CIRRHOSIS OF THE GIVER: Risk-Taker or Undertaker?

Chris McCurley: Good morning. So good to see you again. We're finishing up a series on giving. First week we talked about the value of Jesus and how if you estimate the value of Jesus as astronomical, then it's going to affect your giving in a positive way. And then last week we talked about that there's one area in your life that you need to be liberal, and that is when it comes to our giving. It should be sacrificial. And then this morning we're wrapping things up by talking about being a risk taker in your faith. And I know that doesn't seem to go along with giving, but it absolutely does. Not just of your money, but of your time. time, your energy, and those kind of things. There was a family of field mice that were looking for the perfect place to settle down. They tried to find a home, and they come across this large cornfield that was perfect for them. There was abundance of food, plenty of water, and so they settled in and made this cornfield their home. Everything was looking up until one day the owner of the field, the farmer, came and harvested the corn. And of course, this sent the family of field mice running in every direction. It put their nice little home into chaos and upheaval, all because they found failed to recognize that the field belonged to someone else. I think I told you last week about the kildee that built a nest in our driveway. You know what Kildee Kildeer are? They're little birds that squawk a lot. They run along the ground or they build their nest in like gravel and dirt. And they built a nest in the middle of our driveway, so the median stretch there, they built in that so we would run over the nest every day, over the top of it, never harming the eggs or anything. My Daughter in law Ashley named it Steph. I don't know why, we'll have to ask you that later, but Steph, the little bird, would go nuts every time we'd walk up to her. She'd start flapping and flopping and you know, looking like she was gonna bow up on us. And I tried to have a conversation with her to tell her, look, I'm not gonna bother you, but this isn't your driveway. Right? I mean, you're a guest here. So calm down. But she didn't really listen. I think too many Christians look at life this way. This is my life. This is my stuff. This is my money. I earned it. I worked hard for it. Not realizing that nothing is truly theirs. It may be in your possession, but that doesn't mean that it is your possession. God owns everything. Everything belongs to him, including your talent, your ability. So, this idea that nobody's the boss of me, I I I worked hard for this, I've earned it, this is mine. Even your ability to work is something that was blessed by God. The fact that you get to get up and you get to go earn a living is a blessing from God. In fact, you're not even your own. You were bought at a price. And so how we take the possessions we've been blessed with, our time, our energy, our efforts, our our our family, our body, even. All of that can be a means by which we honor or dishonor God. So with that in mind, look with me at Matthew chapter 25. And in Matthew chapter 25, there was too much to put on the screen, so you just have to follow along with me. Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 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. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to one another one. Each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. The one who had received the five talents immediately went and did business with them, and earned five more talents. In the same way the one who had received the two talents earned two more. But he who received the one talent went away and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents. Saying, Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have earned five more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have earned two more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Enter the joy of your master. Now the one who had received the one talent also came up and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you do not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed. And I was afraid, so I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you still have what is yours. But his master answered and said to him, You worthless, lazy slave, did you know that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter seed? Then you ought to have put my money in the bank and And on my arrival I w I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take the talent away from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to every one who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away, and throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So ⁓ a talent was a monetary unit, a certain precious metal that was weighed and minted out in the form of a coin or bars. However, a talent refers to much more than just money if we take this parable and apply it to modern day and to ourselves. It refers to all that we have our money, our possessions, our time, our gifts, our abilities. We are a steward Of all these things. As has already been established, we don't own anything. In fact, we don't even own ourselves. First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 20. But notice that this parable begins with the master giving his servants some responsibility that involved risk. Jesus said that the kingdom is like a man about to go on a journey who called his own slaves. The word for slaves here in the Greek is doulos, and it indicates. That these slaves belonged to the master. So they were not their own. They belonged to the master. He owned them. And this is a critical point that we cannot afford to miss. In order to properly understand this parable, we must see ourselves as God's slaves. We belong to Him. We are no longer ourselves. We we were bought at a price, right? So therefore, like the slaves in the parable, we are expected to do more with our talents than just keep them to ourselves. We are expected to invest them in an effort to expand them, in an effort to increase them. And the first slave was given what would be a common laborer's earnings ⁓ over a hundred years. So that's a lot, right? The second slave was given what a common laborer would earn in forty years, and the last man was given ⁓ the wages of a common laborer over a twenty-year span. So the master handed out these talents. According to the servant's ability. No one was given more than they could handle, and the one that was given less, they were given that because that was what they were capable of handling or managing. And so when you think about it, to give all of them the same would be a disservice to each one of them. The master understood who could handle more. He understood exactly what the slave could handle, and therefore he endowed them respectively. So five talents would have been a great burden to the man with a one talent ability. And the man who ⁓ received the five talents, I mean, obviously, giving him just one talent would have been ⁓ selling him short, right? Everyone received something. In fact, everyone received more than something because all of them received way more than just a day's wage. Like we said, the five talent individual received what one would earn over a hundred years. The two-talent individual over 40 years and 20 years. So, I mean, they were given ⁓ something that was highly valuable, highly prized, but talents make no difference if they are not invested. Now, another thing to understand from this parable is there is no such thing as a zero talent individual. I've heard Christians say sometimes, you know, I just I don't have a talent. There's there's nothing that I'm good at, and that's just not true. There is no such thing as a zero-talent individual. Everyone can do something. Everyone has received an ability from God. It may only be one thing, but that one thing is highly valuable because you may be the only one that can do that one thing. And so, therefore, if you don't do that one thing, then that area is not covered. And therefore, as we talked about before, the body is deformed because that one body part is not doing its job. And if you don't use it, It goes unfulfilled. The master has not left any of us with empty pockets. We have been blessed by God. We are not all blessed equally, but we are all blessed abundantly. And God does not expect us to do what He has not gifted us to do. We can't all be preachers, we can't all be elders or deacons or song leaders or whatever, but we can all do something. And he expects us to do something. The problem is is we tend to get into the comparisonitis mode, right? We suffer from comparisonitis and we tend to to compare our abilities to someone else's. And maybe we don't measure up, or maybe we think that we're better than the other person. And this is not what Jesus is promoting here. In fact, what he's saying is you've been given what you can handle and you need to look within and not look outward and take care of what you have been entrusted with and increase it. That's all your responsibility is. This isn't about what we can do as compared to someone else. It is about what we do with what the Lord has blessed us with. And as God reviews our contribution, what is expected of us will be based on what has been given. If more is given, more is expected. If less is given, then maybe less is expected. It's all about a return commensurate with our talent. And as the master servants, we must be wise investors. Because with a blessing comes a challenge, and when the master bestows a blessing, it comes with a responsibility. Now, I mentioned being a risk taker versus being an undertaker. And I realize that risk is a scary word. The dictionary definition is exposure to the chance of injury or loss, a hazard or dangerous chance. And we certainly don't want to expose ourselves, at least we don't do it knowingly, to the chance of injury. And most of us would would never dream of purposely putting ourselves in harm's way. So when you put it in these terms, it's understandable why the one talent man buried his gift. I mean, he didn't take what was given to him and blow it. I ⁓ you know, he just buried it, right? He didn't spend it on himself. He didn't spend it on something frivolous, he simply buried it. So what's the harm in that, right? Why is that a big deal? Better than investing it and losing it. Then losing it all, right? Well, at least he didn't squander his money like the unrighteous steward in Luke chapter 16. At least he didn't blow it on loose living like the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. At least, at least he didn't waste it. At least he didn't, you know, end up ten thousand talents in debt like the ⁓ like the man in Matthew chapter eighteen. He maintained what was given to him. And what's so bad about that? He was able to give back exactly what was given to him. Now, according to rabbinical literature, and the rabbis had a a a lot of parables that were similar to this one. And according to rabbinical literature, if a master entrusted his goods to a slave and then went on a journey, the slave would eventually have to give an accounting for everything that was placed in his hands. And so if he lost anything, he would have to make up for that himself. And if he couldn't, he might be beaten, he might be thrown in prison. And so, based on that, you could understand why the one-talent man just buried his talent and said, I'm not going risk anything because I don't want my life to be in danger. But obviously that wasn't good enough for our Lord. You've probably heard some people in this day and age say, you're better off just taking your money and putting it a jar, putting it in a jar and burying it in your backyard. I mean, that's essentially what the one-talent man did. And Jesus was not pleased with that. The rabbis probably thought it was a wise and prudent thing to do. You're entrusted with one talent, bury it so that you can give it back, and that way you avoid any harm or any injury. Jesus' teaching would have been shocking to their ears. They had their own parables, like I said, similar to this one, but in their parable, the man who buried the talent would have been treated as a hero. He would have been considered as someone who did the exactly right thing. However, Jesus refers to the one talent man. Who buried the talent as a wicked, lazy slave? He was no hero. In fact, he was a villain. So the question becomes for us what are we risking for the Lord? And if you're not risking anything in your discipleship, then may I suggest that that maybe you're not doing it correctly? What are you risking for the Lord? I I don't know. That we always think of discipleship as being risky, but the pages of scripture certainly do. We see people over and over again illuminated for us in Scripture who had a risk taking faith. What do you risk by being a child of God? Maybe you risk persecution, depending on what part of the world you're in. Maybe, maybe you risk you know driving away family. Maybe you risk being labeled a holy roller or holier than thou. We see that over and over again in scripture, there were people who took risks. Paul was definitely someone who had a risk taking faith, right? In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul decides to give his resume. He finds it absolutely ridiculous to have to do this, but he obliges and to show that the false teachers were. were falsely accusing him, he decides to give his credentials. Notice what he says, Second Corinthians chapter eleven, verse twenty-three. Are they servants of Christ? I'm speaking as if insane. I'm more so. And far more labors and far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes, three times I was beaten with rods, and once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I spent adrift at sea. I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? What's the lesson there? Don't go sailing with Paul. Maybe, right? But there's a bigger lesson here, right? Paul had a risk taking faith. I think it's safe to say that Paul didn't play it safe. In fact, throughout the pages of scripture, we find individuals who had a risk taking faith. You think about it: Moses, Noah, ⁓ Meshach and Abed, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Stephen, ⁓ Daniel, Gideon, over and over again, we find these individuals who exercised a faith that took risk. And there's always a risk involved when it comes to following Jesus. What is that risk? Well, we've named a few of those. I remember sitting down with a young lady in La Palma, El Salvador, and we're studying the Bible together, and ⁓ we were talking about the gospel and the need to obey the gospel. And she was spouting off scripture. She knew this stuff better than I did as a young Christian. And so I looked at her and I said, ⁓ so you ready to do this? Are we are you ready to go all in for Jesus? I mean, we can go and and and we can baptize you right now. And she goes, ⁓ no, I can't do that. No, I'd be disowned by my family. And and maybe that's what it would be for someone who takes a risk by going all in with Jesus. Maybe the risk is ⁓ like we said, persecution. Maybe, maybe it's Creating ⁓ a rift in your friendships. Maybe it's ⁓ driving away the people you love. I mean, the truth of the matter is in this country you're probably not going to be ⁓ killed for your faith, but in some parts of the world that may be a real ⁓ option. But playing it safe doesn't take faith. If I don't perceive risk, then I don't need God. Stepping out and taking risks. assures my need for God. Where would the church be today if Paul said, You know what, it sounds like a really good plan, God, but I'm I'm pretty comfortable being a temp maker. I think I'll just stay ⁓ doing that. I mean, where would we be today if the early apostles were not willing to risk their lives to spread the gospel? What if Christ decided that the pain and agony of the cross was just too much to bear and, you know, he's just gonna play it safe and bow out? What if he had chosen an easier route? What if we decide to succumb to our fear and bury our talent? I came across a little poem the other day that I think describes this all beautifully. It said there was a very cautious man who never laughed or played. He never risked, he never tried, he never sang or prayed. And when he one day passed away, his insurance was denied. For since he never really lived, they claimed he never died. If you're not stepping out and taking risks in your faith, I don't know that you can say you're really living. Or at least really living for God, right? Because Jesus wants finishers. Anyone that follows Jesus, he wants them following to the very end. And many people are willing to ride the train. They're willing to ride the train, maybe even a good ways down the track. But at some point it seems that they're always. Gonna drop off at some point. They're gonna jump off the train at some point. Are you willing to dri to ride that train all the way to the very end? Because Jesus doesn't want flash in the pan disciples. He wants those who are faithful to the end. The one talent man had all the excuses down pat, didn't he? Master, I I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed. Now this was a shot. At the master's character. It stems from the methods of sowing and reaping in this day and time. There were no fences between fields, and so seed was just broadcast by hand, thrown out by hand. The slave saw his master as a tight fisted man, and he reasoned that some of the seed probably fell in the neighbor's field, and he was going to go and sow, you know, several feet deep into the neighbor's field to make sure he got his portion. I'll reap several feet over into this field to make sure I get mine. In other words, the slave is accusing his master of being stingy and greedy, even dishonest. And the one talent man was also driven by fear, that's obvious. We are all afraid at times. I think it's always scary to step out in our faith. It's easier to play it safe. But the question must be asked do I fear because I don't trust the master? Because that's a problem, right? When fear overrides faith, The one talent slave hid his talent in the ground out of fear. He was probably afraid of failure. He was probably afraid that he couldn't do as well as the five talent man. The one talent slave made it very clear that he was afraid that he would not please the master. He was in a no win situation, he felt. And because he felt that he was in a no win situation, he just did nothing. And the one talent man blamed everyone but himself. He held out what had been given to him. Dirty, tarnished, precious little metal coin that had been given to him, and he says, See, you have what you're As if to say you shouldn't expect anything more. You're getting it back. But there is no good reason to do nothing. There's never a good reason to do nothing. Colossians three, twenty three and twenty-four, Sam read a woman ago, Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord and not for people, knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. When we step out and take risks in our faith, is when we receive the biggest rewards. There is always a risk involved in following Jesus. And Jesus was honest enough to tell us that, right? That stepping out in your faith will take ⁓ you having a risky type of faith. Fear can be a real inhibitor, but it's not justifiable. We may, we may falter, we may fall flat on our faces, but it's not a justifiable excuse to say, you know what, I'm too afraid. I'm just gonna bury my talent. We may fail, but it's always better to step out in faith than to play it safe. It's it's kind of like the convenience store worker by the name of Eddie. Eddie was not a great worker. He didn't show up on time. Rarely did he show up on time. If he showed up, he didn't really do a whole lot of work when he was there. And finally one day, Eddie was let go, and a customer who saw Eddie every day came in and noticed Eddie's absence, and he asked the clerk, where's Eddie? And the clerk said, Eddie, don't work here anymore. And the clerk and the ⁓ customer said, Well, are you going to replace him? You know, what are you going to do about the vacancy? And the clerk said, Eddie didn't leave no vacancy. Because Eddie didn't do anything to begin with. And I want you to think about your life as a whole, but think about think about your faith, think about your your life as a disciple and being a part of the Walnut Street Church of Christ. Would your leaving leave a whole? I I mean, if you if you were. Called to to to go and move to another place and, you know, go to work somewhere else, or maybe you move to get closer to family or what would your leaving leave a hole here? Because there are people who leave churches and they leave a hole that's just you never really fill it in, right? There are people who have left this congregation because they have passed away that you'll never really replace. And you look at where they used to sit and you miss them. And you remember them fondly? Are you creating a life that will leave a hole? Are you taking risk in your faith that people take notice of? And maybe they want to follow your example, but you're building a legacy so that when you're gone, your faith long outlives you. People see where you live. And it's not a house with a physical address on a street. It's in that old Bible you carry around. That pew that you sit in every Sunday. Your relationships, your spouse, your kids. That's where you live. And that's what people see. And that outlives you. Are you seeking to outlive your life? I believe it is the responsibility of the preaching minister to challenge you and to encourage you to be a working servant. And I believe that that is my responsibility because I believe that was is what Scripture teaches. I don't believe that anywhere in the Bible it teaches that once you become a child of God, a disciple, that you are to sit and to soak. I don't believe that is ever the challenge, that is ever the instruction that is given to someone who becomes a child of God. You're baptized, good, you're in. Your work is done. And so Walnut Street will always challenge you to find your talent or talents and not bury them, but use them for the glory of God and for the work of this church. We would not be doing our job as the shepherds of the staff. If we didn't encourage you, if we didn't try to motivate you, if we didn't try to challenge you to not be a pupoteta, but to get up and go to work, to roll up your sleeves. At some point you got to take off the apron. You gotta take off the bib and put on an apron, don't you? At some point you gotta get to work. Now, I I realize that when you first come in, that's a ⁓ a babe in Christ, there's a lot to learn. Maybe you you came from a church where you were hurt and you've got to have some time to heal. All that is understandable. But at some point, you've got to shift from being a spectator to a participator. Because that's what is expected of you as a child of God. That's not just me talking, that's scripture talking. And so I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't challenge you to use the talents and the abilities that you've been given. Because God expects us to work. But here's the crucial point to keep in mind: it's not just the five stars. The five star athletes who who do all the work and get all the the praise. It's not just the five talent individual who gets the recognition, the notoriety. I think that's what happens too often is if you're really good, if you've got you know the five talents, then everybody else just kind of looks at you to do everything else. But even if you only have one talent, that talent is valuable. And it's something that has to be used because it fills a hole. If the parable of the talents teaches us nothing, it should teach us that everyone with his or her ability is valuable, supremely valuable. Just look it again at the master's reaction of the man who buried his talent. You wicked and lazy slave. He says, throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wow. That's pretty serious, isn't it? The master didn't deem this one talent individual as meaningless or minuscule or measly. He had an expectation of him. He expected him to do something with that one talent, to invest it, and to get a return on it. The master says to him, Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. You see, there's always a way. There's always a way. The man should have done something. It doesn't matter how minuscule or meaningless we may think our talent is, they're really no stars when it comes to the church. Some have been given different talents, some have been given more talents, but that doesn't exempt others from service. The work of the one talent man was just as vital as the five-talent individual. Everyone is needed, everyone is necessary, and everyone is vital. To the work of the church. It's been said that there are three types of people in the world. There are those who make things happen, there are those who wait for things to happen, and there are those who sit around and wonder what happened. And our responsibility is to be the first one, to be someone who makes things happen. That's the one we must emulate. We need to be seeking to make things happen. We must take the initiative and To be trustworthy in the things that God has blessed us with, not burying them in the ground and doing nothing. It's like when I was a teenager, my mother had a brand new car. Some of you may remember a beretta. She had a brand new beretta. Those of you who don't know what it is, Google it. It was blue metallic. It had all the bells and whistles, sunroof, all that. And there were times when I would ask my mother if I could take her car. And she would usually say yes with this instruction. Treat it like it's mine, not yours. And of course, the obvious message was I've seen your truck. I've seen what you do with your truck. I used to take it mudden, get it, you know, filthy, dirty. Make sure you treat it like it's mine and not yours. The word for steward in the Bible means house arranger. Or manager. And I think that's what God's message would be to us. Treat it like it's mine, not yours, because it's his. It's not ours. It belongs to him. Everything belongs to him. Listen to this. Psalm 24, verse 1. The earth is the Lord and all it contains, the world, and those who live in it. The master has bestowed upon us certain talents and abilities to use however he demands that we use them. Like they are his and not ours. And so here's the question I'll leave you with. Are you making wise spiritual investments with the talents that God has bestowed upon you? Or let me ask it another way. There's a slide for this, by the way. Let me ask it another way. Are you a risk taker or an undertaker? Because here's what happens. We come to God with our hands out and we say, God, please bless me. Please bless me with talents or abilities or money or whatever it is. And He does. And our hands are full. And we cling to those things that He's given us. Sometimes too tightly. We become clutchers, like we talked about last week. And we hang tightly to those things that He's given us because they give us security, they give us significance, right? And then one day God comes along and says, Here, take my hand. But I can't take your hand, my hands are full. And God said, I know, put put that stuff down, but we're reluctant, right? We don't we don't want to put that stuff down. Because these things become our security, our significance, and we don't want to let go of them, even if it means taking God's hand. And that's the that's the danger. Is caring more about the blessing than the blesser. But when you see the value in discipleship, when you understand what it is that we're striving for as people of God, then it's easy to say, right, I'll put this down. It wouldn't mind to begin with. Thank you for it, but I'd rather have you. Let's pray. Most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we are so blessed and so grateful for the day that you've given us. Thank you for this church family. Thank you for your love, your grace, and your mercy. May we leave here and may we be willing to take risk in our faith, all for your glory. We love you. We thank you. It's in your Son's name we pray. We are a family that takes care of one another. So if we can help you this morning by praying with you, maybe you'd like to learn more about discipleship. Certainly we'd love to study with you. Maybe you're ready to obey the gospel and you're ready for that faith to drive you to repentance and confession and being baptized for the remission of your sins. Certainly we'd love to take care of that this morning as well. Whatever need you might have, why don't you come? As Ben leads us in a song.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention Matthew 25 · chapter mention Matthew 25 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention Luke 16 · chapter mention Luke 15 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention Psalms 24:1