Divine Stories - The Talents | Sunday Message

In Part 3 of our Divine Stories series, 11|28 Board member, Nick Galezewski, explores one of Jesus' most well-known parables. While we often think this story is about abilities, Jesus was actually talking about something much deeper... faithfulness. God has entrusted every one of us with something valuable: our time, relationships, experiences, influence, resources, and spiritual gifts. The question isn't how much you've been given.

If you've ever compared yourself to someone else, felt like your gift wasn't enough, or let fear keep you from taking the next step, this message is for you. Discover why God never compares His children, why "unfinished doesn't mean unusable," and how faithfulness matters more than perfection.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Do Life Different podcast by 1128 Community. Today you are listening to our most recent message. We are the church community in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, led by co-pastors Mike and Colleen Francisco. 1128 is about helping people do life different by setting rhythms and values with Jesus at the center. If you want to connect with us, text the word podcast to 414-441-1128. We hope today's message helps you in your faith journey.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Really thought I was gonna be a pastor at a church somewhere. And um uh spoiler alert, I am not a pastor. Um, but I did all the things, right? I went back to seminary, I got my degree in theology, um, I was on staff at a church for a while. Um, and and I even got ordained, if you can believe that. Uh and as I finished my program, what they didn't tell me in seminary was that if I was to become a pastor, I'd have to get a whole new wardrobe of skinny jeans and flannel shirts and flat-brimmed hats. And I just didn't think that really matched my style all that much. So we moved on with different areas of uh of a career. But um, I'm so excited to see you guys here today. This is week number three of our summer sermon series, which by the way is a lot of fun to say. Summer sermon series. We're calling it Divine Stories, where we're taking a look at different messages, uh different parables that Jesus taught throughout his ministry during his time here on earth. And just by way of reminder, a parable is just a little short story that Jesus would tell um to give us uh uh an idea or a reflection on uh a spiritual lesson or maybe a moral lesson or what it's like to be a citizen in the kingdom of God. Now, before we uh begin, I re I just want to do something simple here at our tables, while we're sitting here at our tables. I would love for everybody just to just to hold your hands out and just just look at them. Like really take a moment and look at them. I think some of us, from a 10,000-foot view, our hands look ordinary like anybody else's. But as we as we look into and reflect our own hands, some of them are calloused because we've spent a career working with our hands. Or some of them are are have scars from wounds that have been healed, but that scar remains as a reminder. These these hands, your hands have changed your baby's diapers. They've they've carried children, they've carried responsibilities and hopes and dreams and disappointments all at the same time. They've uh built something, they've fixed something, cleaned or created something. I know our hands have done an amazing job of comforting somebody. They've wiped away tears. Maybe our own tears. And if you're like me, they've carried way too many grocery bags from the car because I refuse to make a second trip back. Our hands look ordinary, but when we dive in and we see what God's placed in them, it's anything but ordinary. It's so extraordinary. I would love for you at your tables right now just to take a couple seconds and just answer this question. What's something that I can do that helps encourage somebody or just helps them in general or brings them joy or happiness? Let's take a, it doesn't have to be overcomplicated, it doesn't have to sound impressive. Just take a couple of seconds here and just discuss at your tables what's something that you can do that can do that for somebody else? So some of us, as I was walking around, I heard some interesting things, right? I heard some of us said, hey, I'm good at cooking meals for somebody. Um some of us said, I'm really good at teaching or organizing or fixing things. I'm really good at being creative, or I'm good at serving other people. Uh some of you may be good at at noticing somebody when they're struggling, or some of uh of us are really good at quietly showing up when everybody else seems to disappear around us. Whatever your answer was, whatever that was, don't dismiss it. Today, today, I think the lesson that we're gonna learn is this it's not how many talents that we have, it's how we use the ones we've got. So we're gonna dive into scripture, but before I do that, let me just open open us up in prayer real quick, okay? Would that be okay? And if it's not, too bad, because I'm still gonna do it. So, Father God, Father God, what a joy it is to come before you this morning. And Father, as we as we surrender this meeting to you and invite our our the Holy Spirit into this space this morning, I know that there are so many thoughts on our minds. Some of us are struggling with very profound and deep things, from careers to relationships. Some of us are worried about that next bill. How are we gonna make that pay? And there's just a million things that can distract us. And Lord, I would just ask for the next little bit that you help us push those out of our minds so that we can stay focused on you, so that we can stay focused on the message that you want us to hear today. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, the parable that we're gonna be looking at today comes from the book of Matthew. Uh, we're gonna be in the book of Matthew, chapter 25, and it's often called the Parable of the Talents. Now, this was in uh in uh response to a question that Jesus was asked, which was, hey, what is it like, what is it like to be uh a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? What is heaven like? And when I go through this, um, I would love for you to pay attention to three things here. Number one, uh, what was given? Number two, what did each servant do with it? And then what mattered most to the master? Now I'm gonna be in a hybrid version of the message and the NIV. So once again, uh, if you don't have your Bibles, I would encourage you to open them up, or you've got some Bibles on the table for you. Matthew, it's the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 14. And so Jesus is responding, what's it like uh to be a citizen of heaven? He says, It's like this this businessman going off on an extended trip. He called together his servants and started to delegate responsibility to them. He gave five thousand talents, I'm sorry, he gave five talents uh to uh uh to one of his employees, and to the second servant he gave two talents, and to the third, he gave one talent, all depending on what their skills and abilities were. And then he left for an extended time away. Right off the bat, the first servant went to work and doubled the master's investment. The second did the same, but with the servant who was only given one talent, that servant dug a hole and carefully buried his master's money. Now, after a long time, the master uh came back to these three servants and wanted to settle up with them. He gave five, he gave the the the one who he gave five talents to showed him how he doubled his investment. And the master commended him. Wow, well done, my faithful servant. And from now on, you can be a partner of mine. And then the servant with two talents showed that he also doubled his master's investment. And his master said the same thing, well done, my good and faithful servant. But the servant that was given one talent, he says, Master, look, I know you got these high standards, and and I know you hate us being careless, and you you demand the best, and you don't tolerate mistakes. And I was afraid that I'd disappoint you. So I found a great hiding spot and secured your money, and here it is, safe and sound, all the way down to the last cent. And the master was furious with this. He goes, That's terrible. It's it's criminal to live that cautiously. Look, if you knew that I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with a baker, bankers, where at least I would have gotten some interest. And then he tells the one with the one talent, he says, Go give it to the guy who doubled my investment and get rid of this play it's safe and who won't go out on a limb, throw him out into the darkness. Boom. That sounds like a very unhappy boss. But I want to talk about what a talent is. When we hear the word talent, I think some of us think about our skills or our abilities. Some of us can sing or paint, some of us can create things or are amazing uh writers and uh word artists. Uh, some of us can create uh uh amazing videos faster than I can figure out how to turn off the filter to the video. But this passage wasn't a talent of ability. Uh in biblical times, the talent was a unit of money and a significant amount of money. It was represented somewhere around 15 to 20 years of earnings for the average worker. I mean, translated to today, that's about eight hundred thousand dollars for one talent. So the first servant who got five talents, essentially he was trusted with four million bucks. Here's four million bucks. The second servant, one point six million. The third, that's still about eight hundred thousand dollars. The guy that was only given the one talent, look, he was given something significant. It wasn't it wasn't that he was given the scraps or the leftovers or that he was forgotten. One talent was still incredibly value. I wonder how many of us look at another person and we think, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Uh they have more ability than me and they have more confidence or they've had more opportunities. Of course, they're more successful than me. I've only got this one thing, and I'm thinking, like, only one thing? It's $800,000. Master didn't expect the person with the one talent to produce what the guy with the five talents had. He expected everybody to be faithful to what he placed in their hands. And I think this is where the biblical meaning of talent and our modern meaning of talent can come together. In the story, a talent was money, but I think what our lesson teaches us today is that it reaches into everything that God entrusts with us, whether that's our experiences or our relationships or our opportunities, maybe our natural abilities and the spiritual gifts given to us through the Holy Spirit. God's not asking you, why are you not somebody else? God's asking, what are you doing with what I put in your hands? You know, the servant that received the five talents and he doubled, he doubled that investment. The servant who received two talents, he doubled that investment, and the master gave them both the same praise. Said, Well done. Well done, good and faithful servant. He didn't say, Hey, you know, that's great that you you doubled your two talents, but uh, do you see what your boy over there with the five talents did? He didn't compare them, he measured their faithfulness. I think many of us spend too much time comparing our gifts to somebody else's. We compare our rookie season to the tenure veteran in the league. We compare our private struggles to somebody else's public success, or our rough draft to somebody else's New York Times bestseller. I don't know how about you, but I can't tell you how many times I see somebody doing something amazing, and I think, man, I could never do that. There's no way I don't have that. But maybe that's because God didn't give us that assignment. Maybe God didn't give us somebody else's assignment. Someone else's gift is not evidence that you're missing something, it's evidence of God's generosity. Your gift is evidence of God's generosity. The goal isn't to be the most visible, the goal is to be faithful with what you've been given. So, what did the third servant do? He buried what was given to him. Why did he do that? He says it clearly. I was afraid. I was afraid. And fear convinced him that hiding something was safer than trying to do something with it. Convinced him that protecting the talent was more important than using it. Convinced him that failure would be worse than doing nothing. And I think 2,000 years later, those whispers of fear still come to us today. What if what if I try this and and and people don't get it? Or what if I'm judged badly? What if I'm not ready? What if I'm too much? What if I'm not enough? The reality is fear doesn't always make us run away from something. Sometimes fear makes us stay exactly where we are. Sometimes it might sound like the responsible thing to do or the humble thing to do. Hey, I'm just gonna wait till I'm a little bit more prepared for this, right? Or maybe I just gotta be a little more confident or understand really what God is trying to work out here. But sometimes waiting for that perfect moment is just a way of avoiding that first step. The truth is, most of us, all of us, are still becoming. We're learning and we're healing, and we're entering new seasons of our lives. We're discovering parts of ourselves that we might not have recognized before. Some of us are comfortable being seen, but not always fully known. Some of us are good at helping others while quietly carrying our own questions or using our gifts in a public way while God's doing very private work within us. And now, look, there's nothing wrong with privacy. I'm not saying that. There's nothing wrong with taking the time to pray and heal and understand what God's doing, or that experience needs to be shared publicly. Not every struggle needs an audience. But there's a difference between protecting something while it grows and burying something because we are afraid of it. Growth in us is often quiet before it becomes visible. You know, think about a seed in the ground. It's developing underneath before a plant is ever visible. I think the reality is God works within us before other people can recognize what's changed. So if you're here and you can relate to this, just remember that when you feel unfinished or uncertain, unfinished doesn't mean unusable. You can still encourage somebody when you're trying to find encouragement for yourself, right? You can still serve when you're growing, you can teach or organize, create, listen while God continues to work within you. You don't need to wait until you're completely confident or fearless to become faithful. God can use who you are today while continuing to shape who you're becoming tomorrow. In uh in just a moment, I just lost my notes. There we go. In uh in in just a moment, um, I'm I'm gonna have us watch a video. Um spoiler alert, um, I'm a big, big musical feeder guy. I I love musical feeder. Yes, I I hunt, I drive a Harley, and I love jazz hands. But the this song right here, um, I just want to say it's it's not scripture, but it expresses something that I think a lot of us may understand. The desire to stop allowing fear or rejection or the opinions of others to determine our value. And as we watch this video, I'd love for you to reflect on three things. Now you don't have to share it with your table, this is just for you to reflect on. Have I been hiding any part of what God placed within me? Has fear or comparison kept me from using a gift? And who might be helped if I became more willing to what God has given me? I love that video. I love that song. You know, that's that song declares that this is me, but I think as we are followers of Jesus, we can add something to that. This is me, and this is who God's shaping me to be. It doesn't mean that we have everything figured out, it doesn't mean that we're done growing or everything in our lives need to become public. Not every label placed on us has authority. Not every painful chapter of our lives gets to determine the title of our book. God knows who we've been, and he knows what we've survived and how we've struggled. And some people serve God through leadership and some through compassion, some teach and organize or live generously. Some people are great at praying faithfully. Some people speak from the stage, and others through the way that they live. Every gift matters. A painting can carry hope for somebody that is really, really in desperate times. Or a spreadsheet can bring order and integrity. Uh, a ride to a doctor appointment can show somebody that you love them, or uh a person that just shows up and listens without judgment can be an answer to somebody's prayer. It doesn't have to look impressive or be important, it doesn't have to be public or powerful, it doesn't even have to look like someone else's gift to come from God. We've talked a lot about gifts, but what are those gifts? If you're here today and you you're not sure, like, well, I kind of think this might be it. I have a QR code that we're gonna bring up here in just a second. And I'd love for you at your tables just to take your phone and scan that QR code. That's gonna take you to a spiritual assessment gift. Now, look, that's not the voice of God talking, right? This is just a tool. This isn't the Holy Spirit, and we're not putting the Holy Spirit inside a box. It just simply gives us some language to recognize how God, uh Worked through us. And I'd love for you when you take this just to answer honestly. Just answer it, not based on what you think sounds good or what you think your answer should be or what's the most spiritual. Just answer it naturally. And when you will receive your gifts, uh your results after that, um I'd love for you to just take a moment at your table and talk about hey, where where where do you think God can have us use this gift? Or who could be served by it? Or what would it look like to invest this instead of burying it? So let's just take a couple minutes and do that, my friends. I would love for you to answer this question for yourself. Write it down or put it in your your notes on your phone or your iPad with you. And and and that's this God has gifted me with what? And this week, I'm gonna use it to do what? I would encourage you to make it make it practical and and not make it someday, or after everything you've have figured out, not after you feel completely confident this week. Maybe that looks like a call to uh Mike or Colleen and say, hey, I know I have these gifts and I want to use them in our church. How can I use these gifts in our church? Maybe that means praying for some somebody or or volunteering at some level, or or maybe it's just just listening to somebody. Maybe you can help the church organize something that's been been a struggle, or be an outreach for somebody that feels forgotten. Like the servants didn't know exactly what would happen when they invested their talents. They simply refuse to bury them. Most of us are still becoming. Most of us are learning who God created us to be. We're discovering our gifts and we're healing from things and stepping towards other things. And I know that we don't always feel prepared to do that, and we don't always feel confident, and we don't always understand how everything fits together, but I take solace in knowing that God isn't asking us to have it all figured out. He's asking us to be faithful with what he knows he's given us. He doesn't need you to have five talents. He doesn't need you to double those five talents, but he expects you to copy, he doesn't expect you to copy somebody else's talents. The person, remember the guy that had one talent? He wasn't forgotten or giving something insignificant. Every servant was trusted with something valuable, and so are you, my friends, because listen, it's not how many talents we have, it's how the one, how we use the ones we've got. Don't bury that compassion, don't bury that wisdom or creativity. Don't bury a gift simply because it feels imperfect. Trust God with it. Use it and invest in it. Take the next faithful trust step and trust what God grows from it. Let me pray us. Let me pray for us here. God, I want to thank you for trusting us with gifts and abilities and experiences and resources and opportunities. I would ask that you forgive us for times when we've compared ourselves to other people or felt fear and convinced, and that fear convinced us to hide things you've placed within us. Every person who is entering a new season, remind them that you're still working. For every person here today who feels unfinished, Lord, remind them that they're not unusable. Give us the courage, Lord, to protect what is sacred without bearing it. It's just to use your compassion and your leadership and generosity and wisdom and service to build your kingdom. Help us stop asking whether we're enough or whether our talent is enough. Help us begin by asking how it can be used faithfully, so that one day we can stand in front of you and hear the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Thank you for listening to today's message. We hope you had a meaningful moment with Jesus. You can join us on Sundays at Oak Creek High School at 10 a.m. for our in person gatherings. Hope to see you soon.