Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Matthew 25:14-23
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  October 13, 2019

In his inaugural speech in 1961, President John F. Kennedy famously stated, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Is it possible that we could take that statement and apply it to our congregation? “Ask not what Eastside can do for you, but what you can do for Eastside?” 

Could we make the same statement concerning God? Can we really do something for God? I think we all understand that God doesn’t need anything. He’s God after all. And last week we learned very clearly that everything belongs to God already, so what can we really do for him? That’s what makes this parable that Jesus told so interesting. Notice how Jesus begins. “You see, the kingdom of heaven is like.” What is the kingdom of heaven? It’s not the heaven where we will spend our eternity with Jesus. It’s not the sky and the planets and stars which are sometimes referred to as the “heavens.” No, when Jesus uses that phrase, he’s talking about the believer’s life on this earth. The kingdom of heaven refers to Christ’s rule in our hearts through faith. Jesus is telling this parable to his followers, to believers. This is a parable about us.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man going on a journey. He called his servants and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to still another one talent, each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. The servant who had received the five talents   immediately put them to work and gained five more talents. In the same way, the servant who had received the two talents gained two more. But the servant who had received one talent went away, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money. “After a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. The servant who received the five talents came and brought five more talents. He said, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’

“The servant who received the two talents came and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I have gained two more talents.’ “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’ “Then the servant who received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not plant and gathering where you did not scatter seed. Since I was afraid, I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours. “His master answered him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter seed? Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers so that when I came I would get my money back with interest. Take the talent away from him and give it to the servant who has the ten talents. Because everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

The story hinges on the big difference between the first two servants and the third servant. All three servants are entrusted with possessions, huge amounts of blessings. Five talents was equivalent to 100 years worth of wages. 2 talents was 40 years worth of wages. Even the third servant, with the one talent was receiving 20 years worth of wages! This was a huge amount of possessions. And notice what it says. The servants are entrusted with possessions. If we are going to let the Word of God truly move our hearts today, then we have to do some accounting. What possessions have been entrusted to us? Your house is God’s. Your phone is God’s. Your car is God’s. Your kids are God’s. Your abilities are God’s. Your financial assets are God’s. If you can be the least bit kind and helpful to others, that gift came to you from God. If you can be compassionate when people are hurting, that gift came from God. The God who’s given you all you have wants to know: are you using all of it, every bit of it, to honor him. 

If not, there’s hell to pay. It’s not just churches that get serious about stewardship. The Lord is always serious about how we manage what he entrusts to us. Seven times in the New Testament Jesus repeated that hell is a place of outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth for those who rebel and turn away from God. That third servants problem, ultimately his rebellion was not dealing drugs that people OD’d on, not murder, not addiction to porn or booze. You know what his rebellion was? Doing nothing. Not using God’s gifts for God’s glory. 

If you have a nice place to live, a nice car to drive, and maybe a nice TV to watch, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s not sinful to have nice things! Look at the parable! All three servants were tremendously blessed! These are gifts from God. Thank God for them. Take good care of what God has given to you. But also take inventory of every good thing he’s given you and figure out the answer to this question: how much of what God has given you have you buried in the ground of self-advancement or self-enjoyment rather than directing every gift you’ve been given toward the glory of God and the good of others? The First Commandment that requires perfect love for God buries us in guilt that goes way over our heads.

Here’s the thing about the first two servants. They weren’t perfect. They were sinners, too. But their story started long before their master went on a journey and entrusted them with his possessions. There was something that was already firmly in place, something that had been created inside of them, so that when they were entrusted with those possessions and the master went away for a long time, the first and only thing they could think to do was immediately put those talents to work, immediately devote themselves to activities and projects that would be pleasing to the master when he returned. What do you think that something was?

In the news we see all kinds of disasters involving loss of life. You regularly see a close relative or a family member still very much in the grieving process, trying to talk on camera about how much they loved the person who died. When those tightest of family ties are severed by death, there’s the worst kind of heartache. But those ties don’t really hold a candle to the tightest of ties there has ever been, the eternal bond of love between the God the Father and his Son, a love that words can’t fully describe. 

You see, when it came to paying for sins, there were only two ways that it could go: either it would be you going to the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, or it would be a pure and perfect substitute who would go for you. Before you were born, God the Father had already made that choice. On Good Friday, he acted on that choice. The thick, unbreakable cords of perfect and eternal love that bound the Father to the Son, God sliced through those cords, severed them, and dropped his beloved Son into the tortuous darkness of God forsakenness. Even in that hell of hells, where the guilt of everyone counted against him, Jesus did not gnash his teeth in anger against God. In silent suffering, he was condemned and died for you. Your Father in heaven kept you…and cursed his Son.

That’s the something those two faithful servants had seen in their master…how deep his love for them was. That’s what they knew about him before he so generously entrusted his property to them…they knew how much he loved them. That’s what drove them to immediately get to work, completely dedicated to working for him while he was gone. Of all the things they could ever have heard for themselves, hearing, “Well done,” from him was better than everything. The master’s great love was also what the wicked servant dismissed as irrelevant and meaningless. Tragically, he thought he had bigger fish to fry than why God put him on earth and why God gave him what he had. 

In the vast array of gifts that God gives, he has blessed each of us differently because he knows just what you need to be able to serve him well. The only key that will ever turn over the engine and take you down the road of devoting yourself to serving him with those gifts is how much Jesus loves you. In this all-encompassing arena of making faithful use of God’s gifts, what really matters is knowing the Master. Love is what’s in his heart for you. Let it be love that’s in your heart for him. That’s what you can do for God! Be faithful with what he’s done for you! AMEN