Use It Or Lose It | Fierce Pathways

Hey, what up?

It's Mark Carter.

I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.

Welcome to our podcast.

I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.

I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.

Enjoy the message.

Jesus cares about you having the best version of your life that you can and, even more importantly, the best version of heaven that you can.

I want you to imagine that there's an employer and the employer has an employee come up to them and this employee's been thinking about this for a long time, been practicing what she's going to say, and she says I just think it's about time I got a raise.

I feel like I've been working here for a while and the employer likes her.

Like I feel like I've been working here for a while and the employer likes her.

She's likable, she's got a great personality.

He wants to help her.

And yet Chick is super unreliable.

He doesn't know what she's going to do.

She's going to be an hour late.

She's going to just some days not even show up.

And so, though he wants to help her, he's like it would be wrong for me to just promote you and promote you when you're not even doing what you're supposed to do to the degree that you're supposed to do it.

You're not being faithful.

You got a lot of the talent, you got a lot of the personality.

You just don't have the reliability.

One of the ways that Jesus brings blessing into our lives is through reliability.

He's going to get us set for that today.

In fact, he was so concerned about this as he was telling his disciples in Matthew, chapter 24 and 25, he was going through like the end times.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

He's going through here's what happens when I come back and here's how it's all going to work.

And he says you're going to want to be aware of certain things.

You're going to want to make sure certain things are top of mind, like being faithful and being reliable with the things that I've delegated to you.

Sometimes we can think that really, what we're supposed to do is just kind of like, be good and wait around for God to, you know, take us via death or to come back in the person of Jesus Christ, and that's just what we're supposed to do.

It's kind of a waiting game.

There's definitely a component to that.

There's a perseverance and press on and stay close to Jesus.

But there also is a faithfulness, there's a reliability with the things that he's asked us to do.

So we're just going to jump into where Jesus is talking about this in Matthew, chapter 25, verse 14.

Matthew 25:14

He's describing hey, this is what it's going to be like when Jesus evaluates each one of us and our contribution to the kingdom of God.

He says again it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.

This man, he's going to be called the master.

He represents God, and the servants are everybody who names the name of Jesus Christ, who's trusted him for their forgiveness, trusted him to be their savior and leader.

And he gives them some stuff.

He doesn't give them stuff to own.

He gives them stuff to steward, to take care of, to be accountable for, and really we just need to understand.

It's everything in our lives.

Everything that you've been given are things God has given you and, even though we might not always think about it like this, he has a plan and a purpose for that, and sometimes there are seasons that we're dealing with that Sometimes it's within our possession or within our influence, and other times.

Maybe that season is ending, but throughout our entire lives.

God is giving us stuff.

He's giving us lots of stuff and he wants us to do stuff with that stuff.

Verse 15,.

To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags and to another one bag.

Some of your translations might say talents.

You've heard of this before.

Talent wasn't just like a gift or a skill, it was a sum of money.

One talent was a lot of money.

One talent you could hire 200 workers for an entire year with one talent.

So when he gives them these talents, the author Jesus and Matthew are telling us give them a lot.

In this parable, he gave them a lot of stuff and we've all got more stuff than maybe we think we have.

Even though you can find people that have more than you, there's still a whole bunch of stuff that maybe you're not considering that God has given you.

Have you considered that it's God that gives you the breath in your lungs?

It's God that gives you all the great relationships you have in your life.

He gave you those, the childhood that you had, all the good parts that was from him, all the skills, all the talents that you have, all the things that you can just kind of do better than everybody else, the personality quirks that you have, all those things, every opportunity you've ever had, every place you've ever worked, every place you've ever tried to work, the cousins you had, the different people that have come in and out of your life, everything is from God.

He says.

I've given this to you.

Just understand, it's mine, but I want you to steward it.

I want you to do what you can with it to bring a good return of goodness to planet Earth and glory to God through it.

And he gave each one of these this money, bag or talents, each one according to his ability.

Then he went on his journey.

The man who received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.

So also the one with two bags of gold gained two more.

These talents, have you considered what your talents are?

I don't just mean your talent, your talent is a talent.

So the things that you're talented at, those are talents.

But it's also all your accomplishments thus far.

It's all of your strengths, it's all of the resources that you have at your disposal, it's all the stuff that maybe you're great at working on teams or organizing teams, that's one of your talents.

Sometimes we don't think about it.

But your marriage if you're married, that's one of your talents.

It's yours to steward and hopefully improve and increase as you go.

Your singleness that's one of your talents.

God says that's an opportunity for whatever window of time that is.

God wants to use that.

He wants to leverage that for his glory, for your good.

Your parenting that's a talent, to as much as you have influence over your kids.

Still, there's an apportionment of that influence that God has given you.

He says I want you to use this, I want you to improve things with it and I might even want you to get better and better and better at it.

And the point of all these talents is, you'll notice, the people didn't have to like find the talents they're, just the master just gave it to them right away.

And so often we're looking to get more talents or add more talents, and that's.

There's nothing wrong with that.

But we need to understand some of the things we're called to be faithful with.

Most of the things we're called to be faithful with, they're already right in front of you, they're already in your hands.

They're the day in and day out things.

They're the day in and day out things.

They're the people around you, they're the opportunities you have now.

They're the resources you have now.

It's not someday, it's right now.

What are you doing with this now?

And he gives to each one according to their ability.

I love this about the master.

I love this about the father.

He understands everybody's gifted differently, man, everybody has a different set of circumstances.

He's not trying to equalize everything right now he's trying to say I gave you this and I expect you to use that, not their stuff, that, the stuff you've got, I want you to use that.

It can be really easy in this day and age to compare ourselves with so-and-so.

Well, I don't think I could ever do what they're doing.

Why do they even get to do that?

Why do they have the talents?

Why do they have the resources?

They get to that and I only get to do this.

Hey, here's good news God is not going to evaluate you on how you do compared to them.

He didn't give you any of their stuff.

He gave you your specific combination to produce your specific faithfulness.

That's pretty dope right there, man.

And so what do they do?

Well, they get out and go after him According to his ability.

The one with five bags of gold went at once.

He went at once.

He didn't wait around, he didn't just sit there, he didn't think about it too long.

He said I've got this stuff, I'm going to get after it, I'm going to go get it, I'm going to produce change in my world.

I'm not going to wait for perfect circumstances.

I have perfect talents right here.

Someone else might not think they're perfect, but God thinks they're perfect for me in this particular time.

See, sometimes we're maybe underappreciating, undervaluing the things that God gave us.

And God says you can trust me, but I gave you the right things at the right time in your life.

You've already got the right things, so don't think you need to get something more.

Start exactly where you are and I'll take care of the rest.

Trust me that I gave these things to you.

Now notice that these first two servants at least.

They're thankful even to get anything Like.

They're kind of excited Like all right, let's go, let's get after it, we're going to do it.

They're thankful to be a part of the deal at all, and that shows by their zeal to get it done Verse 18,.

But the man who received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid.

Somebody say hid, hid his master's money.

He hid his master's money, he concealed it, he veiled it.

He said I can't deal with this right now.

This is too scary.

I need to just put this somewhere Now.

What might not be obvious to us is in that time, in that culture in the ancient Near East, the smart like it was general wisdom, the smartest thing you could do with money if you want to like, not spend it all, is put it in the ground somewhere, hide it.

Make sure.

If you just want to save it, if you want to protect it, if you want to keep it safe, put it in the ground because there's no banks, and so put it in the ground.

No, as long as you can find it, that's a great place for your money.

But the master, the master didn't need to keep it safe.

If the master wanted to keep it safe, he would have just kept it himself.

He didn't give it for the man to keep it safe.

He gave it to get a return.

And, my friends, some of us were afraid sometimes to step out.

We're afraid to use our talents, we're afraid to take a big risk.

But part of the kingdom is risk.

Part of the kingdom is saying, okay, this might not work, perfect, but I'm a little bit afraid not to step out because the master isn't expecting me to guard it and keep it safe.

He gave it to me to use, so I'm not going to hide it.

He wants us to recognize it's in his best interest, it's in my best interest, it's actually in everybody's best interest if we all give ourselves to the talents and the things he's given us with reliability.

Verse 19,.

After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

He settled accounts with them.

I don't know about you.

I can talk myself out of some pretty good ideas.

My health, if I see something extra sweet, like there's a little thing in my head that reminds me that's not a good idea for you to eat that.

That sugar is going to immediately lower your immune system.

You're more likely to get sick.

You're going to have to work extra hard at the gym.

You're getting a little bit older.

This isn't wise for you to just keep chowing that stuff down.

It sticks longer.

All right, how many know about that?

You got to work a little harder in the gym now, and so there's.

I know, I know that, but it's easy to talk myself out of it.

It's easy to say, yeah, but I like these Reese's peanut butter cups no one else is here, I can eat them all.

I'm very good.

You're probably good at this too.

You can talk yourself out of wise things.

And that's exactly what this final servant did.

He talked himself out of what was wise and he just hid it.

He just concealed it, he just ve.

And because any one of us could die at any time, we've got to be about the business of reliability.

Somebody say reliability God is.

He's given it to us and he actually has already warned us ahead of time.

Jesus took time, matthew took time and put it in the Bible.

He said this is really important.

What Jesus said, he wants everybody to know.

There's going to be an audit.

There's going to be an evaluation.

You're going to want to make sure that you go like the first two servants and not like the final one, because it's not going to necessarily go bad.

I know that I personally dude.

I want to be reliable.

I want to be one of those people that, if there's a question, I wonder if Carter's going to get around to doing that.

I wonder if Carter means it.

It's not a question.

People are like oh well, he's reliable.

I know that most of us, that's probably what you want.

You want people to think they're a sure thing.

Hey, don't worry about them, they're going to come through.

So what is Jesus saying?

He's saying use it or lose it.

You didn't know this was a biblical idea.

Did you Use it or lose it?

Here's number one Zealous, faithful action yields opportunity and increase.

Zealous, faithful action yields opportunity and increase, here now and in our eternal home.

Verse 20,.

The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five.

Master, he said you entrusted me with five bags of gold.

See, I've gained five more.

The master replied well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful, you have been reliable with a few things.

I will put you in charge of many things.

Come and share your master's happiness.

Well, you know, the second guy did the exact same thing.

He only had two talents two bags of gold that he used, doubled.

It brought it back.

And you'll notice that the master's not evaluating their success.

He's not saying well, let me see the empires that you built with that.

Well, let me see all the projects that you got yourself to work on.

About that, let me see how they did compared to how everybody else's project did.

He doesn't bring that up at all.

All he says is you're good and faithful.

When he says good, he means this was morally right, it was right of you to do what I asked you to do with it.

That was good, that was right, that was the good thing to do.

And you were faithful, you were reliable.

I'm not looking at your success.

It's not that we don't evaluate success.

Yeah, part of using our talents is making sure that it's going well, but that's not what God is evaluating.

When you turn in your stuff, when there's an audit, he's not going to say, well, how did it compare to everybody else's though?

No, all he's going to say is how were you doing day in and day out, with the faithfulness part?

How were you doing?

Just doing it when nobody saw, when you weren't going to get a reward?

How were you doing?

Doing it and being faithful?

Well done, good and faithful servants.

Why?

Because these two at least.

They were zealous, they were after it.

They didn't have time to waste, they got after it.

They didn't have time to waste, they got after it.

They weren't afraid to try Now.

They were afraid of the master that was wise.

They were afraid of loss what happens if I don't bring a good return?

But they weren't afraid to do it.

They jumped in and they did the right thing.

They took a risk, because that's what kingdom people do, and they were able to be trusted.

And God says I'm going to put you in charge.

I've got some things here on earth that, as you're reliable, I'm going to open new doors and give you more stuff to be reliable with.

If you can prove to me, god says with your character that, yeah, you're the woman I can count on, you're the person.

If I put you there, you're going to do X, y and Z.

You always do it.

I always know.

Well, guess what?

I've got a lot more X, y's and Z's than I need.

Somebody I know will do it, though, and so I'm going to put you in charge of that.

And then there's realities in heaven where the entire New Testament teaches that those who are faithful with what they've been given in terms of their character, in terms of their devotion and in terms of the things they've been called to manage as their faith, with those things God says I've got eternal things for you to run in heaven, because I can trust you, because you're reliable.

I'm sure everyone probably at some point has seen one of those.

You know the trust falls.

People are, you know, at work or somewhere on a retreat and they go, let's do a trust, fall.

And then they, okay, close your eyes and, you know, get on a table and fall backwards.

And it's really neat when it works.

But you've seen the funny ones when nobody catches them and they just fall and what do they know?

Instantly my friends are unreliable.

And God says I don't want to think that about you.

I want to think that you're going to catch the ball.

You might even like fumble it, but you're going to dive for it.

Nevertheless, share your master's happiness.

But it's not just that like you get stuff, it's that isn't God so awesome.

He's not a God that's just like do it.

He says once everybody's done their thing, let's gather around and we're going to sit around the great banquet table of the lamb and we're going to tell the stories and we're all going to celebrate together.

We're going to share in the master's happiness and the master's joy and you know what?

You can experience, that a little taste of it on earth when we kind of click over into thinking this way.

God is enjoying my service to him, my managing of his stuff, his resources, his talents, his opportunities, his relationships.

He's enjoying it and I can enjoy him enjoying me.

That's entering into your master's happiness and joy.

What a God Ain't.

No other God that does that, but our God does.

What do we do about it?

Well, first, we want to recognize that reliability and obedience are rewarded.

Now let's bring this back home.

It doesn't need to be incredibly big stuff.

I want us to all remember this is about like this will make chores easier, okay.

So like making the grocery list, that's you demonstrating you're reliable, reliably mowing the lawn, reliably investing in that child, reliably working on the money.

What are the things that God has put in front of you?

This is everyday stuff and God says yeah, I was very specific on purpose.

I gave you that.

I'm wanting you to manage that in good and godly ways.

Let's see if you can do it.

If you can do it, then you can enjoy God enjoying you.

Some of us just managing the work-life balance that's hard, man.

And, by the way, my personal belief is there's no such thing as a work-life balance.

There's constant balancing.

It's never like, it's never dude, it's never balanced for more than 37 seconds you have to like, oh, my gosh, okay, and then pull it back here and then it's never doesn't?

Life's not static, so it doesn't stay balanced.

But the worship of rebalancing oh, now I'm working too hard.

Okay, well, now I'm like spending too much time on that one project, okay, balance it all.

But all of it is worship unto your God.

All of it is what you've been called to steward.

It's not so much you need to get it right, you just need to keep doing it for him.

Somebody say glory.

It's not success that is rewarded, it's faithfulness.

God is asking for faithfulness, not success, the way that the world defines it right now and recognize that there might be some things we should all think about.

There might be some things that God is asking us to be faithful with or to rethink through.

Maybe there's some reflection that should come from this message today.

Maybe there's things like did I let go of something that maybe I really should have kept doing?

Or is there something that it's in my heart a little bit to do, and maybe it's something I could do at church?

Or maybe it's something that we could do in the neighborhood, or something that God is.

Maybe it's something I could rally together with the family.

It's something that God really has put this in front of you.

You're not guessing.

It's persistent, it keeps coming up and if you would give yourself over to it, god might multiply it and multiply it and multiply it, because he sees, oh, they're going to be faithful.

Oh, sweet, then I'll do that.

Then Even the reliability, the faithfulness, my friends, for some of us it's just spiritual reliability.

It's stuff like coming to church.

It's stuff like I'm not beating you down, but discipline is a thing that is necessary in life.

It's stuff like spending time in God's word.

We want to, like reap this haul.

Gosh, why am I so distant from God?

Well, I mean, you don't have to do it.

Perfect, and he'll help you.

But are you pressing in?

Are you like trying to get closer?

See, god didn't go anywhere.

We just drift, and if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us.

But that thing will keep compounding as we keep drawing near.

Over the years, boom, that snowball gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and suddenly you get to a point where it's not always super easy, but there's an instant connection with God.

It's not that hard to hear from God because you're used to reliably being in that place.

But playing it safe leads to regret.

Playing it safe leads to regret.

Playing it safe leads to regret.

Use it or lose it.

Fearful, resentful inaction loses even what it had.

That's scary, right there, yo.

Fearful, resentful inaction loses even what it had.

Then the man who had received one bag of gold came.

Master, he said I knew you were a hard man, harvesting where you'd not sown, gathering where you'd not scattered seed.

So, I was afraid, went out, hid your gold in the ground.

See, here's what belongs to you.

And the master replied what did he say?

He said you wicked, lazy servant, you knew that I harvest where I've not sown and gathered where I've not scattered seed.

Okay, well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has 10 bags.

For here's the principle.

Jesus says whoever has will be given more, and plug in the word faithfulness and you'll see what Jesus is trying to say Whoever has faithfulness will be given more, more to be faithful with and they will have an abundance.

Whoever does not have faithfulness, even what they have will be taken from them.

Because we've taught the Lord.

I can't be trusted.

Take this stuff away and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Let's start with the last one, because it might be the most frightening everybody what this servant is demonstrating.

If we look at the entire theological understanding of the New Testament, this servant probably doesn't know the master if we're going to go there.

That's why he's thrown out into the outer darkness.

But there's also another kind of outer darkness.

It's the outer darkness of not having the joy that other people who are using their resources for God have.

There's an outer, there's a distance, there's like I've got responsibilities I should be shouldering, but I'm fearful and I'm running away from them and I can't get happy, I can't get content because I'm not doing.

Maybe it's a hard thing, maybe it's a thing I didn't even want to do, but it's the thing God has asked me to do.

And now I can't get happy.

I'm not in the joy, or I could be, but I'm just not allowing myself to be in it because I'm not being faithful.

But notice this, dude, dude.

This is a victim mentality.

Have we noticed this?

Like this guy is.

He's super fearful.

And what is he doing?

He's accusing.

He's fearful that maybe he's fearful people are going to talk about him.

Maybe he's fearful people are going to talk about him.

Maybe he's fearful people are going to judge him.

But he's accusing.

He's allowing resentment into his heart.

He's saying you know what this whole thing is?

It's stacked against me.

That's the problem, see.

It's because you're a bad guy.

There's something wrong with you, master.

You didn't give me the right stuff, or you didn't give me the right amount, or I'm not.

Really I shouldn't have had this one.

I should have had what somebody else had.

I don't know why these guys get 10 and these guys get 5.

What about me?

See, the whole thing's stacked against me.

See, the system is just against me.

Guys, we live in a time where it's easy because let me see if I can explain this fast we live in a time.

It's easy because, for the most part of our culture has abandoned God.

It doesn't factor God into anything or any of its narratives, and so there's a Marxist idea that everything is about oppression or oppressor.

You're one or the other.

The problem is yo, the Bible does not couch reality like that.

Sure, sometimes someone oppresses somebody and the other person oppresses somebody else.

And that is one little piece of what's happening.

But what the rest of the world forgets is there's a sovereign God who apportions stuff to people and he doesn't ask hey, who's keeping you down?

Who kept you from having five bags of gold?

He doesn't say that.

He says what's in your hand, what are you going to do with it?

Because your life's going to be over in a snap and it's not going to matter what so-and-so did or what you think they kept you from.

God says I'm in complete control, I give you all these talents.

What are you doing with them?

Quit whining about what somebody else has, because that wouldn't even be success for you, that wouldn't even be faithfulness for you.

Do what's in front of you, acknowledging there's a God in heaven who sovereignly is arranging the universe.

It's not just all happenstance, it's not just see.

God hasn't just let people just do stuff to one another.

He put.

The Bible says he put people in the exact times and places they would be born, and he did it.

So why?

So they would reach out to him, though he's not far from each one of us.

The reason the world doesn't get this guys is because the world is godless, and what I mean by that is it's not that they don't fear God in any sense.

They don't factor his word in to how they're viewing reality, and so let's just all chuck that over the side.

You're not going to need that.

Here's what you should do instead Fear God, Fear God instead.

Just figure look, man, I don't know about all that.

God has given me this stuff and I best do something with it Instead of complaining, instead of looking at other people's talents, I'm just going to look at my own.

God, listen, god has not stacked the decks against you.

He's not.

He's not.

He stacked it for you.

He died for your sin, baby, like he got you out of hell.

What else do you want?

Everything good in your life.

Who is that from?

It's from your gracious God, who didn't like me, didn't just like give up on you and forget about you.

He said no, I'm going to be patient with him.

I'm going to keep working with him.

Oh, my word.

He said, no, I'm going to be patient with him.

I'm going to keep working with him.

Oh, my word, we're almost there.

What's the point?

Playing it safe leads to regret and I know that you might be afraid of what they're going to say about you on social media or you might be afraid of what someone's going to talk about you in the family.

If you bring this up, you might be afraid to take a risk, because you took a risk before and it feels like you try to take a step relationally toward people and it just doesn't work.

And I hear that man.

I know what it's like to be hurt, but if it's in your hands and it's in front of you, think twice about giving up.

Step up again.

You never know what God might do.

You never know what he might not do the next time.

So if it's still there and you still have breath in your lungs, take a step forward, just in case it's God, just in case it would be worth it, so we don't end up in the outer darkness without joy.

Let me say one more thing, and it's specifically to parents.

Sometimes parents and I'm talking about parents, kids are young enough that you still have influence in their lives in some way.

You can have a challenging kid.

That is just so challenging.

It's like what is it use?

Why do I even try?

Golly, am I ringing anybody's bell this morning?

Why do I even try?

Here's why you try because God has asked you to be faithful and you're like, well, he didn't give me this obedient kid like that one over there.

He didn't give me, like a spouse that crushes it.

I got this old goat, this bum, and so you know.

It's just why do anything?

The why is because God knew you would have that old goat.

God knew you would have this particular personality in your kid.

And he says I apportion it to you.

I don't need them to be perfect, I don't need them to be president, I don't need them to be president.

I don't really need anything.

All I need is for you to, day in and day out, get up and be faithful again and do what you can do.

God says I already knew all that would happen.

I've taken care of it.

Let me see you be reliable here's the good news and then we'll close down and go out to our little thing.

You and I are never going to be completely obedient, but there was one who was completely reliable all the way up the hill of Calvary, step by step.

He was reliable to take those nails for you and for me, so you don't have to have perfection.

What we ought to do is celebrate and fall back into the sweet arms of Jesus.

He says I got you, baby.

Don't worry about being perfectly reliable, but check this out Everything he's given you and I to be reliable about.

Here's what's so awesome, because in this parable, the master, the father, entrusts people with these talents, and here's exactly what we do.

As soon as we figure this out, as soon as you realize what's in your hand here's what you do you entrust the results back to him.

You say, okay, god, I'm gonna try to do this and I'm trusting you that you're such a good God.

You're not just a master that says go and do.

You say go and do, and I'll go with you.

Let's do it together, and then it will be maximally fruitful.

Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.

If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out Fierce Church.

We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.

Also, if you're looking for leadership development related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.

Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.

It's because of you that this is possible.

You can click on the link in the description to give now or visit fiercechurch for more information.

If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe, share it with your friends?

Click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things.

Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.

Don't give up.

Hang on to Jesus.

He won't let go of you.

Jesus loves you so much and we love you.

I hope someday we get to meet in person.

Thanks again for listening.