SCRIPTURE READING | Matthew 25:14-30 (NIV)
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 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 have gained five more.’ 21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’ 23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ 24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Memory Verse: For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV)
TO BOLDLY GO – COURAGE TO TRY | Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Today we’re celebrating the start of the school year and the kick-off of having our children’s programming back in swing. We’re also continuing our sermon series, To Boldly Go! where we are looking at six different parables which teach us how to live our faith out boldly. This week, we dive into being bold enough to invest what we have been given to grow the kingdom.
Last week, I began by telling you the story of how I got this fire-safe. I talked about how I ended up paying for the thing two times because I was too standoffish to address the problem. This week we’re going to look on the inside and talk about what’s there. The first thing that I have in here is souvenirs from other countries. Often times, one of the cheapest souvenirs you can get from a country is their currency, so I have multiple denominations of the Israeli New Shekel and the Peruvian Sol.
I also have some maps and documents from when I went to Israel. I have my name tag from the trip, a map of Jerusalem, tickets from the trains we took, and airplane tickets. I also have picture books in here from both trips. Among these items, I also regularly have my birth certificate, social security card, and other important documents. So, if you’re trying to steal my identity, I just made it pretty easy by telling you exactly where everything is.
But have you noticed there’s one thing that I don’t keep in my safe? Have you noticed what it is? Here’s a hit: our parable today is all about this and safes are notorious for having lots of this in cartoons. So what’s missing? Money. Okay, so I do have money in here, but this money is practically useless unless I end up in Peru after my identity is stolen. Kidding aside, I don’t keep any cash in here. But why is that? Because I need to use my money. So, whenever I get a paycheck, I put it right into my bank. That way, even when I’m not using my money, I’m making more with interest.
But thanks to Ms. Dembroski in 11th grade, that’s not all I have. Chuck Roloff can be proud because I also have a Roth IRA in which I put a certain amount of money into every month. Folks, why on earth does anyone put money away in an IRA? To make more money so you have a secure future. We save and invest all our lives so when it comes time, we can retire without worries. And believe it or not, that’s what the parable we’re looking at today is all about. If I’m honest, this has become one of my favorite parables because it has a incredibly powerful meaning behind it.
We get to look in on three stewards who are in charge of different amounts of money while their boss is away. Two of them take the money right away and invest it, use it, and make more money with it – eventually doubling the original amount for their boss. But the last man, he’s so afraid of loosing what he has. He’s only been given one dollar. You can’t do much with a dollar and if he loses it trying to make more, what will he do? So, he puts it away in a safe, buries it in the ground safely hidden until his boss can come back to reclaim it. One day, the boss does come back and he is overjoyed with the first to stewards! Both times he says that they have proven themselves and can expect to be trusted with handling more in the future. But then comes the last steward. The boss is so angry with him because he did nothing with what he was given. Now, what he had will be given to the one with 10 gold bags and the steward that hid the money – he’s fired, never to see employment again.
It seems harsh, especially because all the steward did was exactly what was asked of him – to keep the money safe. But where the steward failed, and the reason that his boss was so disappointed, was actually not in the fact that he had done nothing with the money. No, it was because he was too afraid to do anything with it. That’s the real reason why the steward was fired and had everything taken away from him.
What’s interesting is that we can see this happening to lots of churches all around the country. There are many congregations which don’t have much anymore. Maybe once, they were huge congregations with hundreds of people, multiple pastors, and lots of money. But now, they have dwindled down to almost nothing and in this state they are fighting with everything they have to not lose anything more. But in this fight for survival, they’ve tightened their grip on their resources to the point where they might as well go out back and bury the money in the back yard. And eventually, what happens is they close and their building and resources go to some other church which is doing things. I’ve seen it happen many times.
Now this isn’t a threat. God’s not threatening us like the CEO of a company would their employees. What God is telling us is that we can be bold with what we have and take the risks involved with growing the kingdom because God is backing us up. This isn’t a tail of punishment but of trust.
Where churches get it wrong so often is they can only look to the past and see what they’ve done. They try to hold onto that so tightly that they let everything else go, even listening to where God is leading them. In reality, moving forward doesn’t mean letting go of the past. Trying things doesn’t mean that the way we’ve always done it is changing. Rather, trying things is a part of the risk we take when we invest into what God is doing in our church.
I don’t know if you can feel it, but I can. God is doing some amazing things in our church. The proof is all around us today. We have kids and teenagers and young adults. The future generations of this faith are before us and ready to be trained and prepared for the future. Where Jesus is calling us is to the greatest risk we can take – ultimate trust in Him. This trust is risky because it might lead us places we never thought we’d go. We might end up doing things we never thought we’d do. When we choose to follow Jesus and trust Him enough to invest our resources in Him, wild and crazy things happen because God is a God of wild and crazy things.
Our challenge as a church and as people is to let go of our death grip on the resources we have. It is easier to bury our belongings in a safe where they won’t ever go away. At least, it might seem safer. But the reality is that when we bury things away, we’ve sealed our fate because if our resources don’t grow, how can a church’s ministry grow? If our resources don’t grow, how can a congregation grow? If our resources can’t grow, how can we as a people grow?
My friends, this isn’t a sermon about money. It may seem like it is, but the real truth which we are exploring is the truth of trust. Trust is an investment and a risk. It requires us to give of ourselves, fully and completely, in order to follow God and build His kingdom. The reality of this parable is that we are called to surrender ourselves to God – to trust Him so completely that we let go of our wants and desires to allow for all we are and all we have to serve Him.
So, going forward, let’s challenge ourselves and each other to be bold with what we have. To take some risks and invest in what Jesus is doing. When we trust Him with all that we have, we can expect Him to transform all that we have. And for that, thanks be to God. Amen? Amen.