEHOLD! five more! Because he s proud! He s even surprised himself! He s made...> I have made five talents more. Just as the second servant is proud that he s made two more! They are both happy that they ve made such a return for their Lord! And the master of both servants says... Matthew 25:21... Well done, (Excellent! Max Lucado calls this The Applause of Heaven when God sees you coming with such a return in hand!) 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 the master says that to both of those servants because of the way both of those servants put in their TIME! The most precious commodity they had been given. They spent it well. They went at once and traded, v. 16 says, with what their master had given them. (The Greek word there is from the root word ergon, from which we get our word Ergonomics, the study of how to make people s work more productive.) And how the first two servants did that was they went at once and put their master s resources to work... AND THEY DOUBLED THEIR MASTER S INVESTMENT! Whereas the third servant s strategy was a little different. The third servant, who was given the same amount of time that the first two servants were given, the third servant used that same amount of TIME to Take the master s money Dig a hole in the ground And hide the master s resources For which the master was not happy. At the very least, the angry master says, you should have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I could have received what was my own with interest. I heard you could get 2.25% on a 7 mos CD last week. That s not much, considering the Social Security Administration has figured a 2.8% cost of living adjustment next year for inflation. But it s more than what the master got from his third servant after being away for such a long time. All he got from his third servant was what his third servant buried in the ground. Which was the same exact amount the third servant was originally given. After all that TIME that he was given AM101418-2
he was only able to return to his master what he had been given. A 0% RETURN! That s all the third servant had to show for such a long TIME. And that s what I want us to give some serious thought to this morning. How, when it comes to what we re calling Trading Up? or Digging Down?... II. One more than the other. III. But one is rewarded far more than the other as well. Let s give that some serious thought. And then Let s choose what we do with our TIME with ETERNITY in mind. I worked with a high school principal in Eastern Ohio who would have no use for this sermon. He d already be out the door. This principal used to say: Whenever the urge comes over me to get up and do something about something, I just sit still, I ve learned, it ll pass! I know people for whom that could be a life motto. Because their life goal seems to be to see how much work they can get out of! SOMETIMES THEY WORK HARDER TO GET OUT OF WORK THAN IT WOULD BE TO JUST GET UP AND DO THE WORK THAT NEEDS DONE! And they congratulate themselves on how much work they have been able to get out of! That s servant number three in Jesus parable. He Gets up. Goes out. Digs down. And buries the talent the Lord gave him. And after that we have no idea what the man did with his time. Maybe nothin. Maybe somethin else he d rather be doin. Maybe he sat around laughin at servants number one and two at the way they were workin and sweatin and frettin over the Lord s investment entrusted them with! Whatever the third servant was doin, it wasn t much after putin his shovel up. After gettin up, and digin down and coverin up he was pretty much done until the master returned. No matter how much TIME it took for the master to return! And that s why we have to say, whether Tradin Up (like the first two servants did with the Lord s investment); OR Diggin Down (like the third servant did)... AM101418-3
II. One more so than the other. III. But one is rewarded far more than the other as well. This is why the earliest followers of Jesus were willing to leave everything to follow Him! The Bible says Matthew 4:18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, (Jesus) he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And the Bible says Matthew 4:20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. How could they do that? Just leave it all behind? And they weren t the only ones. The Bible goes on to say Matthew 4:21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Matthew 4:22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. I ve often wondered what dad thought about that? Jesus takin his sons away from him! Leavin Zebedee in the boat holdin the bag! Or in this case, the nets, without his sons to help him! And it wasn t just fishermen. Luke 5:27 After this (the Bible says, Jesus) he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me. Luke 5:28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. How can anyone do that? Later the Bible says Peter will say to Jesus... Luke 18:28...Peter said, See (Lo! BEHOLD! LOOK! SEE!), we have left our homes and followed you. And Jesus will say to all those first followers Luke 18:29 AM101418-4
And he said to them, Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, Luke 18:30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life. And that s why we are being challenged this morning to Choose what we do with our TIME with ETERNITY in mind. Because, yes, Tradin Up (like the first two servants did with the Lord s investment); OR Diggin Down (like the third servant did)... II. Granted, one sacrificially more so than the other. III. But, oh, will it be rewarded far more than the other as well! And I know that Warren Buffett is talking about earthly investments when he says... Price is what you pay. Value is what you get....but I think it applies to eternal investments as well. And those who choose to use their TIME with ETERNITY in mind will find the VALUE of what they get to be worth infinitely more than any PRICE they had to pay! Amen? Amen. END: I don t know if you saw this, but moments after this painting was sold for $1.4 m, it was remotely shredded by its painter who texted a message to those in attendance that read: Going, going, GONE! That s what s going to happen to all this worldly stuff when Christ comes. It s going it s going... it s going to be gone! And then we re going to be called to account for what we spent our life on! Only one life, will soon be past. Only what s done for Christ will last. Who d like to live whatever s left for Christ? If that s your decision you come as we stand & sing. AM101418-5