The Parable Of The Talents | Pr Matthew Chang

So it's a three-part series on Matthew 25.

Some of you might have forgotten, but I just do

a very quick recap so that you guys have a

flow into what is happening. So Matthew 25 is, I feel,

based on what I studied, is a three-part area. So

if you read the book of Matthew, especially 24 and 25,

it's part of Jesus' discourse or series called the Olivet Discourse.

And it's actually his final discourse. When I say discourse,

it's more like a It's not like a public, what

do you call it, teaching, but it's more like with

a select group of people. And there's a specific topic

that Jesus was covering, and it's about the end times.

Because the disciples were giving him a question. They said, Jesus,

we have now entered into Jerusalem. What is that? We

want to know when is God, when is the Father

going to restore us? Israel back to its glory, when

it's going to establish its kingdom. When, when, when, when, when?

Everybody wants to know when. Everybody is looking for signs.

Everybody is looking for the timing. So Matthew 24 is

about dealing with the signs. So Jesus gives them some signs.

They don't know the time. He's telling, it's not for

you to know the time. You don't know, nobody knows.

Even if somebody claims to know, They don't know. Nobody knows,

except the Father. Okay? But Jesus gives us the signs.

So 24, the chapter 24 is about the sign. He

talks about the external. So look around. If you see

some of these things, know that the sign is telling

us that it's near. But 25 is a different kind. Okay?

So the signs outward is to prepare us from observing outside.

25 is about observing what is inside. Okay? Okay? So

we as disciples, we as believers are called to look

at the world and be prepared. But we are also

called to look inside if we are prepared. Turn to

your neighbor and ask, are you prepared? It's kind of interesting,

isn't it? So it's twofold. It's a very powerful way

of Jesus illustrating it. Look outside to be prepared by

looking inwards. And the way that Jesus teaches his disciples

to look inwards to be prepared for the time is

through parables. He teaches us through parables. He didn't look

at insight. He didn't look at using a stethoscope or anything. No,

he teaches us heavenly principles, heavenly truths through parables. And

so he uses two parables, the parable of the ten

virgins and then the parable of the talents to gauge

whether and to examine ourselves whether we are prepared. So

now you understand the context of these things. So when

you read, you don't read it in isolation. You read

it with the proper spirit and understanding of what it

wants to achieve. So what are the three things that

I mentioned about the 10 virgins before? The parable of

10 virgins. What are the three things? Anybody can remember?

Three important lessons we learned. Class is in session. Lesson

number one, okay? What's the lesson number one? Lesson number

one is what? You cannot borrow the oil. Remember? You

cannot borrow your oil, okay? Your oil is your own.

It's a very, very important principle. You cannot borrow from

your spouse, from your friend, from your family. Your belief

and your infinite offspring, it cannot be borrowed. Okay? It

cannot be borrowed. Second one, what's the principle? Yes, you

cannot use all oil. Why cannot use all oil? Because

used too many times already. Cannot fry another chicken already.

Is that because? No, you cannot use oil because it

is not enough. It's simple. Okay? So it's proven. Everybody,

all the virgins look smart, isn't it? Everybody started off

looking very smart and wise and beautiful because they had fire.

But when the bridegroom was delayed, it finally, you know,

everybody fell asleep. Then when everybody was asked to lit

up their lamp again, then it becomes revealed who are

the really wise ones, who are the foolish ones. And

your oil is not enough. or what is coming as well.

And so we are called to renew and a fresh

encounter of the Holy Spirit, a fresh encounter with God

as well. Don't rely on on your old, you know,

testimonies when you did in uni or like five years ago,

10 years ago. No, this year, this moment, this season,

last night, today, what is God speaking to you? What

is God leading you to do? You can mean like,

doesn't matter you have children, doesn't matter you're retired, doesn't matter,

you know, we are richer or poorer, okay? What is

God speaking you today, moving today to do today? We

believe God. You will still have breath, people. You are

not retired yet, you know. We don't believe in a

sense of retirement, you know. We go back to our

Heavenly Father. And I believe there's still going to be

work to do, you know. Our Father is always working,

you know. Jesus is always working. So if you want to,

if you feel like, you know, after that you retire

for eternity, I got to break it to you. You

still got to work, I tell you. We got work

to do, man. Many things to work. So you cannot borrow,

you cannot borrow the oil. You cannot use oil. What's

the third one? Yes. Yes. That's the truth, you know,

is that even though you don't have enough, right, the

thing is everyone can buy the oil. Everyone. Everyone. It

will come at a cost, but everyone is invited to buy.

You can go to the market to buy. But the

foolishness is not whether you have money or not. It's

that when it was daytime, when the markets were open,

you were inside the house. And when the markets are closed,

you are found to be wanting. that is when foolishness

comes up. Do you get what I'm saying? So everyone

can buy. So it's not whether you have or don't have.

It's whether you were wise or not wise. Do you

get what I'm saying now? So that's why 24 is

about looking outward. But 25 is looking inward. Prepared is that,

are you wise? You know, all the things that you

do in your life, are you wise? Or are you

keep delaying and you speak into your heart, no, it's

not going to come. Oh, I can rely on all things.

I can buy whenever I want. You were unwise. It's

like going to airport, thinking that I just go one

hour beforehand and you realise that, oh, there's a traffic jam.

If you will miss the plane, is it the plane's

fault or your fault? It's your own fault. That's why

come early, isn't it? Turn to your neighbour, go to

the airport early and say, So did the apple earlier, right?

So now, let's move on to the second parable. So

it's not like competing, but it's... So Jesus uses now,

I'm going to talk about parable of the talents. It's

another way to look at our preparation, our hearts, while

we are waiting for Jesus to come back. And the

waiting itself is not a coincidence. The waiting itself is

the test. Again, the waiting itself is the test, is

the battleground. And the battleground is whether are we prepared.

And there's another way of looking at it, and Jesus

illustrates it through the parable of the talents. So let

me read through it, and then we will, let's learn

from it. Verse 14, it says, For it would be

like a man going on a journey who called his

servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he

gave five talents, to another two. to another one, to

each according to his ability. Then he went away. He

who had received the five talents went at once and

traded with them, and he made five talents more. So

also he who had the two talents made two talents more.

But he who had received the one talent went and

dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now

after a long time, the master of those servants came

and settled accounts with them. And he who had received

the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more. saying, Master,

you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made

five talents more. And his master said to him, Well done,

good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy

of your master. And he also who had the two

talents came forward saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents. Here,

I made two talents more. And his master said to him,

Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful

over a little, I will set you over much. Enter

into the joy of your master. Now he who had

also received the one talent came forward saying, Master, I

knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you

did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

This one is the important one, I want you to

highlight that. So I was afraid, and I went and

hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what

is yours. But his master answered him, you wicked and

slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have

not sown and gather where I have scattered no seed?

In my version, it's a question mark. Some of you

might not know what version it might not be. Then

you ought to have invested my money with the bankers,

and at my command I should have received what was

my own with interest. So he took the talent from

him and gave it to him who has ten talents.

For to everyone who has more will be given, and

he will have an abundance. But from the one who

has not, even what he has will be taken away.

And he cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness,

and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing

of teeth. All right. Very somber. Okay. Strong teachings. We're

talking about revival, but revival is about preparation, isn't it?

All right. So let me just start. I don't have

slides here, but I have a few, mainly three points

here to cover. So now maybe just a bit of context.

How much do you think one talent is worth? Yeah,

it's okay. I'll open up the phone. How much do

you think one talent is worth? An estimation. You can

give it in ringgit or you can give it like

in terms of, you know, one year worth, two year worth,

three year worth, one month worth, whichever. What do you

think of one talent is worth? I have an idea.

Or when you think about talent, what's the first thing

that comes to your mind? The gold ingot, is it?

The Chinese need the gold ingot to look like that. Oh,

there's the talent. We always think like that. Talent, it

doesn't mean just money. It's actually, talk about weight. When someone,

the actual, the term is actually weight. So when someone says,

you are so talented, it means what? You are so weighty.

It means you are, you know, weighty. It means that

the glory of God, God's hand upon you is heavy.

You know, you have a lot of God's glory. You

are able to have a lot of abilities or opportunities

or resources. So it's about weight, okay? So, but in

this case, we are talking about, you know, being stewards

in account. What's how much? So what is, how do

you think, how much is a one talent worth? Anybody

have any idea? Any guess? Don't point to the pastor,

like everything pastor answer. Anybody? No idea? 20,000? 50,000? 20 ringgit. Okay,

20 ringgit. So you don't need gold. But it's basically

one talent is about 20 years of wages. 20 years

of wages. This is not C-suite level or CEO salary.

Talking about the average field worker, farmers or people average.

It's about one denarii. So you're talking about one talent

is about 20 years worth. And even then, it's still

quite substantial. I don't know, like 20 years, I don't know,

half a million, you know? So what does that tell you?

Whether you have five, you have two, you have one.

It's still a lot of money, okay? So the point

number one that I want to draw across is this, okay?

There are very important things that we need to examine

ourselves to be prepared. First thing is that do not

diminish your talent. Don't diminish your talent, okay? If you

allow yourself to diminish your talent, then it's not wise lah. Okay,

I'll just say it's not wise. But in what ways

do we allow ourselves to diminish our own talent or

God's given talent? How? How do we diminish it? It's

clearly valuable. We diminish it many ways by comparing, isn't it? Hey,

I can have a lot, but suddenly somebody with five

comes along my side. You know, oh, I got six-month bonus,

I'm very happy, but someone got 24. And suddenly I

feel like instead of being grateful, you started to say,

it's not. It's not enough, not just enough, you know,

it's like not fair. You get me or not? Your joy,

everything just completely goes away. You know, sometimes you have

conversations with family and friends, it's like, oh, it's supposed

to be a reunion and a, you know, Thanksgiving or,

you know, Chinese New Year. Hey, everybody is glad to

see you. Then everybody's conversation starts to change. Oh, I

just bought this new car. Wow, costing me a lot

of money. I'm now so cash strapped because I had

to do this renovation. Oh, I went to this place.

It was so expensive. But you know where everybody's just

flexing their financial money. And because of that, it was

meant to be something nice. It became something of like,

you know, everybody's comparing, you know. And it becomes like,

you feel like every bite you take for the food,

a part of you being taken away. biting away, your

joy is being taken away, bitten away because you can't

help but being compared. You're comparing yourself or people are

comparing you as well. And you diminish your joy as well.

So one of the things is that please don't, you know,

you must resist the thing of comparison and looking at

other people because, you know, what God has given to

us is not just about, you know, if we start

to compare, we start to focus instead of our responsibility,

but more about God's character. It's the, hey, you're not fair.

Instead of my responsibility, let's talk about, you know, how

God is not fair and blaming Him for it and

then start to blame Him for every other thing in

our lives problem as well. True or not? You know, like,

you don't have to teach children, but when they are young,

they already know how to blame one another already, especially

with their siblings, you know. You don't have to teach them.

Did anyone teach you? Did your parents teach you how

to blame your siblings? No, right? You taught yourself one, right?

You somehow know how to teach, how to blame one another.

Is he did it? It's not fair. How come he

get to do? How come I don't get it? But

this is not the way that we are called to

have joy. Okay? So that's the first one. So the

second one is that, not the second one. When you

read this parable I mentioned here, when you understand that

this talent is very precious, right? We must understand this parable,

when we read it, a lot of people think, oh,

but pastor, I don't know what my talent is. I

get what you mean, but I want to let you

know that this parable is not about you discovering your gift. Never.

If you read the passage, were they confused about what

their talent is? They knew. It's clear. So your biggest

problem in life is not that you don't know what

your talent is. Never, never. A lot of people figure out,

I don't know what my talent is. No, that's not

your biggest problem in life. Your biggest problem in life

is that, what have you done with what you have? Never,

you know. A lot of people say, God, I need

to come to the other place and say, God, give me,

show me what's my talent. No, that was never your problem. Never.

That's the least of your problem, actually. You actually have,

you look at the parable. God said, you need to

prepare for the end of days. And I tell you,

nobody should be confused about what they have. No, but

it's more about what have you done. So that is

what I feel, that is very, very important. A lot,

we need to change our prayer instead of saying like, God,

I need to know what's my talent. No, you already have.

Maybe the problem is that you've been diminishing it or

you've been neglecting it. Okay? So that is a very

important thing. The second lesson I want to draw from,

I want to share with you guys, please write this down.

So the first one is don't diminish your talent. The

second one is don't draw boundaries with God. Don't draw

boundaries with God. Okay, now let's read the verses here.

It says, this is the most exciting part. Verse 24,

it says here, he also who had received the one

talent came forward and saying, Master, I knew you to

be a hard man. Wow. Notice that when this conversation,

this is where it all happens and you can unpack everything.

The guy who had five talents, the guy who had

two talents, when they were asked, they didn't do anything.

What did they do? They just bring the results. Just

show results. Just show results. But this one guy with

one talent, how he starts his conversation, he starts by

not about him himself. He starts about the master. And

this is where we get to be very careful. In

any conversation, whether it's between us and God or you

and other people, When you start the conversation, it's about

other people first, talking about them. You got to be

very careful. And because he starts right there. And what

did he say? Master, I knew you to be a

hard man. He's not zooming in whether he's being faithful.

He's zooming in. The master is a hard man. After

not meeting the master for so long, the first thing

he said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man.

After 20, 40, 50, 60, 70 years, I knew you

to be a hard man. Is that what you've been

thinking for 40, 50, 60 years? After so long, having

so much money, the only thing that's occupying your mind

is that you knew me to be a hard man?

And you start the conversation not about you, what have

you done about me? It's like if you go to work, okay,

and you're the boss and you require... your staff to

produce a report or results, right? Say, what's your sales report?

And what have you done? Boss, we knew you to

be a hard man. You know it's going to go wrong.

You know something is wrong already. You get what I

mean or not? You know something is wrong. When your

children are dead, we know that you are to be

a hard man. You know something is wrong already. You

know it's gotten off already because the attention. After so

many years, you still don't get it and you are

focusing on me. I knew you to be a hard man.

And he goes on to say, reaping where you did

not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. What

is he trying to say? He's saying that his master

is exploitative. He's an exploiter. Exploits people. He says that

you reap where you did not sow. You gather where

you have not, where they got to pull out the seeds.

Kind of funny, isn't it? Wow. It's kind of funny.

It's like sometimes years can do to you or, you know,

how you see things. And the way he said it

is like, you know, so I was afraid. When you

ask somebody for a result and that person says that

I was afraid, you know something is going wrong also. Because,

you know what he's saying, you know, I don't have

a problem. You know, I have a problem and you

are the problem. You are a hard man. And you exploit.

And because of your character and who you are, you

affected me. You made me fearful. And in all summary,

what he said, I am a victim. After 20, 30, 40,

50 years being given, all these things, you can conclude

that you are a victim. And what you have given

me is a burden. Funny, how things can change. from

a person with five talents, no problem, I'm producing. No problem,

just produce. And yet, one thing that is so beautiful,

so God-given, God-created, God-called good, can be so twisted. It's

really like the Garden of Eden, you know, when God

gives us life and everything, but yet, with one disobedience

and the lies of the enemy can pervert every single

thing to be so perverted. Isn't it? So perverted. And

seeing what God has given, now it's becoming a burden

to us. We see it as a burden. You get me?

It's no longer life. It's no longer a privilege, but

it's a burden. And see, so he says that, in

some ways, he says, so I was afraid, and I

went and hid your talents in the ground. The last part,

this is the most betraying one. He says, here you

have what is yours. Wow. Kind of funny, huh? You

have what is yours. What is he trying to do?

He's drawing a line. He's drawing boundaries. You have what

is yours. I have what is mine. Don't take from

what is my line. You take what is yours. I

hope that we never get to that place, you know. Because,

as I told you, Matthew 25 is about examining your heart.

There will come a time that many believers will become,

will start to draw boundaries with God. True or not?

They will have blessings. They will enjoy a good life.

They want all the blessings, but they draw boundaries with God. God,

I want to come to church. I want to do this.

I want to do that. But don't ask anything more.

You have what is yours. I have what is mine.

Sunday is yours. Not just Sunday. Sunday morning, two hours

is yours. Anything more than that is mine. Anything more

than that is mine. My pickable, my golf, whatever. Sunday, Monday, everything, no, no, no.

Everything else is yours. My money is mine. Tithing, two

times a year, I will give you. That's yours. We

draw boundaries with God. And everything else is a burden. Lord,

you know, but don't ask me to do more. Don't

ask me to do more. I never study Bible like that.

You know, Pastor Mac can study. Let him teach, let

him teach. If I teach, I'm scared I will teach

the wrong thing. I'm scared I will teach the wrong thing.

And I will become a burden. And because of that,

we have a lot of fear. And we use that fear.

I'm scared I will teach the wrong thing. I'm scared

if I witness, I stumble people. You see, it sounds

like wisdom. Sounds like wisdom. Sounds like wisdom. But if

you ask God, fearing and avoiding responsibility. Hey, son, daughter,

clean up the plate after you're eating. I'm scared I

dirty everything also. I'm scared water will flow. No, it's okay.

Then you learn. True or not? True or not? Do

you stop your son and daughter from stopping or cleaning

the plate? No. Then don't get wet. Don't get wet.

You learn. You keep doing it. But you don't use

that fear and hide behind it. Because the fact is,

it's not that you are incompetent. You don't want You

are drawing a line and you don't want to do it.

But you hide behind it. You get what I'm saying

or not? So you see, the problem with sin, you know,

is always hiding and blaming.

Always.

You see, the first thing when Adam and Eve, when

they ate, right, they said, it was promised that, what?

They promised them to be wise like God, knowing good

and evil. The first thing, what did they saw? The

first thing that they saw that they were naked and

they were ashamed. Funny, isn't it? So smart and so wise,

but the first thing that you could ever discern is

that you were naked and you were shameful. And God said,

who told you that? You think you're so smart, but

who told you that? You can't say that. It's funny

that what we want, what we are so smart and

what we want so much, it becomes perverted. Okay? So,

I told you, the second point is that don't draw

boundaries with God.

Okay?

Don't carve boundaries The evil in this man is not

just that he's lazy, but it's because he started to

think that what is his belongs to his. He thinks

that it's right to have one kind of proper self-love,

you call it. We love to cough, Oh God, I

serve you already. At night, you know, 10 o'clock onwards

is my time. I love to reward myself. You can

reward yourself by eating a nice chunk of ice cream

or just watch two, three hours of unhinged Netflix, you know,

or doom scrolling until you, you know, really scroll off

to doom. So, we just have to reward ourselves, self-love.

And we become unprofitable, we become unfruitful in all these

things that we do. And yet, in all these things,

we begin to, we continue to blame God as well. Now,

I repeat, first thing is that don't diminish your talents.

Second thing is don't draw boundaries with God. And the

third one I want to mention is that don't lose

your purpose. Don't lose your purpose. You know, I really

believe this, you know, that laziness is not a problem.

People are lazy not just because they are lazy. Yeah,

there are people who are lazy by, you know, a

lot of things. I can be quite lazy also. How

many of you admit that you are quite lazy? Don't

raise your hands, okay? You're too lazy to raise your hands.

Just kidding. But laziness is a symptom like a fever.

Why do I say that? Because laziness is just you

telling yourself something is not worth doing, not worth the effort.

And the most of the time that you say it's

not worth doing because you cannot see. You don't have

the vision. You don't have the vision. you're lost. You see,

when I see someone who is always lazy and not

willing to go out, and then it's, a lot of times,

something must have happened. Maybe they got lost a business.

Maybe they got heartbroken relationship. You know, just didn't work out.

Maybe they got cheated. Maybe they got scammed. Something just

happened and just, you know, a lot of the things

just crumbled. And because of that, they don't know how

to recover. And they just sit at home then they

feel like nothing is worth. And people around their families

are just trying to push and move them. Hey, don't

just sit at home. Go and talk to your grandchildren.

But sometimes people just don't want to talk to their grandchildren.

What's the point? What's the point? Maybe you have a

bad relationship with your children. My children don't want to

see me. I don't know what it is. And you

don't see the worth because you allow the pain to

skew what is worth doing. You don't do it. Try

something out. I know it doesn't pay like the old

pay where you used to be a CEO, but just

do something. I used to be like that. I don't

want to do it. It's not worth doing. Nothing feels

like worth doing. And the thing is, you are lost.

You don't know where you are. You don't know where

is north. You have no idea where to go. Lazy

people most of the time are lost. True or not?

So it's not about you just having more discipline. It's

about knowing where you are and where you are going

and if it's worth going on. That's the truth, you know.

You get what I'm saying? So when you want to

correct your child or someone, it's not just, hey, no,

where are you going? And most of the time, they

tell you they don't know where they are going. True

or not? You ask anyone who's staying in your home

for a long time, they haven't moved anywhere, you ask them,

where are you going? They don't know. So they're not lazy,

they are lost. And some of you and some of

us here, we could be feeling the same thing as well.

You're probably feeling symptoms of it already. You are lost.

And every Sunday is getting harder and harder to wake up.

Not just Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays also. It's getting harder

to wake up, to do anything you want to do.

To do for your family, to do for your work,

to do for your career, to live for anything. It's

getting harder and harder because you are feeling lost. I

see a lot of quiet faces now here. Do you

agree with me or not? It's that feeling of feeling

you're lost. Nothing worth is doing. And that's half the problem.

Second half of the problem is this. When you feel lost,

you don't like it, why not? Because it's an empty feeling.

And you need to feel that out. What do we

like to do when we feel lost? We love to

reward ourselves. We love to reward ourselves. You know, I

mentioned it earlier already. We love to reward ourselves. Sometimes

at night, it's hard. Work so hard. We don't know

where we're going. Let's reward ourselves. You deserve it. How

many of you know that voice after 8 o'clock just

comes into your mind? You deserve it. You all know, right?

It's good. And it's so good because it feels so right.

It feels so good, you know, that self-love is good love,

you know. And it's good for a lot. And there

are all sorts of reasons we tell ourselves. And all

the social media and everything, it's trying to reaffirm that.

And then because they have so many tools for you

to reward yourself. True or not? There are many ways

we can reward ourselves. you know. And when we do,

you know, it feels good, gratifying. But the next day,

you feel empty again. That's why you keep doing what

you're doing. You keep doing what? You keep reinforcing what

you feel. You more, you more, you need more. And

when you go out to the world, the world disappoints.

Your boss scolds you. Your boss don't appreciate you. This

is what people are saying. Oh, my boss don't appreciate me.

My friends don't appreciate me. My spouse doesn't appreciate me.

My children don't appreciate me. Because you are caught in

this cycle of self-rewarding. Not appreciated. You feel alone. You

need a new adventure. You need a new relationship. See,

the new thing, because we are caught up in this

And then this rewarding of, you deserve it, you deserve it.

And because of that, you diminish everything else. You diminish

everything else. But the Bible teaches us different things. That, yes,

it's not, you see, the Bible, in fact, this parable,

it's not that you are not, it's that it's wrong

to go for reward. No, it's not wrong to go

for reward. It's the way you go about rewarding yourself.

We are all wired for reward. Even the parable of

the talents is about what? Rewards. If you are able

to produce five out of five, Master will give you more.

True or not? Master will give you more. It's about

a reward system. But the reward system has been perverted

so that you become the rewarder, but in fact, God

is supposed to be the rewarder. Do you get what

I'm saying? God is meant to be rewarder. And Abraham

gave us this very good lesson, you know. Abraham, you know,

if you study the story, you know, There was a

moment in his time when he defeated, it's called the,

I think it's the six or seven armies, okay? He

defeated and he rescued his nephew, Lot. Yeah, nephew Lot.

And he had an opportunity to reward himself because someone

came to him and said, make an alliance with us

and you will have another army with you. But Abraham

did not. He chose to ally himself with Melchizedek. Instead

of getting, he gave a tithe for it. But after that,

he immediately became scared and fearful. If you read the

scripture there, it says in the following chapter that God

appeared to Abraham and He said that, Abraham, do not

be afraid for I am your shield and your exceedingly

great reward. Do not be afraid. I am your shield

and your exceedingly great reward. God is about reward. Make

no mistake about it. You and I, God is about reward.

But the problem is we love to reward ourselves. And

what is the problem with rewarding ourselves? If you keep

paying yourself, you are your own self-employment. You are your

own employer. Nobody owns you anymore. You employ yourself. You

see what I'm saying? If you keep rewarding yourself, your

love and you surround yourself just about doing that, you

become your own man. You become your own master. That's

why everybody now like, just start your own business lah,

you know. That's the trend right now. I'm here not

to say you cannot start your own business. But in

the big, you know, the bigger universe, there is no

self-business one lah. There is no own business one. There

is only God's business. Even your own business is God's business.

You have to submit. You have to respond. You have

to answer to other boss one lah. Get what I'm

saying or not? You're starting your own business, it's just

that you account to God directly. More responsibility to who? Yahoo.

You get what I'm saying? There's no middle management, no

CEO to come between you. You cannot blame anyone but yourself.

So take that with, I mean with responsibility, it's good

to talk with, but you have to have proper fear

of responsibility and reverence towards it as well. But when

we keep rewarding ourselves and we become very flesh, very temporary,

the world seems to be about you. And then you forget.

And then when the world bites you back, betrays you,

you will realize they will chew you up and spit

you out so easily. And instead of being rewarded, you

become isolated, punished. Hey, why come the church people are

so like that one, you know. Oh, my boss, you know,

my bosses, all my family members, your language change, you know.

Once you start to, once things change, you start to

say different things, you know. But if you allow God

to reward you, instead of focusing like, hey, what do

I do? Why is it for me? You ask yourself,

is it right by God? What pleases God? And even

if you can be in a job that you might

not like, your boss might not treat you right. In

a marriage, your spouse might not fully understand you, cook

you a very bad meal every day. Your children might

not always listen to you, give you more headache And

you ask God, God, what is my reward? No, you

are my reward. And because you are my reward, I

will do right by you. You get what I'm saying?

I will say, God, what is, it's not about me.

So parenting, it's servanthood. It's really serving. You give of

yourself and you serve your children. And your children, you

will realize to be a son and a daughter is

to serve as well. You get what I'm saying? And

you realize friendship is not about finding someone who has commonality,

but friendship is about serving. Because the best parable about servanthood,

about friendship, is through the Samaritan. The good Samaritan. Who

is your best friend? Is it the one that plays

speaker ball with you? Is it the one who knows

all your TV series? No. Think about who is your

true friend. The true friend is the one who gets

down from their horses. That is the friend you want,

not makes you feel good. And so, if that's the

friend you want, you need to be a good friend.

It's servanthood. You get what I'm saying? Why I answer this?

Because a lot of us have said, I don't have

no friends in church. That question has been asked many times.

I can tell you, even my children sometimes ask, I

don't think I have friends. How many of you, you

go to college, you go to school, you feel like

you don't have friends? You struggle to be a friend.

You struggle to have friends talking to you naturally. It's like,

I go to a party, I feel like nobody wants

to talk to me. You get that feeling? I feel

like I'm the awkward one. Because, You must understand, the

world thinks it like that. But the world, but God

teaches us, when you're a friend, you serve. When you

talk to them, it's about listening to them. How can

I be the best friend with them, for them? How

can I make them feel safe, make them feel heard?

It's about serving, but redeeming what friendship is. Anyway, I'm

deviating a bit from there. So don't lose your purpose. Really, really,

don't lose your purpose. When we lose our purpose, when

we try to reward ourselves and everything, we begin to

lose our purpose. Now, as I close this part, what

is our purpose? What is our purpose? What is our purpose?

What does the Bible say? What is the greatest commandment?

To love God, to love your neighbor as yourself. It's

actually threefold, you know. We as human beings are created

with three parts. Spirit, soul, and body. All of it

is connected to our purpose. Our spirit is made to

connect with God. Our soul is to know who you are.

Your emotions, your will, and your mind. You have your

heart as well. Now, body is what you interact with

the world. So I always say that our purpose, no

matter where you are, it's always the same. It's what

we call a tree. I use, I don't know, some

people can look at L, but it's not L, okay?

But it's three-dimensional. Three-dimensional. Yeah, I always use this as

a guide. Threefold. It's upward, inward, and outward. Okay? Remember this. Threefold.

If you want to know your purpose, if you ever

feel lost in life, you feel like really depressed, do this, okay?

I don't know what my purpose is. Do this. Oh,

what is this? It's not L4. But, you know, it's upwards, inwards,

and outwards. What's our threefold purpose? Upwards, we are created

to love God. As the commandment says, to love the Lord.

Because we're created for Him, made for Him. Nothing else

can satisfy, but we're created for Him. Reach out to Him,

made to love Him. If you lost your job, your

health is down, you don't know, one day, say tomorrow,

you wake up, you don't know what your purpose. I

was made to love God, and God loves me. He

demonstrated it. Second is to, you have a soul. Your

purpose is to be like God, in His image. You

were created in His image, and to be like Him.

I want Jesus. I was made to be like Jesus.

My mind, my emotion and my will in the likeness

of Christ. If you don't know who you are, you

don't know what you need to be, you've lost your self-worth.

The world feels like it has taken that or ignored

that anymore. Look at yourself and say that. Why am

I called to be? I'm called to be like Christ.

My mind, my feelings, my will in the image of God.

And so if I don't know what to do today,

how to feel. I need to feel and to think

and to decide how Christ would do. You see what

I'm saying? My soul is not going to be decided

by the world, but I'm going to decide it based

on what Christ has done for me. The last part

is outward. To love your neighbor as you love yourself. See?

So it's two parts. It's not just loving your neighbor.

You ought to love your neighbor the way you understand

you love yourself. the way you know. If you don't

know how to love yourself, you have never experienced it,

you cannot translate and do the same as well. So

the second part is actually a twofold, but everything is

a threefold. To love God, the purpose is to upward

towards God, inward to be like Christ, I was to

love your neighbor. And when you say you love your neighbor,

means like what? You don't know what to do today?

You know, like, you know, someone broke up with you,

you know, you feel like you got scammed, you sometimes,

you know, someone cheated you, someone hurt you. Today, my

purpose hasn't changed. Right in front of me, There are needs.

You see, this is where it's important. I ask you,

what's the talent worth? You say, we learn that it's

about 20 years of wages. But actually, talent is not

defined by us. You understand that? Talent is what is

defined by what is required by the Master. That is

where the third part comes in. And if you read

the final judgment, what does God require from us? To

feed the poor. to visit those who are in jail,

to clothe those. So it's a three-part thing, you know.

Talent is not decided by you. Oh, I would love

to sing. Oh, I love that. Yeah, I mean, it's great.

But talent, you see, if you read from the parable

of talent, what's the one consistent thing from the talent?

God requires an account. So if you want to really

know what is a talent in your life that God requires,

check what does God require me to do. To do good,

to be generous, to be kind, and to be compassionate

every single day. Have we done that? We've already done that.

And every day is an opportunity to do that. Every day.

And you have not done what God requires and account

for today. To those in your inner circle, your outer circle,

and those around us as well. To your spouse, to

your children, to your parents, to your bosses, every one

of them as well. Do they, when they look at you,

do they know that you love God, that you want

to be like God, and that you love the world

as well? You get what I'm saying or not? The

church is called the same as well. The church is

threefold as well. To love God, to minister to the people,

to build the church too, to make disciples among you guys.

The thirdly, to minister to the world. Get me right?

So the purpose is the same. Don't come here, God

need a new purpose. No, no, no, no, no. It's

always been the same. To minister to God, to minister

to the church, to minister to the world. The same

as you as well. Does it make sense or not?

It has never changed our people. A lot of people,

I don't know what's my purpose. No, no, no, no.

It's always been the same. Everybody okay? So what's the

threefold purpose? We have to keep it simple. Upward, inward, outward.

One more time. Upward, inward, outward.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.