Silver Spoons - Week 1

Amen, Amen, and amen. You know, uh, we're gonna be

moving into a brand new series today called Silver Spoons.

The thrust of this is parenting. But listen, don't check

out because you think, oh, I'm not raising kids anymore,

my kids are grown, or my kids are too far gone,

you know. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't just check out

on that, because these principles apply all the way across

our lives. As a matter of fact, today I'm not

even really talking in great depth about parenting, uh, but

in those underlying principles that if we buy into and

if we marry into those principles, they change us.

Uh.

We have to remember that heavenly Father is our father

and he's raising us. So if we will allow ourselves

to have these principles imparted into our lives, we'll see transformation.

And don't forget. You can use the Church Center app.

We have notes there if you want to. If you

want to open the Church Center app, click that sermon

tab the click on today's date. There's gonna be some

filling the blank notes for you, and all the scriptures

are there for you if you wanted that when you

get home, that's fine. Two we're gonna start in Matthew

Chapter twenty five. Matthew, Chapter twenty five, in verse fourteen,

this morning, let's read for the Kingdom of Heaven is

like a man traveling to a far country, who called

his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And

to one he gave five talents, to another two, and

to another one to each according to his own ability ability,

And immediately he went on a journey. Then he who

had received the five talents went and traded them, made

another five talents. And likewise he who had received two

gained two more. Also, but he who had received one

went and dug it in the ground and hid his

lord's money. After a long time, the lord of those

servants came and settled accounts with them. Let's pray, Father,

I thank you for your mercy and your grace. Thank

you for your word. It's the only change agent on

the face of the planet. And I pray that you

change us at the very fabric of our being today,

or that we look so much more like you when

we leave here, that people take note and know that

we have been with Jesus.

Lord.

I love you, and I thank you in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen,

and amen. You know, comfort feels kind in the moment,

but it can be cruel in the long run. Comfort

can feel kind in the moment, but can feel cruel

in the long run. When we look at this, at

this parable that Jesus is giving, there is there's some

elements there that I think we can look at and

we can see in our lives.

When when he measured these men up.

Before he went away, he gave one five talents, he

gave one two talents, he gave one one talent. Now

it says each according to their own ability, and then

we see that the five made five more, the two

made two more, and the one, well, he didn't do

anything with his. He went he hid it in the

sand and just kind of left it because there was

a fear there and there was a misunderstanding there. So

technically his ability wasn't even to multiply one. Come on, somebody,

have you ever had those opportunities, maybe raising your kids,

or maybe you've seen it at your workplace where it

looks like somebody does something, so everything looks fair. Come on,

now it looks fair. Let me throw out that. Don't

raise your hand over this. I'm not saying you're a

terrible parent if you've done this. But how many of

you you have an older child that has a birthday,

and because you don't want the younger one to get

upset that the younger kid gets a present on the

older kid's birthday too, because it's not fair.

And that's the reasoning behind it. It's not fair.

That they get presents and that one doesn't. Yeah, it

is fair because it's their birthday. Make it even more fair.

Just don't give presence at all. I mean, they didn't

even have anything to do with being born. What did

they actually earn? They just happened to poff into the world,

and it's like and then from now on they automatically

get another day of presence. Come on, somebody. All the

kids are like, no, he's a terrible preacher. He's the

worst pastor we've ever sat under. Don't listen to him.

Just give me, give me, give me, come on now.

But we do these things, and we rationalize these things

out of fairness.

But I would, I would.

I would urge you to look through scripture and find

anywhere where it says God is fair, because God is

not fair.

God is just, and he looks at lives, and he.

Sees the measure in which we can handle, and then

he did he divvis out to those as we can

handle those things, because in the long run, if we

get some thing out of fairness that we don't deserve,

it'll collapse our lives in the long run. This man

who got one had been better off getting none. This

man who was divvied out one out of fairness because

maybe he just happened to be standing there.

Come on, somebody, some of you have even done this.

You're you're playing dinner plans and there's somebody standing there

and you just opened your mouth and you started talking

about it and written.

Some of y'all are laughing.

Because maybe it happened like recently, and that person's standing there,

say you just turn around and you invite them to

and you know.

That nobody else is gonna be that.

They don't even like that person, they don't trust that person.

Everybody's gonna sit at dinner not talk. They're not gonna

laugh because anything they say is gonna get repeated. And

we do things out of fairness, and we set our

children up for failure, set the people in our workplace

up for failure. We set our spouses up for failure

because we want to be fair, and.

The truth is, life is not fair.

We always look we always look at fairness when we're

down and looking up, and we say it's not fair.

But let me give you an example of what's not fair.

What's not fair is that God has just positioned me

to pastor this church. There's nothing fair about that, simply

because there are people who are more qualified, who were better,

who were kinder, who are better administrators, better leaders. They've

gone through things I haven't had to go through. They

it's not fair that God has allowed me to pastor

the greatest people in the world and some people that

are a lot better than me, that pastor abud donkeys.

Come on, now, I got friends who are better and

more qualified that their people hate them. And I'm glad.

It's not always fair because God has given me what

I have and I am so grateful for it. And

when we look at this story of the talents we

continue to read, Let's move down and continue in verse

twenty nine. Matthew twenty five. Let's jump down to verse

twenty nine. This is what Jesus says. He says for

to everyone who has more, will be given, and he

will have abundance.

From him who does not have.

Even that he has will be taken away and cast

the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be

no where, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

See stewardship brings strength that inheritance alone could never bring.

Stewardship brings strength that an inheritance can never bring. Because

stewardship is not about ownership. Stewardship is about management. Stewardship

is not about being fair. It's about who God has

positioned you to be and the talents and the gifts

that you've trained in yourself so that you can maximize

what God has given you. Stewardship says that I'm using

it for God. Ownership says it's mine and I can

throw it away if I want to. And in this story,

that man who had one had to give an account.

See.

If there's no reckoning, then there's no accountability.

And when we.

Live our life according to fairness rather than justice, where

we live our lives trying to make sure everything has

everything equal.

That's why a lot of the things.

That are happening in our country now, they don't fly

because when we give everybody the same thing, it wrecks

some and elevates others. We all have the same opportunities,

but we don't all have the same things, because there

are people in this room that just understand things. There

are people in this room that if I said, listen,

you've got to go here's a social experiment. You've got

to go to another church where you don't know anybody.

You've just got to go there, and I need you

to make new friends. They will go there and they

will make brand new friends, and they'll be the life

of the party, and they'll be launching grooves, and pastor

will be inviting them over to eat chicken and all

those because they have the ability, they have some people's

skills to build those friendships. Then you can take another

person from somewhere else and send them here to the

friendliest place on earth. Amen, and they'll stay isolated and

a loan because they don't have the skills or the

desire or the want to see.

We can't make you be something because of fairness.

But when you understand stewardship rather than ownership, then it

puts everything in a whole different perspective. If you teach

your children that everything belongs to God and he's giving

them the opportunity to steward it and to develop it

and to use it to build a kingdom. It's a

whole different mindset that if you just simply hand them

something and say it's yours, do what.

You would have or to do. I found a.

Crazy parenting strategy when I was studying for this. Listen,

did you know there's actually a if you come to

me and tell me you use this parenting method, well,

I'm gonna open to alders in just a little while. Okay,

there is now a parenting method that where if a

if a kid disbehaves, if they do something wrong, you

put them in their room with a stick, and you

allow them to have a tantrum in their room and

they can destroy anything in their.

Room they want to destroy. You just let them destroy it.

And then the whole thought is after they destroy it,

they're gonna look around and realize that they hurt themselves

because they destroyed all the toys. And then they go

and buy them more toys. So every time you want

an upgrade, you destroy something. Come on now, and we'd

create destroyers rather than builders. We create temper tantrums rather

than peaceful, calm understanding of.

Who they are in Christ.

People have things so backwards because we don't really truly

understand who the Lord is and who he's calling us

to be.

He's calling us to.

Maximize every moment of every day because he has given

us every moment of every day. He's given it to us,

and he's asked us to make an impact in the

world around us with every moment, with every dime, with

everything that we have, and when we impart those principles

and we teach those principles down line, then it makes

an impact around us. Stewardship, build strength inheritance.

Does it Do you think this guy would have learned anything.

If there was no reckoning, this man that received one talent,

would he have learned anything if he had brought the

if he had.

Brought that one talent back.

And presented it and said, hey, I put this in

the sand because I knew you were a hard man.

Now listen to what he says. Who reaped where he

didn't sow?

He knew who the.

Master was, He knew the determined or demanded or return

on his investment. What if the Master had looked at

him and said, man, thank you for bringing me my pennyback.

Well done, my good and faithful servant. He would have

gone through life and he would have had every single

thing from that point, from that moment on taken from him,

because he who does not have those things will be

taken from them, and he who has things will be

added to him. Because learning the skill of increase and

multiplication is something in the kingdom. And I'm not just

talking about money.

If you want to be.

A good parent, learn one good parenting skill and maximize it,

and it turns into another parenting skill, and another parenting skill,

and another parenting skill. If you want to be a

good husband, just create goodness. Gracious the heads that whipped

around when I said that, some of y'all will have

to go to the chiropractor after that. If you want

to be a good husband, just purpose in your heart

one active kindness every single week, one unexpected active kindness

every single week, and it will build over time until

you become a better and better husband. Listening and understanding

and keeping your cool and all of those things. It's

just one principle at a time. If you will teach

your children to do one thing at a time, to

master one principle at a time until you see what

they're good.

At in the direction they should move in.

If you'll do that, then they're going to be great

adults because they have learned to master principles and stack

precept upon precept and to gain the skills they need

to be productive adults. In Proverbs chapter twenty two, verse six,

it says train up a child in the way he

should go, and when he's old, he'll not depart from it.

You don't raise leaders by removing weight. You raise leaders

by requiring them or teaching them to carry it. We

don't train good children by removing all. And listen, I

don't do this real well, this is part of the sermon.

Amen.

This is not part of my life, Amen, this part

of the this part of the sermon. I'm teaching this

to y'all because I give my kids everything I give

my and listen, I give my kids too much. It's impossible.

Listen.

If my kid wants something out of refrigerator and says, Daddy,

will you go get something out the refrigerator, I get

up and go get it.

No, don't clap, don't clap. She may be listening.

What I should do is say, if you're thirsty, go

get a drink out of the refrigerator. And then if

she says, well, I'm not that thirsty, then why would

you ask me to go get it. If we don't

give structure and guidance, if everything is provided and we

only remove weight, we never teach them to.

Lead through the hard times of life.

If they never see you discuss the hard moments in life,

they're never going to be able to navigate the hard

moments of life. When you have to make hard family decisions,

include your children in those hard family decisions. If you

have to make a hard decision in your company, include

your employees in the decision so that they see that

they're more than just a number and they can help

shape the future of where you're going and what you're

doing together.

Because if you only.

Remove weight, you never teach them to carry weight.

And life is a heavy place.

This week, this week, have I found out standing in

the front that we have two people that are here

today that had to have MT's call because they had

health scares.

And if you don't go through.

Hard things in life and know how to navigate the

hard things in life, then you melt under the pressure

of it. Listen, I was just and I know I

was raised in a different in the same time.

I'm not older that much older than any of.

Y'all, but I was raised like I am, and I

have some weird concepts.

When it's been several years ago. We were over in

the other building.

And I was sitting at my desk and I just

had these bad chest pains. It was just like eh,

and I thought, this is it. I'm having a heart attack.

This is what a heart attack feels like. But I'm

not sure. I'm not sure if I'm having a heart attack,

and I don't want to go to the hospital if

I'm not sure. And I did the stupidest thing I've

ever done in.

My whole life. So I left my office.

And I walked over to the gym building and I

started jogging.

Up and down the stairs because this is what I thought.

This is gonna prove whether I'm having a heart attack

or not, because if I'm having a heart attack, this

is gonna push me over the rest of the way

and I'm gonna know for sure, and if I'm not,

it's gonna go away. And I went over and I

pushed I and I did, though and listen.

Don't do that.

But to me, it was just another hard thing to

get through. To me, it was just a question that

I needed answered, and it's the way I'm built and

it's the way I'm wired. So that was my figuring

it out. That was my stress test. Come on somebody,

and I passed it. And I didn't have a copay,

I didn't have any of those things and probably went

in a state that night with a big old piece

of butter on it. I'm not sure what I did

after that, but probably. But the reality is is that

if we always do the easy thing, or you never

allow your kids to do the hard things, then they

never learned to carry the weight and shoulder responsibility. And

when we look around the world right now, there's a

whole bunch of people in the world that don't understand responsibility,

and they rip and they roar about things they have

no business talking about, they have no wisdom in, and

they're out there and they're just running their mouth about

things because they've never really shouldered any responsibility because they've

been protected and they don't think there's repercussions and consequences.

Let your kid get in trouble at school, I don't

mean tell them to go get in trouble. If they

don't do homework, let them pay the price for it.

If they don't study for a test, let them pay

the price for it. They don't do things, let them

learn the consequences rather than emailing the teacher. Come on, now,

teachers about to shout me Now, listen, y'all ain't shouted

all year.

All the teachers are about to shout, don't they?

If they make a sixty five on a test, the

first question you need to ask your child did you

have the highest grade in the class? And if they

say yes, there may be a teaching problem. But if

they say no, your next response should not be to

email the teacher and ask for extra credit, or to

go to the principle and tell the principle that that

teacher can't teach because your kid failed to test. You

know what, they knew sixty five percent of the material.

That's why they made a sixty five. They only stood.

They only studied sixty five percent as hard as they

should have.

When I show up.

And I only study sixty five percent as I should have,

everybody here knows it, and you prove it because you

don't come back next week, and you don't give him

the offering, and you tell your friends about how bad

I preached. If Bruce shows up on his job and

he only knows sixty five percent and he spraised chemicals.

On bugs that make them.

Grow rather than die, y'all see those movies. He gets fired,

his wife don't call and say Bruce was having such

a bad day. He had to get up early on

Monday and Tuesday, and dinner was a mess Tuesday night,

and he just got comdo. Branda looks at Bruce and says,

go find some more work and spray the right thing

on the bugs.

Y'all are laughing, But that's how life works. But we

remove all.

Responsibility from people, and then they leave the nest and

we just expect them to know and to grow and

to do all these things because there's never any accountability

and there's never any responsibility.

They never carry weight.

What you refuse to require today, they struggle to handle tomorrow.

What you refuse to require today, they will struggle with

tomorrow and the next day and the next day and

the next day. My youngest daughter, Lexi, she'll be twenty

in June. I know, it just seems like she'll be

twenty in June. She still lives at home, and I listen,

some of you' all are gonna be like when I

say this next word, it's okay, say it.

She still has a curfew. Listen to me.

Her curfew is ten pm, ten pm.

And let me tell you what goes into that.

Not that I don't trust her, because I trust Lexi completely.

I was in the car with her when she.

Got stopped one time and she just melted down.

She is a rule follower. Ten o'clock is.

The curfew because I may want to go to bed

at ten pm, and I'm gonna tell her good night

and kiss her on the top of the head before

she goes to bed, and before I go to bed.

Because that's what we do. I'm gonna tell her I

love her.

And I'm gonna make sure she's safe and she's protected

inside before I lay down and.

Go to sleep.

And if she lives in my house, she has to

be home before my bedtime.

Now, let me tell you what she doesn't do now.

She doesn't show up late for her volunteer responsibilities at

the church. She doesn't show up late when she's babysitting

for people, she doesn't show up late to class. As

a matter of fact, she gets to class fifteen minutes early.

She's always on time, and she stays as long as

she's supposed to because we have instilled in her that

particular discipline. And if she does things at home, she

does chores, whatever you want to call those things. She

does things at home, she can add extended minutes onto.

We don't give her extra money, but she can get

a fifteen minute extension on her curfew. She can get

a thirty minute extension on her curfew. She builds minutes

on her curfew. And that's how we work that teaching responsibility.

Because I don't have enough money to pay her money,

but for her, that time exchange is worth more than

a few dollars.

Because I refuse, I refuse to.

Not require things of her that will allow her to

struggle later in her life. I think that discipline is

a good thing. I think that structure is a good thing.

I think that who God is calling us to be

are individuals who understand where He's calling us to be

and can formulate a plan to get there. Clay, you

guys can come and get ready. But ultimately, when we

model that then we can look at people who are

living far from God, and we can show them a

testimony of responsibility, effort, and order. In Matthew chapter seven,

verse twenty one, it says, not everyone who says to me,

Lord Lord, shall enter the Kingdom.

Of Heaven, but he who does, but he who does

the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say

to me in that day.

Lord Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast

out demons in your name, and done many wonders in

your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness, Jesus says.

If you're not willing to do the hard things that

I don't know you.

If you're not willing to understand the rules of the kingdom, I.

Don't know you.

You can play the game, you can go through the motions.

But on that day when you stab before me, I'm

gonna look at you and say, I don't know who

you are because you've never committed your life to Christ.

You've never gone all in.

With Him as Lord, and you govern your life by

His principles, not what something somebody's said on TikTok about

the Bible. But what the Bible actually says. Truth of

the matter is there are people in this room right

now who have a form of godliness but deny the

power thereof that. We have an idea of Jesus, but

we don't have a heart connection to Jesus.

And that's simply not good enough. He demands.

That he is lord. He will not settle for anything

less than lordship of your life, and we have to

rise to that occasion. But here's the incredible thing about

the Lord. The way I would do that is I

would give you a series of things and hoops that

you had to jump through to prove it. But the

way Jesus did that is he sacrificed his life for you.

He was beaten beyond human recognition, he was mocked, they

spit on him. He carried the instrument of his death

on his shoulders down those dusty roads of Jerusalem, up

Calvary's Hill, and he surrendered his life on the cross.

And he looked into this room and he said, Father, God,

forgive them.

They don't know what they do.

And all of the sacrifice and lordship just simply comes

with us leaning into what Jesus has already done.

For us.

Given his life on Calvary and accepting that we couldn't

do it. We couldn't make it. We're not good enough,

aunt smart enough, we're not kind enough.

We're just simply available to be washed by his blood.

And if you're here today and you've never made Jesus

your lord, you've you've never asked him to wash away

your sins, you're never ask him to be lord.

You can do that right.

Now, in this moment, with every head bowed and every

eye closed. If you're here today and you want to

know that you know that, you know that things are

right between you and the Lord. You want to know

that your sins are washed away but your forgive.

But you don't know that right now.

If you're hearing, you want to leave this place knowing

that you met the criteria for heaven. If that's you,

just slip up your hand and say that's me, Pastor

pray for me. I want to ask Jesus to save me. Amen,

I see that hand, So anybody else be id, just

put your hand up and put it right back down.

I'm gonna wait another twenty seconds. I believe that the

Holy Spirit is dealing with somebody right now.

Amen. Just put your hand up, put it right back down.

Say that's me, Jesus, save me, wash my sins away,

make me a new creation.

Amen. Amen.

Now with every eye open, every head looking around, everybody's

staying with me all over the building. When Jesus said

depart from me, I never knew you. I think he's

tying it into this passage. But if you confess him

before men, he'll confess you before his father in heaven.

But if you deny him before many, he'll deny you

before his father in heaven.

So here's the last step.

Give me some of my alcer team, come followard.

Please.

If you raise your hand, you're ready to ask Jesus

to save you, cleanse you of your sins.

Just a moment.

I'm gonna count to three, and here's where it becomes reality. Yeah,

you take that step of faith and you declare before men,

given my heart to Jesus. So on the count of three,

if you raise your hand, I want you to step

out and come. And maybe by now you've realized I

didn't raise my hand, but I should have. If that's you,

I want you to come too. But on the count

of three, I want you to step out and move

and then the band's gonna sing one, two, three, Step

out and move right now. If you raise your hand

and said, I want I wanna, I want to make

Jesus my Lord, I want to I wanted to forgive

me of my sense. Come on, come on, everybody that

raise your hand, step out and move right now.

Come on, come on, the altars are open. The band

is gonna sing.

Don't stay where you are, Step out and make that

declaration before God stop.

Say let him wash your clink. No better time, m

hm