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The story is told of two men who crashed their private plane on a
South Pacific Island.
One of the men brushed himself off and proceeded to run all over the
island to see if they had any chance of survival. When he returned, he
rushed up to the other man and screamed, “This Island is uninhabited and
there is no food or water. We’re going to die!”
The other man leaned back against the fuselage of the wrecked plane,
folded his arms and responded, “No we’re not. I make over $100,000 a
week.” The first man grabbed his friend and shook him. “Listen, we’re on
a deserted island. We’re doomed!”
The other man, unruffled, again responded. “It’s OK, I make over
$100,000 a week.” Mystified, the first man, taken aback with such an
answer again repeated, “For the last time, I’m telling you that we are
lost. It doesn’t matter how much money you make because there’s no one
around to help us.” Still unfazed, the first man looked the other guy in
the eye and said, “Don’t make me say this again. I make over $100,000
per week and I tithe 10%! My pastor will find us!”
You can make a difference with your life if you will make the most of
the opportunities God gives you.
I want to show you that whoever you are, whatever you have, and whatever
abilities you may have, you can make a difference with your life.
I love the parable in Matthew 25 where Jesus is teaching his disciples
about opportunities. Jesus tells them a story about a master who went on
a journey, and entrusting his possessions to three servants. The first
servant was given 5 talents, the second 2 talents, and the third only 1
talent. Understand, a “talent” was an ancient word that stood for an
amount of money that was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,000.
The story says that each person was given money based on their ability
to make the most of it.
As the story goes, the servant with 5 talents began to invest and work
his master’s money and when it was all said and done, he doubled the
money and when the master settled accounts with him, the servant
returned 10 talents to him. The servant who had been given two talents
did the same, doubling the master’s money and returned 4 talents to the
master. However, if you remember the story, the third servant who had
only one talent didn’t use it or invest it. He dug a hole in the ground
a buried it.
When the master came to the third servant, he was shocked and angered to
discover that this servant only gave back the 1 talent. It hadn’t been
invested or used in any way. The master said, “You could have at least
put it in the bank so it could have gained interest. The master was so
angry that he called the servant, “wicked and lazy” and cast him out of
his home.
And what I want to do this morning is to look at what we can learn about
life and how to make the most of our opportunities in a way that will
allow you and me to make a real difference with our life.
Where did the third servant go wrong?
A. He was full of excuses. (He focused on every reason why he was unable
to make a difference.)
B. He had a bad attitude toward the master. (He thought of the master as
a ’hard man’.)
C. He was self-sufficient. (He didn’t need to talk to or deal with
anyone to bury his talent.)
D. He was fearful of losing. (He didn’t play to win, he played to ‘not
lose’.)
These all remind me of something I learned about the geography in the
Middle East. The Sea of Galilee is one of the liveliest bodies of water
in the region. It’s full of life and activity. If you recall, when some
of the disciples fished in the Sea of Galilee, their nets were so full
of fish they were on the verge of bursting. The Jordan River flows into
the North and out of the South shores of the Sea of Galilee. The Jordan
River continues south until it flows into another sea, however this sea
has no outlet. It only receives from the Jordan and that’s where it
ends. Anybody know what that sea is called? It’s called the Dead Sea. It
is the most lifeless body of water on the planet. No plant or animal can
live in the Dead Sea. The reason: It has no outlet. It receives but
never gives. That is a good illustration of what happened to that third
servant. He did nothing with what he was given, and it cost him.
What does this parable teach us about life?
Life is an adventure in responsibility.
Those men did not own what they had. They were simply managing what
their master had given them. In this parable, the master represents God
and the servants represent us. In verse 25:14 it says, “"For it is just
like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and
entrusted his possessions to them.” What Jesus is teaching here is that
whatever it is that we have has been entrusted to us by God for the
purpose of managing it until He returns.
There was a wealthy man who was shopping with his 16 year-old son. His
son saw a new computer system and showed his dad. The wealthy man said,
“Why son, that costs $2,000?” The son said, “Yeah dad, but we have the
money.”
To which the dad says, “We? Who said anything about we having anything?
I know that I have the money, I know that you don’t.” You see, the son
misunderstood the nature of the relationship with his father. He thought
that He could choose whatever the father spent his money on, while the
father wasn’t so careless. God owns it all and we must be careful about
how we treat his possessions.
What are some of the things that we are managing for God?
Money, Possessions, Time, Health…Life is an adventure of responsibility,
and if we want to allow God to use us to make a difference in this
world, we must be willing to be responsible with what God has entrusted
to us.
Life is a treasure of diversity.
The first thing we learn about life in this passage is that life is an
adventure of responsibility, and the second thing we learn is that life
is a treasure of diversity. One man was given 5 talents, another 2
talents, and to the third, 1 talent. They all didn’t receive the same
amount. Each were given to based on their God-given ability.
I’m glad we’re not all the same. Who needs a world full of clones? I’m
glad we’re all different. Life truly is a treasure of diversity. I
believe that each of us is a unique combination of temperaments and
gifts that can only do what we can do. Each person is unique that they
can do something that only they can do. I like what Zig Ziglar said,
“You are the only person on earth who can use your ability.”
Maybe a person can’t teach, but maybe they can pray? Maybe a person
can’t sing, but they can help out with taking care of the buildings. We
can’t all do everything well, but we can each do something. We can all
make a difference. Here’s the thing to remember: you have what you have
because God decided to allow you to manage it.
He only expects you to manage within the boundaries of ability that He
has programmed into you. He doesn’t hand us a go-cart and say, “Fly to
the moon!” He only expects us to use what he has given us.
I believe that the mistake of the third servant was that he had started
feeling sorry for himself because he didn’t get as much as the other two
guys did. They had 5 or 2 and he only had one. He thought that God was
expecting out of him what he was expecting out of the other two men. He
wasn’t. He was only expecting out of the third servant what he could do.
Life is a treasure of diversity and I thank God that we are not all the
same. I’m glad that nobody is like me. I’m sure that everyone else is
glad about that too. And I’m glad that nobody else is like you either.
We’re all different. God knows what He is doing.
Life is a giver of opportunity.
Life is an adventure in responsibility, a treasure of diversity and
thirdly, a giver of opportunity. We all have an opportunity to do
something. The big mistake the third servant made is that he thought
that he couldn’t make a difference with what he had.
He looked at the other two servants and said to himself, “I can’t do
what they can do. I only have one talent.” The master explained to him
that he could have made a difference, he just needed to do something
different – something he could do. He couldn’t go out trading, but he
could have taken the one talent to the bank and the money would have at
least earned some interest.
The one-talent servant was a slacker who went off and buried his
blessing. The practice of hiding valuables in the ground was quite
common back then. It was one of the safest—and least profitable—ways of
protecting possessions.
Because Antonio’s voice was high and squeaky, he did not make the
tryouts for the Cremona Boy’s Choir.
When he took violin lessons, the neighbors persuaded his parents to make
him stop. Yet Antonio still wanted to make music.
His friends gave him a hard time because his only talent was whittling.
When Antonio was older he served as an apprentice to a violinmaker. His
knack for whittling grew into a skill of carving and his hobby became
his craft. He worked patiently and faithfully. By the time he died, he
left over 1,500 violins, each one bearing a label that read, “Antonio
Stradivarius.” They are the most sought-after violins in the world and
sell for more than $100,000 each. Antonio couldn’t sing or play or
preach or teach but his responsibility was to use his ability, and his
violins are still making beautiful music today.
Our potential is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to
Him. Are you investing what you have been given, regardless of how much
it is? Or, have you buried your blessing and kept it hidden from others?
It would help us to get in the habit of asking the question, “How will
the management my resources, or my decision to serve or not serve look
on the day of accountability?”
What are we doing with the tools God has given us?
You and I can’t do everything, but we can do something. President
Theodore Roosevelt, once said, “Do what you can, with what you have,
where you are.”
Remember the boy with the five loaves and the two fish. Jesus took his
gift and fed 5,000 people with it. God doesn’t just do this with money,
He does this with whatever we are willing to be faithful with. Life is a
giver of opportunity, you have them and I have them.
You can truly make a difference with your life if you will be willing to
make the most of the opportunities that God gives you in your life, as
small as they may seem.
This third servant had a wrong view of the master and had his mind made
up even before he received his talent. He looked at him as someone who
was hard and harsh, instead of loving and gracious.
A.W. Tozer was right when he said that what we think about God is the
most important thing about us. If we view God as a tyrant then we’ll
filter everything through this lens. Some of you may be secretly angry
with God because you think He did something, or didn’t do something that
you think He should have. As a result, your view of Him is skewed. Your
preconceived notions prevent you from seeing Him as a God of grace, and
as a result you refuse to serve Him with what He’s given you. When we
blame God we end up burying our blessings.
A faulty view of God can also lead to excuses. In verse 25 this man
declares that the reason he didn’t do anything with what he had been
given was because he was afraid. His fear paralyzed him and so he
decided to play it safe. He hid the money to make sure it wouldn’t be
lost. And he accomplished exactly what he set out to achieve: nothing.
Like the saying goes, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”
A wrong view of God always leads to fear: “So I was afraid and went out
and hid your talent in the ground…” A right view of God always leads to
faith. If you’re struggling with fear today, the best antidote is to
further your understanding of the character of God and ask Him to grow
your faith. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is moving ahead
in spite of your fears. I think the first two guys were probably a
little afraid as well, but because they knew the master’s character,
instead of being frozen by fear, they stepped out in faith.
How do we make the most of our opportunities? 1. Understand that God had
determined what you will be responsible for. 2. Believe that what God
has given you is what is best for you. 3. Use what God has given you for
his purposes.
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