Austin Ave Unplugged #024 What Talents Were You Given?

And we're live.

That was my radio voice.

I'm done.

And we're live.

This is AACC unplugged.

We're back after a minute.

After a few weeks.

Several.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's been busy.

Yeah.

We've been gone a lot.

We had church camp and vacation and camp blue haven.

And then we drove back to Texas, stayed here for three or four days, and went back to the mountains.

That's awesome.

Still have the stuff on my hands, kind of some blisters from the uh rafting.

I guess kayaking.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We didn't do any kayaking here, did we?

No, we did not.

Everybody left and we didn't kayak.

Yeah, I think we have blisters from, you know, from you know, uh using our pencils to, you know, write down class material.

Uh-huh.

You know.

We have calluses on our knees from, you know, uh kneeling in prayer.

So that's that's what we have.

Camel knees.

Uh James was said to have had knees like camel knees from how much time he spent in prayer.

So it makes sense maybe.

Yes, and a pencil because I heard the electricity went out while we were gone.

We we did lose electricity for um well, uh we lost it all evening, but it it happened to us at about four.

Yeah.

Okay.

So we got to go.

And I know like Jim No was up here till like nine thirty at night in the Encore group.

So if you come here Sunday, which I know we like take a week to put these out, so anyway, if you come here right now, there's still like a big caliche mound where they dug.

And so we lost so make your joke about the about the dog.

Oh, the the three-legged dog.

Uh a three-legged dog is better than a two-legged dog.

Yes.

Yes.

And so by legal three-legged is even as functional as a four-legged, but we only have three-legged dogs on the roof.

Yes.

For the for the electrical, the it's the the terminology is that we have three legs of electricity.

Power.

Yeah, we have three-phase.

It's called three-phase.

One of our phases was out.

And so the crazy thing is that when you have that happen to Raven.

Yeah.

Raven's good.

Raven's fine every night.

Okay.

Start to GoFundMe, though, and to make some money on Raven.

So we lost one of our phases, and which uh meant that none of our um large units that require three phases were working correctly.

And so our first fear was that all of our units, uh, well, we didn't know all of them, but we're like, man, it's hot around here.

We were talking about humidity and why it's hotter inside than normal.

And it just turned out that at some point um we lost uh one of our phases, and so the efficiency of our ACs were really bad.

And and that that showed because like we had some some Sunday nights, especially in a Wednesday night, that people were in the auditorium and just like panting.

It was hot, hot, hot.

Yeah.

And as far as Brownwood goes, the summer has not been brutal with heat.

No, not with heat.

No.

And so for those to not keep up now, something's got to be wrong.

So a two-legged dog won't hunt, is what you're saying.

That's that's great.

It will not hunt well.

Thank you for the pity laugh, Jamie, because I got nothing from Doug.

He's an easy laugh.

That was a brand.

And I got I got nothing.

I was too busy.

My wife is here.

But a two-legged man can hunt.

Oh.

Yes.

But not a two-legged dog.

Not a two-legged dog.

Come here for all of your hunting needs.

That's yet another one of our sponsors we're hoping to get.

Either that or Taco Casa just in the background again.

Always talk about it.

Burritos are awesome from Taco Casa.

I hope you guys are hearing this.

But I'm I'm super thankful that it's not really our problem.

Um we realized that because the the third phase wasn't pulling enough power that it was an encore um issue.

So they came out and opened up the transformer to check it out, and I'm not sure who touched what or what did what, but they blew uh a fuse in the transformer.

So we lost power for the remainder of that day.

So from four to about 1230.

So it was our problem, but not our fault.

Not our problem.

I mean, it's definitely our problem.

Not our fault, definitely a problem for us, but not our responsibility.

Yeah.

And that was that was that was great, considering Jim had just gotten back from vacation.

Yeah.

You were gone, and Wendell had had enough of the roof at that point.

It just it was it was very good that it was somebody else's responsibility to handle.

Yes.

Yeah.

Because people have different talents.

Yes.

And I was so glad they were there to do that.

Absolutely right.

They knew how to fix it.

That's right.

That's right.

Our people were busy doing other jobs.

That's very true.

That's very true.

All right.

So we segue, I mean, right?

We read the case.

We segueed to the talents.

We weren't here on Wednesday night, so like we didn't hear the teaching about that.

But yeah, I don't know if you guys want to fill us in.

I know.

Tony Christke.

You go right ahead.

Uh is it?

I'll I'll jump to too many other Me and my Germans friend, German friends, we like to refer to him as Tony Krishke.

Okay.

Kriske.

We had a whole conversation about the right way to say the name.

So we hope we're saying it right, Tony.

Yeah.

You're one of our best guys.

Christy.

We love you.

You're amazing, and I'm glad that you pronounce your name Krishke.

And so although I'm probably wrong.

It was a big week for them, though.

It was because John baptized Lane on Sunday.

And then Tony taught on Wednesday.

Yeah.

So yeah, some of our best people.

Yeah.

Awesome.

It was really great.

And and for Tony to be able to keep it together on Sunday during communion thoughts.

I know.

Wait, he did the communion thoughts.

He did the communion thoughts too.

I'm not going on vacation next summer.

That's it.

We're staying here.

We live streaming.

I know.

We go on vacation.

We did our own church service, but I haven't gone back to watching.

You can fucking missing out.

Yeah, so he did a fantastic job both Sunday morning and Wednesday night.

And Wednesday night, we're in the middle of Parables Shameless Plug.

And so we want to encourage you to come and hear that.

We have different speakers every single week.

And so we would encourage you to come and join us for that.

And any other time I could tell you who is next week, but right now Jerry Leslie.

Thank you.

On July 1st.

On July 1st.

You might catch this.

Yeah.

Depends on when it drops.

On Tuesday and come on Wednesday.

If not, show up on the next Wednesday.

Motivation to get it done.

I'll get it done by Tuesday.

Awesome.

So um he was speaking on the the parable of the talents, and we've all heard that before, but he brought up some really good points.

Uh one of the things he talked about was just like the the sheer amount that uh a talent represented.

It wasn't a small amount, it was uh approximately um, let's see, six thousand uh denaria and a denaria uh a denarius is a day's wage.

Yeah.

And so uh it roughly is about twenty years.

So the the the the servant who got the least amount um got um twenty years um worth of um of gold, uh which they said salary of salary annual salary, yeah.

And they said the way we think about it.

Yeah, and and Tony being the brilliant man that he is and the bean counter uh was able to say, hey, based on you know the annual income in Brown County, that would have been over a million dollars.

Wow.

So lot lots of it was a large amount, it was a a a big responsibility.

Absolutely.

And for a servant who was afraid of his master, you wouldn't want to lose a million dollars.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so that's where we went with that.

And I it he did it, he did a fantastic job.

Um, and one of the things he pointed out towards the end that I'm I'm a nerd, I always take notes when when people are teaching that's great or preaching.

And when I teach, I've never seen you writing, Doug.

It must be everyone else.

It's only when but I have to be awake too.

So that's it.

Poor Lance.

Lance does a fantastic job.

In fact, um it's not true.

When when Lance um preaches, um, I have already heard it before because um he will he he'll practice it and record it, and then he'll send it to me.

And I I always listen to it beforehand.

You keep thinking you'll give me feedback.

You basically never have.

I no, I as far as like I think you should say X.

Um have you thought about why?

Well, I don't want to be the one that that you know thwarts the work of the Holy Spirit.

So I'm but I always listen to it ahead of time, and so um, but I still take notes.

Um Lance is my hero, but I I will not say that on camera or in front of a microphone, but uh he's brilliant.

But um going back to Tony, he said something way smarter than what um Lance could ever come up with.

Finally, you're speaking the truth.

Yes.

Uh and he just talks about that that God would God uh gives the the skills and the talents to those in which he he wants to to utilize.

And so if if you're presented with an opportunity, God is already um equipping you or has equipped you with those skills and talents to do it.

And so if you have that that um fear of, oh no, I don't know if I can do this, like God's like, well, I'm several steps ahead of you.

I've got this mapped out.

It's really good.

I I really enjoyed it.

What's the great line?

Uh God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So I do have one question though, and we didn't have an opportunity in class to do that, but uh to for me to ask that question, and I didn't want to put Tony on the spot and make him feel like he had to have an answer, because I don't necessarily have one, but I'm I wonder what what was the mindset between the first two servants uh and how was that different from the mindset of the third servant?

What what what did they think about their master or what what caused the first two to go out there and work really hard?

Uh and how was the mindset of the third one different that different that he's like, I'm just gonna bury the money?

Any thoughts on that?

I'm kind of curious.

Uh I go back to Genesis.

Okay.

Uh God made a world that was abundant, and he said be abundant in this abundant world.

And so uh granted we live, you know, that abundant world is now under a curse, and we were talking about the earthquake in Venezuela this morning, and and so like we don't always get to live in that abundance because of our own sin and you know, capital S sin, not personal sin necessarily.

But I think it's just that mindset of like, no, if I go forward with what the master has given me and he's told me to go and do this thing, then like, you know, I I should expect um good things to happen when I'm following the master's command.

And again, it sounds like I'm getting into kind of like a prosperity gospel.

I'm not, but it's it's that mindset of just like, no, God has sent me forward to go and do this, and I think good things are gonna come of this.

And so I don't know, I think of that abundance in Genesis three and not that tight-fistedness that sometimes also makes its way into the church as kind of a counter to kind of the prosperity gospel, and it's like it's it's like you gotta live in the polarity of those two things of a of a God who calls us to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Um, but we also live in this world that's fallen.

And so I don't know.

I think it's just trusting that God has our best um our best future planned out for us and that and that and that we can trust him with it.

Yeah.

I think I I feel like there might have been a relational gospel to talk about in there as well, instead of just the um yeah, the the the the the abundancy gospel.

Um what kind of relationship did the other two have?

How well did they know him?

How much time did they spend with him?

Because the third one seems to just fear him, to just um be scared of what he's gonna do when he gets back or what he's like, you know, how he's gonna do things when he's out and about.

Um how much time did he spend with um what is that, the landowner, the the how much time did he spend with God?

How much how much time are you spending with God?

Have you seen the evidence that he is a provider, the provider?

Have you seen the evidence that he is using his own skills, his own money, his own talents, his own resources to to work the kingdom that he's the master of?

Um a lot of it, uh well, I don't say a lot of it, my thoughts um have changed a lot now that my relationship with God is changing.

Um I I think I was the the fearful one.

I didn't I didn't know I had talents, I didn't ask for talents, I didn't show up to do the work and and rely on um the the wisdom or the skill that that I even had just until recently.

Um I think I think that third worker didn't have a relationship.

Well, I think it's really interesting that you bring up fear because you know, I mean the Bible talks about fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom.

Holy fear, right?

And so like the other two had to have some fear of God to not just go like steal the money and use it on themselves.

Yes, absolutely.

And so like fear is like so many things, it has to be held in the right amount of tension, right?

I mean it can't cripple you, it can't cripple you.

But y it also be but you need to have enough fear to like honor God, to respect God, to think that you're not God.

Without a doubt.

And so it's like well, fear by itself is it's not necessarily sinful, but too much of it can be.

But not enough of it can cause you to veer off as well.

Yeah.

So yeah.

Absolutely right.

Polarity is the is the word that I recently learned about that.

Um I think there's trust um on behalf like the master trusted the first servant with five, and he entrusted the second servant, was it with two or three?

Two.

And then he entrusted one to the to the third servant.

And so he he had different levels of different relationships with with each one of the three.

And so he and and probably proved himself right.

It probably was a two-way street, like okay, I I trust you, you trust me, um, or I trust you with this much, and I have a relationship and I know you enough to know what you're gonna do with with my talent that I'm giving you.

That's right.

Um and so it's trying, and so if if we don't trust God to um to help us once we've gotten that talent, um, then yeah, we're gonna bury it in the ground and be afraid.

Um but so but God entrusts us with things um based on a relationship like what you were saying.

Um and so and then and then it grows.

And then it grows, and we're entrusted with even more.

So I took a graduate course and it was I guess it was like the spiritual life of the minister, or I don't know, something like that.

And we spent the whole first session just talking about if we were called to ministry or not.

And I was just frustrated.

I'm like, hey, you know, are you doing the thing?

Are you a minister?

Okay, then just like step into it and do the thing.

And just and just trust God.

Like, I think that question has already been answered.

If you're in a graduate course at Oklahoma Christian, I hope so.

And you're wondering if you're called into ministry, it's like, yeah, you probably should have decided that'll, you know, thousands of dollars and committed on that.

Yes.

Right?

And it's like, okay, well, like you're already here, so like you might as well just do as good a job as you can do.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think if we like have that personality, then like we talk about our kids, like they're passionate and they could do really good things or really bad things, and you hope that God is like leading them into those those good those the good things.

And I think refining it.

And I think about the verse, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Our own understanding is broken.

And and so leaning on his you know, trusting in him is just I don't know, one a few years uh each time I've read through the Bible, different things stick out.

And one one of the years was just trust me, just trust me, Jamie, please trust me.

Absolutely.

Um then it just I keep coming back to that.

Yeah.

But I think that trust again goes back to do you really know him?

Right.

And so I was I'm I'm this is a could be a really poor analogy that you pick apart, but I'm just thinking about like when it comes to like giving gifts, like sometimes you'll you'll buy a gift for someone and and your prevailing thought is I hope they like it.

Like, what if they don't like it?

Sure.

They they might not like it.

Uh, but then every once in a while, because you know the person, um, you know that what you got them, they're gonna love.

Yeah.

And you don't give the gift thinking, I hope they don't hate it.

You give the gift and you're so excited because you know they're gonna love it.

Yeah.

And I think that is based on the fact because you know that person.

Um, and so for these first two guys, their motivation was, I'm not afraid of my master.

I can't wait to please my master.

Like, I'm gonna do my very best.

And for the last one, his was, um, I just don't want to make him mad.

Yeah.

And like I'm sad to say that throughout my life, and probably lots and lots of people my age, their their faith started on the foundation was don't make God mad.

Yeah, absolutely.

And we just we've always lived with that fear.

Even now, we still say prayers that I I know we don't mean it, but but we'll say prayers like, God, we pray that you know this service um is um uplifting to you, that you accept this.

Like bring in your sights.

Yeah, but yeah, we pray, and we're so we're still kind of like, we're we're are are we gonna come here to give our best?

Are we afraid that we're we pray that what we do today will be glorifying to you?

Um and so we're we're still kind of motivated by fear.

Uh and and I think that's what really drove the third guy is he he just he did not know his master.

And so his response was, okay, I'm just I'm gonna try to not make him mad.

Yeah, yeah.

Because there's a line between humility, like saying that in humility and saying that in fear.

Yeah.

Right.

But I almost think that so like courage is not a lack of fear, it's a moving on in spite of that fear.

Yeah.

Right?

You can't be courageous if there's no fear.

Right.

And so I almost think that that's true in our in our walk with with God is it's like abundantly and faithfully and exuberantly offering up to God with a proper amount of reverence and fear.

Yeah.

Right?

And so I'm i I mean, the Bible does say that perfect love casts out all uh fear, but then there's an enough other language about fear that it's like, okay, so like it's something that you move through.

It's not something that like you completely leave out of your faith walk, but it's something to be moved through.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's why stepping outside of our comfort zones is a good idea and doing things that we wouldn't normally do, like working at BBS or being silly or goofy, or you know, volunteering to lead the ladies' retreat.

I mean, that was crazy, but it was exciting, and God was with me when I did it, and I'm glad I did.

And leading the singing was awesome.

And I'm glad I did, and you know, could have been sometimes a little shaky, but it's super exciting when you step outside your comfort zone and trust God with the talent He gave you.

Like He let He has given me a talent to sing and I can use that to bless others, and I need to do it when I'm when I see that the void is there.

And so it certainly blessed me.

I need to sit right in front of it.

And harmonize with it.

It was a great moment.

Yeah, yeah.

So um yeah.

There's opportunities out there.

And that's what the master gave this this guy that had all the fear.

Um they did bless him.

They gave him a year's w or twenty years worth of wages to to help I don't know, push him in the right direction, make him confront.

His fear but he certainly wasn't aware of it.

He that's a really good point.

Yeah.

That he the master had already stepped out in faith by giving him this amount of money.

And I think that is only what the master was expecting of the the servants.

Is like I this wasn't about I want you to double or triple.

It was about just be faithful.

I want you to I want you to trust me, trust me, and and then go out and and be faithful to to what I've given you.

Don't don't just hide it.

I think it wasn't about that he lost interest, like percentage was.

But that he was just too afraid to do anything.

Yeah, because he didn't give him instructions of what to do.

He just said I'm going on a trip.

See you later.

Here's some stuff.

Yeah.

Take care of this.

But but it's still a million dollars, right?

Is that is that what it equates to?

And so, you know, I mean, I look at my life and like, I mean, I know me.

And I'm like, well, I don't think God should trust me with like my two children.

I know he shouldn't trust me with my wife.

I know he shouldn't trust me with the ministry responsibility that I currently have.

But he did.

He did.

And so therefore, I may as well just like live as if I can do it with his help.

Absolutely right.

Because you can be cr crippled by fear and say, Well, I'm just such a humble person.

But like, it's like, okay, well, he trusted you, so do you know better than God?

Okay, I didn't think so.

You've got these two kids, figure it out.

You got this wife, like, you know, divorce isn't really in the cards.

So, like, you might as well just live as if he made a good choice in you.

That's absolutely right.

And so that's the faith that that you can have because of the relationship that you built, and and then what he is entrusted in your life is just a remarkable gift, not to mention just salvation.

If you didn't have any of that, God is enough.

Um but yeah, that it's so that's exciting.

That that makes me feel amazing.

That like with his help, just live as if you can do it.

Yeah.

With his help.

And that's why I was frustrated that day in that class.

That I'm like, we're spending too much time wondering, like, you're already in it, dude.

Like, figure it out.

Like with his help.

I mean, I you know, you say that after every time, with his help, Lord willing.

Yeah, Lord Willing and the Greeks don't rise.

Okay, so let's imagine this scenario.

You're outside in your backyard, you hear a noise, you look over the fence, and you see your neighbor digging a hole, and you're like, Where's this going?

And you're with me.

And you're like, what are you doing?

And and they say, I've just been given a million dollars to look after.

I'm I'm burying it in the ground.

And so the question that Lance always liked to ask, that I now always like to ask, is okay, it what makes what makes something crazy like that seem like normal?

What what would have have to happen?

And so if I'm leaning over the fence and I'm looking at a guy who's bearing a million dollars, my only conclusion could be his master must be really awful.

Yeah.

If he's that afraid that he won't even put it in a bank, he does he has he's so afraid to lose something that he's gonna go hide it.

My thought must be, man, that must be a really terrible master.

He must be hard and he is gonna met out punishment that you cannot imagine if if he loses even one penny.

And so when we live unfaithfully, when we're afraid to walk out, step out in faith, I think what we're doing is we're showing the rest of the world we we are afraid of God because we think he's too hard, um, and we don't trust him, and he doesn't really trust us, and he's not giving room for error.

And so I just think that's you know, I don't want to be the person that was like, oh, I'm so afraid.

I want to be the person that says, I'm gonna find creative ways to use what I have so that God can be glorified because he's gonna be excited.

I cannot wait to tell him what I've done with what he gave me.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Yeah, um there's still so many of us that that live with that, I guess, kind of isolation and fear that um hold on, I have a thought here.

I just kind of lost it though.

But um when you said that it made me makes me think that we as Christians, as the church, like it it is our purpose to show to the rest of the world what God has done in our lives, is capable of.

Blesses how he blesses us, and and just to get a small glimpse of what the kingdom will look like in the future.

That he's a good father and not a harsh master.

Yeah, that's a good thing.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And a lot of the parables are about a good father.

And there are times that he could be harsh.

I just read through Jeremiah or was listening to it.

And we can take that con that verse out of context that that I know is it I know the plans I have for you.

Yeah.

Well, guess what?

Israel was in captivity.

Yeah.

No way.

But he spent centuries before then warning them, right?

Without a doubt, we have all the warnings we need.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And even if we've only been given one talent or three talents, or zero for a time, it's a plan to move us somewhere.

So I think part of it is like, what is your controlling story?

Because you so I can bring up uh Nadab and a Bahu about how they, you know, they offered something to God that wasn't sanctioned and he kills him dead, right?

And so it's like we so like that story, and I I think there's other things that are going on in that story that are not clearly in the text.

So anyway, you can you can live that story, or you can live the story of David, who is just like, you know, out in the public dancing, and his wife is like, when my dad was king, he never did that.

He's like, Oh, you think this is bad?

I'm about to get down.

Right.

He's like, he's like worse.

He's like, You hadn't seen nothing yet.

If you didn't like that, you're gonna hate this.

If you don't like my linen e-pod, it's coming up, right?

So, like, so like what I again, polarity, right?

Sword of the day, I guess.

Um, you know, I hope both of those stories is they're both true, they're both in the Bible, but it's like, okay, but like which one's the more beautiful one that like you want to live out?

Now, well, obviously, you don't want to go off the rails and and offer something before God that is a abomination to God.

And that's right.

I think there's some paganism and some other stuff potentially going on in that story.

However, those rails that that David managed to stay between, they're pretty wide rails.

If he's out there dancing in the street in his ephod and with all his might.

Well, it's not.

I love that.

Right?

So, like, what's a more beautiful story?

And I think Jesus, in that telling of the parable of the talents, is saying the more beautiful story is the one that's exuberant, the one that's like generous, the one that's open-handed, the one that's faithful, the one that's David dancing in the street, and not the well, you know the story of a Bahu and Nadab and how they were struck dead.

And right?

It's like, okay, it it's true.

I'm not trying to write it out of the Bible or or like unteach it.

Do you want that to be the controlling story of your life?

No.

I would want it to be a story, not the story.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He wants us to put some to to give him something back.

And that b giving back is is the praise and the worship.

And and worship doesn't have to doesn't happen just inside these walls.

It happens everywhere.

Everywhere in our lab.

So I heard worship doesn't end.

That's what I heard.

Don't leave worship.

Don't leave worship.

There's multiple quotes in there, but that's just the one I I hung on to.

Yeah.

Don't leave worship.

I definitely want to thank uh sorry.

Um I definitely want to thank Tony for spurring on this conversation.

And I'm looking forward to a bunch of other uh men stepping up uh on Wednesday nights and leading.

I'm just so grateful for that.

Um I don't do that because I I hope I don't do that because I want to be lazy.

Um I I really hope that I do that because one, I think it blesses our folks, and two, selfishly, it really blesses me because I love to sit there in the pew, sorry, in the chair.

Um thanks for ruining that, Lance.

I love just sitting there and and listening and writing, and and those like Wednesday nights, they have been filling me up.

Uh, and so I'm I'm so grateful for that.

So that's great.

So I look forward to some more Wednesday nights in the future.

So whenever you're listening to this, there's a Wednesday night that's gonna be coming up within six days of when you're hearing this, and so come come and join us and and be blessed.

So 100%.

Yes.

All right.

That's all that's all I got.

All right.

Uh would you like to pray us out?

Yeah, I would.

Okay.

Okay.

God, we are just so thankful.

Um, and as we um unpacked um uh during our our our podcasting uh this morning is is the revelation that you have not only blessed us with all these talents, but you've you've entrusted us, uh, which means that that you are are calling us to use what you've given us for your glory.

And so, Lord, we're just so thankful.

Um, we're so thankful that we've been given an opportunity to to share you and to show you um and to be in your family and to call you Father.

What an incredible, humbling blessing that is.

And so, God, I just pray that uh we don't find ourselves being motivated uh and driven by by fear uh or apathy or laziness, but instead with excitement, um, we um we bring our our gifts of praise and worship to you every day, and that as people see it, they get to to experience what an amazing God that you are.

God, thank you again for your son Jesus, the greatest gift ever, Lord.

May we always honor and remember and praise him.

It's in his name that I pray.

Amen.