Welcome, friends. Although we are socially distanced, let us be spiritually connected through our worldwide communion with all the saints. Click the video below and, by God’s grace, we will be linked with the blessing of Christ…
The following is an animated take on Christ’s parable of the talents…
And consider this song as we consider our own gifts…
May each of you use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
What would you do with a million dollars?… Maybe you would pay off some debts, finish some work on your house, or quit your job and take a vacation. Perhaps you might invest a good portion of it. However, your investment is only as good as your level of trust.
When I worked at a senior citizen healthcare facility, there was a resident with an apartment in independent living, but he still owned his house. During one conversation, the old man admitted to me that over the past sixty years he owned his house, he had secretly bored holes in every door jamb of the house and had stuffed away $100,000 dollars in cash! This dear resident had personally experienced the run on banks which began the Great Depression in 1929. He had zero trust for investment banking.
A “talent” in Christ’s day was a monetary denomination. A talent was worth 6,000 denarii, and one denarius was worth a day’s wage. So, in Christ’s parable of the talents, Jesus was talking about millions of dollars (in today’s money) with the master who gave his servants five talents, two talents, and one talent. (Matthew 25:14-30)
As Jesus was telling his parable, one of his chief points was to communicate that God is gracious and generous. The three servants responded their master’s generosity according to their view of him. Two of the servants regarded the master as gracious and generous, and so, freely took their talents and confidently invested them to create even more money.
The two faithful servants took risks and acted with the idea that they were secure in their relationship with their master. However, the third servant’s perception of his master was different. This servant discerned his master as stern, serious, and angry, so therefore, he did nothing with his talent – he was afraid.
The man was fearful because his view of the master was off. If we consider God as primarily an angry Being, then we will almost certainly not use the gifts he has given us, for fear of messing up and experiencing his wrath.
However, the truth is, God is gracious and generous. The Lord has mercifully gifted everyone and expects us to use those gifts and not hide them away in a door jamb! God wants us to actively display grace and generosity – which will require addressing our fears. If we want to hear the Lord Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” then taking initiative is necessary.
Fear is perhaps the greatest block in preventing God’s people from being productive Christians in serving the church and the world. Beneath our fears are powerful feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, and an inner conviction that we are not enough. Oftentimes, a low view of self can come from a low view of God.
Fear paralyzes our potential to serve God’s kingdom.
Being continually afraid, drains our energy and lessens whatever impact we could have for God in the world, diminishing our resolve to act and leaving us ineffective in service.
Fear destroys our dreams and godly desires.
We are meant to enjoy the gracious and generous God, and in our enjoyment of the Lord, godly dreams will be placed within us that God is pleased to fulfill:
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NLT)
Our enjoyment of God gives us the security and confidence to act upon godly desires and produces a generous harvest of righteousness and peace. We then can share the bounty with others, as a way of giving back to God.
Yet, if fear gets thrown into the mix, it dilutes and destroys everything. Fear paralyzes us, and we do nothing, like the third servant in the parable. What is more, fear can force us into hiding, just like the servant hid and buried his talent.
In the Old Testament book of Numbers, the Israelites were immobilized by fear. God had a grand vision and a big dream for the people to enter the Promised Land. But ten of the twelve spies who came back after checking out the land were paralyzed by fear. “The land has giants, and we are like grasshoppers!” they nervously said.
Caleb and Joshua, however, had a different view of taking the land because they had a different view of God. They didn’t see giants – they saw a gracious and generous God who could easily take care of whoever might be in the land, and they wanted to act on the faith they had in a mighty and merciful God. The God of the other spies wasn’t big enough to handle the giants. Their low view of themselves as grasshoppers betrayed their low view of God. (Numbers 13:26-33)
We might wrap a lot of our fears in morbidly sanctified self-belittling. That is, we might feel good about feeling bad and wrap ourselves with a blanket of secret shame. As a result, those self-deprecating feelings stop us from exploring God’s dream and vision for us.
We could use some bold God-sized dreams! We can speak and act in the world with confidence because we serve a God who sees giants as gnats.
Some of the greatest fears that hold back people from exploring their faith is:
Fear snatches away God’s dreams for us. If you once had a dream and you think that dream is dead because of your sins and bad habits, you are misguided. Dreams evaporate because of fear, by being duped into believing that we are not enough, and never will be. So, we end up doing nothing.
Fear ruins our relationship with God and others.
Living a spiritual life, meanwhile always looking over our shoulder to see if God is going to sneak up on us and rap our knuckles with a ruler, is no way to live. I think the hardest people to get along with are those who have a low view themselves. Because they do not like themselves, they do not like others. They continually wonder if God is upset with them about something. The man in the parable blamed God for his own lack of investment. Yet, blame shifting is really our own fear and insecurity seeping through onto others – it helps no one, especially ourselves.
God wants us to bloom with the talents given us. God wants us to shine and succeed. God is on our side, has our backs, and wants us to live a good life.
Fear sabotages our service.
“I can’t!” is the cry of the person locked in fear. I cannot stand up in front of people, meet strangers, sing, serve like that other person can or love like Jesus did. I cannot because I am afraid, and I only have one talent!
Perhaps you have observed that God typically uses tongue-tied people, worriers, and those with a sordid past – and not superstars – as servants commissioned with a set of talents. The less a person has, the more God shows up and shows off with generous power and gracious ability through that person.
Nothing sabotages serving more than being afraid, worried, and believing we have so little. Give God a chance! Step out. Take a risk. Act on that dream.
Conclusion
Once in a small village in India, a farmer brought to the open-air market a whole covey of quail, with a string tied around a foot of each bird. The other end of the string was tied to a ring on a central stick. The quail were all walking in a circle because of the strings on their feet. As the day went on no one seemed interested in buying the farmer’s quail.
Finally, an old man came and bought every one of the quail. After he bought the quail, the old man told the farmer to cut the strings and set all the quail free. So, the farmer did. But none of the quail flew away. They kept marching around in a circle as if they were still tied to the string. Finally, the farmer had to shoo them away to get them to move, and even then, the quail landed somewhere else and just started marching in a circle again.
God has freed and forgiven us. Yet, we can so easily remain tethered to imaginary strings and march around in vicious circles of fear, afraid to venture into the unexplored world God has for us, to spread our wings and be free.
God loves you. God has wonderful plans for you. God created you with your unique personality, gave you unparalleled experiences, and gifted you with uncommon abilities. God wants you to tap into that passion and dream placed down deep in your heart to serve the world.
What would you do with a million dollars? You already have it. Now, go and invest it.
After Joshua had dismissed them, the People of Israel went off to claim their allotted territories and take possession of the land. The people worshiped God throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the time of the leaders who survived him, leaders who had been in on all of God’s great work that he had done for Israel. Then Joshua son of Nun, the servant of God, died. He was 110 years old. They buried him in his allotted inheritance at Timnath Heres in the hills of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.
Eventually that entire generation died and was buried. Then another generation grew up that didn’t know anything of God or the work he had done for Israel.
The People of Israel did evil in God’s sight: they served Baal-gods; they deserted God, the God of their parents who had led them out of Egypt; they took up with other gods, gods of the peoples around them. They actually worshiped them! And oh, how they angered God as they worshiped god Baal and goddess Astarte! God’s anger was hot against Israel: He handed them off to plunderers who stripped them; he sold them cheap to enemies on all sides. They were helpless before their enemies. Every time they walked out the door God was with them—but for evil, just as God had said, just as he had sworn he would do. They were in a bad way. (MSG)
The Old Testament book of Judges reads like a soap opera. The main characters are the ancient Israelites, fresh from coming into the Promised Land; God, the One who brought them into the land with a series of miraculous events and divine interventions; and, of course, the Judges, the men and women who led the people and ruled in the land.
Throughout the book of Judges, there are plenty of adventures and misadventures. The exploits and foibles narrate a sad downward spiral of people forsaking the worship of God; God arresting their attention; the people awakening to their dire condition and crying out to God; God sending a Judge to save them; the people slipping into a worse condition; and, the cycle starting all over again with more disastrous results and brokenness than before. *Sigh*
In today’s lesson, we get a clue as to where it all began and why it kept happening. Tucked away in the middle of these verses is the cryptic message that when Joshua’s generation died, the next generation did not know the Lord or any of the mighty acts God did on their behalf. *Sigh*
The first generation of Israelites born into the Promised Land were flat out ignorant of God because their parents and religious leaders failed to pass on values, experiences, and knowledge to their children. They were not intentional about providing the kind of education to their kids that would let them know about the person and work of God. *Sigh*
Emerging generations need present generations to grab hold of the mandate to graciously teach and develop them in the words and ways of Jesus Christ – because faith is not a magically delicious box of Lucky Charms which providentially drops from the sky. *Sigh*
It behooves us all to consider ways to pass on the grace and truth of Jesus to the next generation – and to do so in a loving and compelling way. And, if you feel a low confidence level in doing this, go on a discovery with teens, kids, and grandkids so that you are all learning together.
A few of the ways my wife and I taught our three girls when they were young included singing Scripture, even coming up with our own original tunes; dramatizing biblical stories, complete with costumes and interesting ad libs; and, prayer walking together outside.
I am more than confident younger generations will have ideas that are not boring or pedantic. In other words, take some initiative and have some fun with it. Then, neither you nor anyone else will be ending sentences with a big *Sigh*
Lord God Almighty, you have acted in the past with mighty deeds and gracious ways. Enable your people to pass on their love for Jesus to the next generation so that your kingdom breaks into the generations and your will be done here on earth as it is always done in heaven. Amen.
Welcome, friends! Click the video below, let us consider together a story from Jesus, and worship the Lord.
Here is Christ’s parable put to song:
Christ, the faithful witness to all things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” To which we respond, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 