The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: The Kingdom of God and Work

Episode Date: February 20, 2022

Don’t compare. Don’t complain. Don’t cower in fear. But leverage everything that your KING has given you for His glory. Use all the treasures that God has given you to TREASURE Christ before all things.

All right, church, you're excited? I hope so, man. Hey, grab your Bible, Matthew, Chapter 25. We're going to dig right in. We are in week five of this series called the Upside Down Kingdom. There are two kingdoms at work. There's the kingdom of this world that is ruled by an enemy that wants to kill, still, and destroy everything good and godly in your life.

And then there's another kingdom. There's the kingdom of heaven. And this king sent his son on a rescue mission to seek and save us and to invite us into his kingdom where he has for us an abundant life. And so far we've talked about power, we've talked about money. Last week we talked about sex. That was fun. Gretchen went out of town, so I don't know what that means.

This week, we're talking about the kingdom of God and work. The kingdom of God and work. You see, we live in a culture that wants us to be defined by the thing that we do. We live in a culture that wants us to believe that our value is in what we produce. In fact, it starts at a very, very early age. Think about this. If you ask a little kid, eight years old or whatever,

what do you wanna be when you grow up? Imagine if that eight year old said to you, I wanna be a man of high noble character. What would you think? Home school, that's what you think. That's a homeschool kid right there. Now what's funny is that the mommas of homeschooling, like what do you mean?

You're doing it right, that's literally what I mean. But you'll still email me anyway. Just remember, Jimmy. me cracks corn at I don't care.com. I'm happy to not read your emails. Okay, so, now think about this, any college kids in the house, anybody in college right now? All right, cool, a lot more than at nine. If you're a freshman, think about this, your school puts pressure on you. You're like 17, 18 years old, and they put pressure on you to declare a major what you were going to do for the rest of your life. They think that you know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life.

months ago, you had to have permission to pee. Can I be excused? This is the world that we live in. The world wants us to think that we are what we do. And what the world really wants us to do is just bait us with the next step so that we will take a comfortable seat on the merry-go-round of normality and not ask any questions and just run on the hamster wheel that this world tells us to run on until the day we die. You see, we're obsessed with the next step in our society. I remember when J.P., my son was in the first grade, and Gretchen called me and said, hey, we need to go to his graduation. And I was like, babe, I don't think he's finished. I know where we're from. People are like, all right, all set. I did it now. I'm off to the rest of my life about third

grade. But you don't graduate from first grade, you just go to second grade. And the problem is, if you take the bait of the world, what the world does not want you to ask is this, then what? because if you ask 99% of church-going folk today in America, what is your vision for your life? Most of them would say, if you started early enough, you know, and I'll make pretty good grades in high school, then what?

Well, then I can graduate. Then what? Well, then I can go to a prestigious college. Then what? Then I can study a major that has nothing to do with what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. Then what? Well, I got to get my master's because I wasted those four years.

Then what? Then I get a job that has nothing to do with what I just studied for eight years. Thanks, mom and dad. then what? Then I gotta finally get a job that makes a little bit of bank to pay all the debt that I've got up to my eyeballs. Then what? Well then maybe I'll meet and marry and have a little beautiful house and do fun vacations. Then what? Then I'll work and work and work and work. Then what? Well then I can retire and get an RV and traveling up and down the East Coast and collect

seashells. Then what? Then I'm gonna die. That's it, man. That's all this world has to offer. And what I want to tell you is this. One day you will die. One day you will die. But what on earth are you going to live for? What are you doing with your life? What are you doing with the one and only life that you have been given? I hope and I pray that you don't waste that life. Every leader worth their salt has read this book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Kelly. It's old, but it's awesome. And one of the things that he says to do in this book is a really legit activity. He says, if you want to define success for yourself, then imagine that you were at your own funeral.

And imagine what you want people to say about you when you're dead. And that will define your success, what it means to you to be successful. And then live in such a way that they don't have to lie about you at your funeral. Listen, I've already decided what I want to be said at my funeral. In fact, I want to preach my own funeral. Just show these clips and I'll share the gospel. People will come to Christ, you can shut the casket on me, and then Elvis has left the building and I'm out of here. my last funeral, all right?

But here's what I want people to say. It's Acts 1124. And he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people are brought to the Lord. That's what I want to live for. I want to be a good man,

like a good husband, and a good dad, and a good friend, and a decent preacher. I know I'm not that good, but I know every single week what happens is it is moderately delivered and exceptionally received.

But that's up to the ghost. That ain't even on me. I'm going to be a good man and I want to be full of the Holy Spirit I want to be so filled with the spirit that all the Spirit of God has to do is like a well trained horse that is handed over

his reins to his master and the master says no no go this way and I just go in the direction that he tells me to go and I want to be full of faith I refuse to be ruled by the tyranny of fear of what happens if it don't work I don't know but what happens if God

shows up and it does work I want to be that kind of person. And I want God to use me for a great number of people to be brought to the Lord. And in the kingdom of God, a great number is not the tens of thousands of people that will hear this sermon this week. A great number in the kingdom of God is just one more because he's the kind of shepherd that leaves the 99 to go after the one. That's what I want to live my life for. How about you? What on earth are you here for? What are you doing with your life? Have you thought about that or are you just caught up in the merry-go round of normality that this world has sold us on. I mean, life is more than just wake up every morning and eat something,

drive something, go to work, sell something, come home, eat something, watch something, sleep. And the biggest prayer of your life is, thank God it's Friday. If that's how you're living, you're not doing it right. And I am praying this week that God would turn your world all the way upside down. And there are some of you, and for the very first time today, you're going to get off of the merry-go round of normality, and you're going to hear God's call in your life, and you're going to change everything about everything. For some of you, you're going to quit your job and begin to do what he's told you to do. For some of you, you're going to realize that retirement is not a biblical value, that all you're going to do is change jobs and graduate from that working world

and take all of your time, effort, and energy and invest it into the kingdom. For some of you, you're going to make a very difficult phone call this afternoon and say, Dad, I'm changing my major because you chose my major, and that's not the major God has for me. That's a tough one. Trust me. I remember I sat down with my dad and said, I'm not going to med school, I'm going to seminary. He said, boy, with seminary. I was like, it's a preacher school. He said, there's school for that?

You only study one book, work half a day a week. I need to school, but anyway. For some of you, you're going to be one of our 100 full-time missionaries that you're going to go and take the gospel to places that it's never gone before. And a whole bunch of you are just going to get up and go to your same job tomorrow, but you're going to do it with a brand new mindset. like you're a missionary, and whatever you're going to do, you're going to work heartily as unto the

Lord. This is what I hope happens today. You see, there is no sacred, secular divide when it comes to your vocation. It's not like what I do is holy because I teach the Bible with a face mic, and what you do isn't holy because you build houses. You see, what God is called all of us to do is to be co-creators with him. So I teach the Bible, and God uses you to put sticks and bricks together where he can bring families up. You see, it's all sacred. The key is that the key is, is to do whatever it is that God has called you to do. Matthew chapter 25. I've got to give you a little context here.

In Matthew chapter 24, the disciples, Jesus is with the disciples, and they're looking at the temple, and he's like, hey, see, this temple is going to be torn to the ground. There won't be a rock left on top of another rock. And they say, are you sure? And he's like, yeah, I'm pretty sure. Here's what he's talking about. He's actually talking about two things.

One, you don't need the sacrificial system anymore because when he says it is finished, the sacrificial system is finished, because he is the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of anyone who would believe. Also, he's talking about his own temple, that his body would be crushed, but on the third day would be resurrected. And so then in Matthew 24, the disciples then asked this question. It says, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when all these things will be, and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age?

And so, again, the disciples are like, Jesus, what's the end of the world going to be? be like. There's a whole bunch of people, Christians that are obsessed with the end of the world, obsessed with the end of times. There's book series, there's movies, there's charts and graphs, and there's people really, really into it. And so this is what the disciples are asking. Tell us what it's going to be like. And throughout the whole chapter of 24, he answers their questions directly. He talks about there'll be wars and rumors of wars, and there'll be the abomination of desolation, and he quotes from Daniel. And then I think the disciples are looking at him like you're looking at me like what are we talking about abomination of desolation so then he says all right

but here's the thing the time and date don't get too hung up on that because i don't even know when i'm coming back so get more concerned about the who than the when as you will wait the second coming once i'm asked my grandma about the end of the world i was in college i said mert what you think about the end of the world she says i think it's more important that we be focused on being in the welcome committee not the planning committee i think that's some really good advice amen So based on that, he's going to tell three stories back to back to back in Matthew 25, but he's answering how are we to be ready for your return. And the first story that he tells is called the Parable of the Virgins, and the point of it is

this, don't miss the party. Don't miss the party. There is going to be an eternal party where Jesus is the guest of honor and you have been invited as a guest. And right now the invitation is out there for anyone who would believe, but one of the day he will return and the party's going to start and the invitation is over and whatever you do don't miss the party in other words surrender your life to the lordship of jesus christ and then the third parable that he shares is called the parable of the sheep and goats and it is simply this if you have

been run over by the grace train of the good news of the gospel of jesus christ then this is what a gospel infected life looks like that you take care of the least of these and in so doing you are taking care of jesus and it's not that it if you don't do these things, you don't go to heaven. If you don't do these things, it's because you must not know who Jesus is. And then right in the middle, he shares this parable called the Parable of the Talents. And basically the point of this parable is this. Whatever you do, whatever you do, don't waste your life.

That's where we're going to spend our time. Matthew Chapter 14 says this, for it. And the it that he's talking about is his answer to the question, what's the end of the world going to be like? For it, we'll be like a man. going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. Pop quiz. Whose property? A little bit louder. Who's property? That's it. It's all his. If you understand that that everything that we have is his, it'll change everything about you. Everything we have is a

bloodbought grace gift from Jesus Christ. Everything. Every dollar you have, every relationship you have, the education that you have, the opportunities that you have, the legs that you walked in here on, and the ears that you are using to hear me talk. Everything we have is on loan from him, and we are but stewards of those things while we are alive. If you're a parent, you know this to be true, okay? Years ago, JP was like eight years old or something, and he was addicted to these things called fidget spinners. Do you remember the fidget spinner? The world gave him to our kids to make them dumber, right? You just would spin it.

And boy, my boy was on track. He had about 10 of them. One day we're in line at Walmart, and he's like, Daddy, let me get a fidget spinner. And I'm like, no, dude, they're dumb, and you already got like eight, so we're not getting anymore. He's like, whoa, whoa, but I'll use my money. I'm like, bro, you eight, you don't have money. And it's like, yeah, it's in my room. I'm like, well, why we're talking about, you don't even have a room.

Me and your mom have all the rooms, and right now we let you live in one for free, and one day you're out, unless you're going to pay rent. You understand? man. Everything you have comes through our hands. Everything we have is a bloodbought grace gift from God. We're not to just honor him with the first 10% of it. We are to honor him with 100% of it because it is all his. And I'm not only talking about money. I'm talking about every opportunity, every talent, every relationship. So it's going to be like a man going on a journey, called his servants, and trusted to them his property. Verse 15. And to one,

he gave five talents. The word talent was a measure of money in the first century. A talent was 20 years wages. It'd be almost two million bucks, okay? It also, you've got to think about it, not just in regards to money. I'm not primarily talking about money today. It's a double entendre. It also means like gifts, aptitude. And so he gives one guy five talents to another two and to another one, to each according to his ability. Now, this might bother your sentiment a little bit. depending on how young you are, all right? Because some of you look at that, but that's not fair. Okay.

God is not a socialist. God is a king. He does what he wants, with who he wants, whenever he wants. And honestly, he's not really, he doesn't run a democracy either. There's no voting on it. He just decides, I do what I want. And he gave one five and one two and one one, one. Period.

All right. Now, can I tell you my least favorite commercial on TV right now, all right? It's an AT&T commercial. and this family walks in and it's to address do new customers get a deal that old customers can't get or something like that, all right? And this family walks in and they ask a question,

do we get the same thing they get? And then that lady that's on every AT&T commercial goes, imagine this, imagine I give you a sucker and she gives a sucker to this little girl. And this cute little girl holds it and she's so pleased with her sucker until she looks at the brother and says, and imagine him, I give him a better sucker.

She gives them this big honking sucker. And that little girl goes, that's not fair. What you mean, it's not fair? It wasn't fair for you to get a sucker. Little girl, you didn't do anything to deserve that sucker. You didn't even drive here.

Your parents brought you here. You don't have a contract with AT&T. You don't even know this famous lady from the AT&T commercials. Out of her own grace, she just gave you a sucker. And now you're not even able to enjoy that sucker because you're comparing it to your big brother's sucker

and so she takes that one. And then she gives him a sucker just like her brother. And I think that is what's wrong with our country right there in that commercial. Let me just tell you, in case you don't know this, you don't want fair. Yeah, if you walk up to the Lord, I'm like, that's not fair. You know what he would do? He'd be like, oh, you want fair?

Here's hell. There's damnation. There's a lake of fire. Shall we keep going? You said the reality in that whole thing is we are the sucker, because this is how our world works. That's not how God works. It's an upside-down kingdom. He gave one, five.

He gave the other two. He gave another one, each according to his ability, and then he went away. and he who had received the five talents went at once, underlined at once. He went at once and traded with them and he've made five talents more. Jot this down. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Church, what has he told you to do?

What is that thing that he told you to do a bunch of years ago, but you've been praying about it? and by praying about it, it means you've been doing nothing, but you've been using one of God's commands to pray as an excuse to not do what he's told you to do. He went at once. One of my favorite sections of the Bible right now. We talked about it last year. Jesus's first sign or miracle in the gospel of John.

Remember this? He was at the wedding of Cana, and they run out of wine. And Mary comes to Jesus because she wants Jesus to do something about it. Hear that, Baptist? They ran out of wine. So she comes up to him, Jesus, they're out of wine. And he says, woman, what does this have to do with me? Husbands, never quote that verse in your house.

It doesn't mean what you think it means, okay? And then she gives what I think is the best advice in all of the Bible, which is a bold statement. But she doesn't know how it's going to work out. She knows Jesus can do something about it. She tells the servants, come here, come here, come here, and here's the best advice. She just says, do whatever he tells you to do. It's the best advice on the whole Bible. Just do whatever he tells you to do.

And so you remember what he says to do? He tells some crazy stuff to do. He goes, go get six stone jars. The stone jars that they would have gotten would have been the ones that people have been washing their hands in for multiple days. That means they would be nasty. And then he goes, all right, pour some more water to them in them and fill them all the way up and then bring them here to me. So they bring this nasty water up to Jesus. He goes, go get a ladle, dip some out, and you take some of that to the master of ceremonies.

None of that makes sense, does it? None of that makes sense. And little do they know that there's a miracle waiting for them on the other side of a step of obedience. Sometimes I have people ask me, how come God doesn't do miracles? My question to you would be, how do you know that there's not a miracle on the other side of a few steps of obedience? And if there's not something in your life that you can't figure out how in the world does this even make sense, then maybe you haven't been listening to the voice of God lately. I dare you to do the thing where if God doesn't show up, there's no way for it to happen

because there ain't a way you can turn water to wine. But if we'll just do what he says, amen. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. He went at once. And I know some of you're like, I want to do what he says. I don't know what he says for me to do. Well, in general, he tells every one of us to go and make disciples wherever you're going. That's the great commission.

Specifically, we have put a tool on our app. So if you don't have the app, download the app. it's called the self-authoring activity. Go through there, and you can ask some questions and answer some questions, and it will help you maybe understand what he has called you to do. So the five-talent guy goes at once,

traded with him, and made five talents more. Verse 17. So also, he who had two talents made two talents more. The two-talent guy may actually be the real hero of the story. Do you know why? He spent zero time comparing what God had given. him to what God had given to the other two people.

You see, whenever we fall into the comparison trap, it is always a lose-lose situation. And what the two-talent God does is he does what God had told him to do. One of the worst things you can do is to try to do what God told somebody else to do. This is why Paul tells Timothy, fulfill your ministry.

Not my ministry. fulfill your ministry. God doesn't need another me. The world doesn't need another me. But if he wanted somebody else, he would make some more somebody else's. that he created you to be the you that he came up with when he came up with the idea of you.

And the worst thing you can do is compare. It's what robbed that little girl in the commercial of the ability to enjoy the gift that she had been given because she was comparing to everybody else. Because when we compare, it's only lose, lose. You can only lose. Because when we compare ourselves to one another, sometimes we're built up with ego.

Like the two-talant guy can look at the one-talent guy, I'm going to say, well, I'm better than him. And ego, that kind of self-ego does not come from them. the Heavenly Father. Or sometimes if he would have compared himself to the five-talent guy and gotten beaten down with condemnation and insecurity, that does not come from the Heavenly Father. So it's lose-lose. The other problem with comparison is that we always compare what we know about ourselves to what

we don't know about everybody else. And we compare our unfiltered life to everybody else's filtered life. And I'm telling you, these things are killing us. You get up in the morning and you're like, well, look at this perfect family, just enjoying themselves together at the beach. All right, we're beach people. Have you ever seen a happy family at the beach? No.

Ain't no happy people at the beach. Children by themselves, happy. Adults without children, happy. You put them together, ain't no happy, man. Just people crying and yelling, and, man, she tussing me and and I, and it's just that. Just leave me along, go playing the dirt. You know, that's what you're doing.

But then right at the end of that, come on, kids, it's time to go. Well, we don't want to go. Well, you don't get to me. You know, it's this, that, that, da. And then the idiots from Ohio over there, feeding the seagulls, you got to keep moving your chair. But right before you leave, what does everybody do?

Come on, gather around, gather around, smile for the picture, you know? Like, I got sunscreen in my eyes. Let me wipe it out with the sand. Stop it. Boom. Then you filter it all up. You realize the people that you're looking at on Instagram, that's not even their face. There are things called the no-filter filter to filter out how ugly you are and put this

beautiful facade of you on the gram. You think I'm lying. You see comparison kills, man. did you realize there is a new type of death in our generation? It's called death by selfie. 24 people in this world so far this year confirmed dead because they had a selfie mishap. Like go to the Grand Canyon and be like,

oh, I got to get this and then fall over. Darwin was not wrong about everything. I'm just going to point out, okay? The two talent guys spends no time comparing. no time. All he does is what God has called him to do. So also he who had the two talents made, two talents more, verse 18. But he who had received the one talent, he went and he dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time, remember, we're talking about the return of Christ here. So how long is it? Well, that's at least 2,000 years. Now, after a long

time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. Please pay attention to this. Every single one of us one day will stand before the master and you will settle accounts. According to the book of Revelation, there are two settlings that happen. One is you have to settle your sin account or your sin debt. And there are two ways that your sin can be paid for. All sin must be paid for because he is a holy and just God. And for him to overlook sin would be for God to be unjust.

It would be out of his character and nature. All sin must be paid for. You have two options. You can pay the bill. In the Bible, payment and atonement mean the same thing. So option one is for you to say, I got this and to self-atone.

And the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. That means you will be eternally separated from a holy and righteous God forever in hell and it is at least as bad as everything you can imagine. The other option is you can take the substitutionary atonement. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he lived a perfect life, he goes to the cross,

he pushes up on his nail-pierce feet, and he says, in Greek, Tatellisai. We translate it that it is finished. It literally means paid in full. We can stand before the Lord and settle accounts and say, I will not self-atone, I will take the substitutionary atonement

because I believe in Christ out on the cross that counted for me. The book of Revelation says there is another accounting where every single one of us will give an account, be held accountable for every word that we say, every deed that we do, that everything that we have been given

will either bring us regret or reward one day. We will all settle accounts. And so the master shows back up, and he came to settle accounts with him, verse 20, and he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more. Of course he did, man. He's pumped of the master's back in town.

He can't wait to give his report. Why? Because he did exactly what the master wanted him to do. Does this ever happen to you? Like your boss had been out of town for two weeks, and while he was out of town, you closed the biggest deal in your company's history. When he gets back from vacation,

guess who's in his office? You are. You're standing in his office with a cup of coffee, best boss ever in the paper. Hey, boss, how was your vacate? Ask me about my week. Why? Because you want to give a good report.

This is what this guy is doing. and so he had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me five talents notice where he starts he does not start with what he did he starts with what the master did he's saying hey listen i had very little to do with it because before you gave it to me i had no talents and the talents that i made the only way i was able to make five more talents is because by your grace by your mercy for whatever reason you invested these talents into me You see, every single one of us lives on this continuum between gratitude and entitlement, and our world tips us towards entitlement as if we are owed things that we did nothing to deserve.

And so, he shows up. He starts with gratitude. Master you, delivered to me, five talents, and here, it really means, like, not looking here, but like, here you go, he gives them back to him. I have made five talents more. And look what his master said. His master said to him, well done. underline that word done. Well done. Good and faithful servant. Not good and fruitful servant, because the fruitfulness is up to the Lord.

All we can be responsible for is if we take that step of faithfulness. Then he says, you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master. Here's why I want you to underline the word done. We serve a God that gets things done.

And intentions, pretty worthless. intentions never fed anybody. Intentions never sponsored anybody. Intentions never visit anybody in prisons. Intentions never shared the gospel with anybody. Intentions are worthless. We serve a God that gets things done. Aren't you glad the Bible does not say,

for God so love the world that he felt fuzzy feelings towards us? No, he did something. He sent his only begotten son. Aren't you glad when Jesus pushed up on his nail-pierced feet on the cross? He did not say, hope this works. No, no, no, no. He says, it is finished. Psalm 22 says, it shall be done.

We serve a God that gets things done. The book of James, the book of James says it this way. By the way, James was the brother of Jesus. So just in case, you're new here, and just in case maybe you're on the fence about this whole, like, Jesus thing, I just want you to consider this. Jesus' brother, James,

believed that Jesus, his brother, was who he says he is the son of God. Just put it in a little context. How many of you have a brother? If you have a brother, raise your hand very high, really high, okay? All right. What would it take for your brother to convince you that he was God? I have a brother.

And if he was like, hey, bro, I got something to tell you. What's up? He goes, behold, I am the son of God. Nope. Not convinced. All right. You know what convinced James? The resurrection.

That'll convince you. Okay, so later in his life, he believes his brother is the son of God. And here's what he writes. And I got total speculation in the Bible is over here. James is one of the most direct books in the Bible. Do you know why I think? Because he grew up with Jesus. And people would ask him questions.

He'd be like, there's a story about a bird and flowers. And James is like, this is what you do. He's just like right to the point, okay? So here's what he says. James says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. It's easy to get, it's easy to be deceived here at this church. You know why? The music's so good.

I'm telling you, music, the videos are so comfortable. compelling. Dude, the baptism's here at San Pablo. Oh my gosh, if that don't get you stirred up, you might want to go to the ER right now because you already did, okay? My man, all right? I'm just telling you, man, I can be a bit motivating when I speak. And what can happen when you're sitting here is you get all stirred up. You're like, yep, I'm about to do something. And yet you could be deceived if you only hear it and then don't do something about it. And then he's going to give this illustration. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and he goes away and at once

he forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. Here's what he's saying. Every single one of us did the same thing this morning. We all woke up, and one of the first two or three things we did this morning is we all looked in a mirror. And I know, there's always one guy. I was like, not me. We can tell, bro, you You need to join a disciple group, okay? But our, you know, normal humans, wake up in the mirror and we look in the mirror,

and what do you do? You make an assessment. It's the first thing you do, you make an assessment. And we all had a similar assessment. We went, something is not good here. Now, do you know what? None of us did? None of us abdicated responsibility

for the condition that we found our face and head in. Nobody was like, Martha, we need a higher thread count because look at these sheets are doing my face and my hair. No, no, no. You did something about it. That's why there's a sink under the mirror. So you assess, and then you take responsibility for this situation.

And you know what you did, okay? Here's what you did. Before you came to church today, you moisturized it, and you brushed it, and you combed it, and if it was curly, you straightened it, and if it was straight, you curled it, I don't know why you do that, all right? And you slicked it, and you, all,

and I'm talking about the men of 1122. You understand what I'm saying? people. You made an assessment and then you did something about it at least to the point where you felt like it was okay to be seen in public. Now, what James is saying is when you hear the word and don't do something about it, it would be like the person that looks in the mirror and then doesn't do anything about it.

Because if that was you, now you can get away with it once, but after a long time, if you never did anything about your appearance, here's what would happen. People in your disciple group would come up to you and be like, hey darling you feeling okay like I feel great like why do you ask I'm just asking like did you lose your job or you're staying in your car you look kind of puffy or you're just trying to get dreads on one side like what's going on here we're really we have a private prayer about you and if you said oh you mean this oh no no no I looked in a mirror you're like you're halfway there you don't get any credit for the assessment you only get credit for doing something about it now if the opposite was true

now this one's a little bit creepy but just hang with you if we were all in your room this morning, all of us. And we saw what James would call your natural face. Like right, I mean, right when you open your eyes and whatever you sleep in, just for the sake of church, this is a assume it's a hoodie and your PJ bottom. It's like from Christmas, okay? And we saw the covers come up and you come up out of there and we saw your natural face. And then we all left and got ready and we came to church. And then we saw you come into the church. You know what we would say to you? Well done. Good and faithful servant. You see, we serve a God that gets things done.

My question to you is this, what does he ask you to do? And why are you not doing it? He says to this man with the five talents, well done, good and faithful servant, verse 22. And he also, who had the two talents, came forward saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents. He also starts with gratitude, not entitlement. Here, I have made two talents more.

And his master said to him, don't look at it, look at me. What do you think the master's going to say? You church people know, but think about this. Do you think he's going to say, good try, not quite as much as the other guy, but good try. No, no, no, no. Here's how we know that we should not compare, because the master does not compare us against anybody else. He gets the exact same reward that the five-talent guy gets. He says 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, the same reward. He also, who had received the one talent came forward. Now, if there was a soundtrack to this parable, it all changes here. It's like, duh, no, no, it ain't good. And he says, this is what the one talent guy says. Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not snow and gathering where you scattered no seed. Immediately, he begins to make excuses.

If you look at it, he's actually blaming the master. This ain't my fault. You kind of tough to work for. All right, this is cheesy, but you'll never forget it. When you blame, you just be lame. That's what that is, okay? And here's what he's saying. He's saying, it's not my fault.

It's not my fault. Listen, no Christians should ever say the words, it's not my fault. Because we follow a Savior who came to this earth and thank God he did not look around this situation and be like, well, that's not my fault. No, no, no. He took responsibility for a thing that was not his fault called our sin, and he paid the full price that we would be renewed and redeemed. Followers of Jesus Christ in our homes, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in the state, in our country, regardless of how we get into whatever situation we get in, the Christians should say, we're not going to be like, somebody should fix that and it's not my fault.

We should come in like Christ does and renew things and redeem things and make all things new. Christians shouldn't say it's not my fault. This guy, it's not my fault. And what it's evidence of here is that he doesn't know the master. He doesn't know the master. In verse 25, this is going to help you understand the real problem. Verse 25, he says, so I was afraid.

Underline that, I was afraid. And I went and I hid your talent in the, the ground, here, you have what is yours. You see, the real problem with this guy is he was full of fear. Now, I've got something really positive for you to hear. The opposite of faith, and by the way, faith's a really big deal. The Bible says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. The opposite of faith is not doubt. It's not. If you've got doubts, if you've got unanswered questions, if you can't figure out creation and Noah and why Jesus is the only way, you know, if there's all kind of stuff about the Bible, and you're just like, I don't understand. I got good news.

You can make a really great disciple. Why do I say that? The disciples in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were full of doubts and full of unanswered questions and full of, like, they did not understand. And these are the all-stars that Jesus picked. So if you've got unanswered questions and you've got doubts and you're like, I can't reconcile these things, here's what you do. You just pick up your doubts, you pick up your unanswered questions, and by faith you follow after Jesus and one day all of your doubts will go away. Not after my next teaching series, but when you get to heaven, you'll have no doubts. Nobody's going to come up to you in heaven and be like, do you believe in Jesus?

Because you believe it. Just ask him, he's the shiny one on the throne, okay? Why? Because our faith becomes sight. The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear. Because fear is just misplaced faith. Fear is when we take our trust and we put it in our changing circumstances and what

God calls us to do is snatch our trust back and put our faith or our trust in the sovereign king over all of our circumstances. You see, faith produces action and fear paralyzes, and this brother is paralyzed by fear. So instead of doing what God has told him to do, he digs a hole and he hides his talent in it. Let me just ask you, what word describes you? Fateful or fearful? The Bible says, perfect love drives out fear. Paul tells Timothy, for God has not given us a spirit of fear. Fear is a spirit, not a feeling. Now, being scared is a feeling.

No problem. There's things you should be scared of so you run away or whatever. Stay alive, okay? Be scared, take a step forward. That's called courage. That's good. But fear is when you put your trust in the circumstances and you're paralyzed and what he's telling us to do.

The Bible says that perfect love drives out fear. Fear cannot stand in the presence of the faithful believer that knows that this is love, not that we love him, but he loved us, and he sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. This guy doesn't know the master. He said, so I was afraid, and I went and I hid your talent in the ground, here, have what is yours. Now look at the master, look at what the master said.

The master does not say, you know what, it's not your fault. It's not your fault, okay? You didn't get hugged enough as a kid, you weren't breastfed, and you probably went to public school. Don't worry about it, okay? It's not your fault. It's not what he does. He is going to hold him accountable to what he has been given.

And look at this, he says, but his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. Now, if I'm the attorney for the one talent dude, I'm going to go, objection, Your Honor, my client is, he may be wicked, but he's not slothful. My client, the one-tallant man, has been working his fingers to the bone. I mean, you gave him a talent. You gave him 20 years wages.

You didn't put it on a debit card. you gave it like in shekels, in coins. I mean, it was like a truckload. He had to go to Lowe's and rent Upteen Wheelbarrels and then come back and then go back to Lowe's because you can never go once. You've got to go back. And then he had to go and find a piece of land and buy it.

And then he had to go get shovels and dig a hole the size of a swimming pool. And then he had to take all of these bags of money and hide them and then get some palm trees and decorate it so that nobody knew where the treasure was. And then he heard that you were back in town so I had to go back to Lowe's, get the wheelbarrows, go back, dig them all up, and bring them.

My client has been working his fingers to the bone. How in the world can you call him slothful? You see, here's the thing. I know there are slothfully lazy people. I don't know. There are none of them around me, but I know they exist. I don't know any slothfully lazy people. I know a whole bunch of selectively lazy people.

And here's what I mean. You get really busy with the comfortable so as to avoid the faithful. You get really busy at work so as to avoid. your faith. You get really busy with hobbies so as to avoid going on that mission trip. You get really busy with self-promotion. You get really lazy with serving others. Get really busy with activity and get really lazy abiding with Jesus. Get really busy building your brand and lazy making disciples. Get really busy with shares on the gram and lazy with sharing your faith with your one more. Get really busy with your buds and get real lazy making

disciples with your kids. We can be wicked and slothful and really, really busy. The key is, is not be busy. The key is do whatever he told you to do. And then it gets real dark. He says, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gathered where I scattered no seed.

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. And our world goes, that's not fair. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance,

but from the one who has not, even what he has, will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Just to be very, very clear. The one talent God does not get sent to hell because he mismanaged the money. He mismanaged the money because he did not know the master.

The one thing that is in common in all three of those parables is Jesus says, depart from me for I never. knew you. The key is not what you do. The key is what has been done for you. And when you realize that, then by faith you step out and do whatever it is that God has called you to do. So once again, what has God called you to do? What has he told you to do? Because whatever, listen, man, you get one and only life. There's this dumb thing that people used to say a couple years ago, Yolo, you only live once. No, idiot. You only live forever. You better make the most of it. And what we do this side of eternity determines how we live forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

And so here's the point with your one and only life. Don't compare and don't complain and don't cower in fear, but leverage everything your king has given you for his glory. Or another way I would say it is this. Whatever you do, don't waste your life. Don't waste your time and your education and your money and your opportunities and your relationships and your talents and all the gifts that God has given you and your desires, don't waste it all on you and on the temporary, but leverage everything all the time and talent and treasures that God has given you to treasure him before all things, because he's the only one that matters. So let me ask you, where we started, what are you doing with your life?

What are you doing with your life? And if you think that God has told you to do a thing that you're not doing, go for it, man. And you ask, but what if it doesn't work? So what if it doesn't work? You'd be dead 100 years anyway. You might as well go for it. The real question is, what if he does? What if God shows up?

A mentor of mine many moons ago would ask me this question all the time. He would say, what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? Now, not what would you do if you knew it wouldn't fail? Because you'd buy a lottery ticket or something dumb, okay? What would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail? And then his next question was, in the moment you know that, the question is, then why aren't you doing it? Why aren't you doing it? It's usually because of fear. So let me ask you, what would you do for the glory of God if you knew it wouldn't fail?

New career, full-time missionary, go home, or maybe go to your same job tomorrow. You just do it with a mentality like Colossians 323 that whatever you do work heartily as unto the Lord. Because I could tell you what I would do. If I could do anything for the glory of God and I knew it wouldn't fail, here's what I would do. I'd plan a church in Jacksonville, Florida, that was a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what I would do. Now, I can tell by your trepid applause,

you were not with me when we were making these decisions. Because I've heard some people say, well, pastor, it's easy for you to say that now. We're coming up on our 10-year anniversary and look around. It's going kind of good. I get it, man. But we didn't know.

We had no idea when we're standing out here in this parking lot and we're gathering together and praying about what we think God is calling us to do. It seemed impossible. But I got some really good news for you. If the tomb is empty, man, anything is possible. And why not, why not, if all you're ever doing is the things that you can figure out on paper anyway, you don't need it, man. All you need is a sharp pencil and a good budget. But what about that thing? What if the thing he's asked you to do is pick up the phone and begin the journey of reconciliation with that person that you think is impossible to be reconciled with? Because what if God shows up and reconciles the relationship? Well, what about that

book that you're supposed to write. Why don't you go ahead and just start writing it? I'm talking to a particular person on that one. Maybe some more. Or maybe you're, you're bogged down in this career because you're just chasing after the finances and you're ready to cash out of that and you're ready to give yourself for the kingdom of God. Or maybe you're about to retire, but you realize retirement ain't in the Bible. You're just going to graduate to your next kingdom endeavor. All I'm telling you is this. Is that some of you, God gave a talent a bunch of years ago and because you were afraid, you went and dug a hole and you put it in there and it's been worse. in that hole, would you take that proverbial shovel and go dig that thing up and bring it to the

Lord and say, all right, I'm going to risk it all for you. Just do whatever he tells you to do. You see, we started this thing with, imagine your funeral and you're speaking at it or what you want people to say at it. Well, by God's grace, and I was 26 years old, God gave me a picture of what a life well-lived looks like. And I've never, never been able to shake this. The patriarch of faith in my family is Gretchen's grandfather, Lloyd White. He was a pastor, he was a church planner, he spent his whole life doing it. But he didn't grow up that way.

He grew up way, he was a Yankee, he grew up way up in the north in Massachusetts. My mouth doesn't even make that noise right, okay? And he was the son of a family that had this company called the Simpson Springs Bottling Company, and this is up where they don't call it Coke, they call it pop, you know what I mean? And so he was in line to take,

that thing over and it was guaranteed success. I mean, this is like a multi-million dollar business. But in about like his college years, he encounters a Christian who shares the gospel with him and he is just overtaken by the good news of the gospel. And when he got saved, he also simultaneously felt this full-time vocational calling in the ministry. So he goes back to his father who was an atheist and says, I'm going to go into ministry. And his dad just told him straight up, If you do, it's going to cost you everything. And he said, well, I've already given my life to Christ. And he walks away from millions, and his dad wrote him out of the will.

And he gladly did it. And he was a dude, man. And what he wanted to do, he wanted to be like front-line green beret type Christian. And what he wanted to do was be a bush plane pilot and fly missionaries in to unreached people groups and do like supply drops in places that are impossible to get to. So he starts down that road, and then they realize he's got bad. eyes and he's colorblind so he couldn't do it so he became a lead pastor did what i do and he started planting churches all over the place and he was a pastor forever and ever and all of those years of

ministry he probably never pastored a church of more than about 125 150 people in fact he never pastored a church large enough that could give him a full-time salary so he was bivocational this whole life and he was a painter not like birds and clouds like houses which i always wondered with the colorblind thing if he was any good at it or not, you know what I mean? But no, that's blue. No, it's not. Okay, so anyway.

For years and years and years. And I loved him, man. We were tight. He was kind of the first one in Gretchen's family other than Gretchen that was like, gave me the thumbs up, all right? And I can remember one time at Easter. Remember this?

We go to your parents' house and we're sitting there at this big, long table and all the family's coming over. We had just come from the church that he pastored for decades and decades and decades. And Gretchen had this cousin, and she had like tats everywhere and this crazy, all kind of different hair colors,

and she looked like she fell in the tackle box, you know what I mean? Like, and she just had piercings and rappella. Hey, I'm into it, man. That's your ministry, God bless your ministry. And so she comes walking in and Grandpa White goes, well, here comes the Easter egg. Like that would be the kind of stuff he would say, you know?

But he loved her and she loved him. It was awesome, so. He does our wedding. and about six weeks, something like that, a couple months after our wedding, he goes into the hospital for what was supposed to be like a routine thing, and he never comes out. And he knew it. He knew it. Before he went in, he rearranged all of his finances, moved everything to his wife's name, got everything ready just in case. And in fact, his family thought he was talking crazy. They asked me to go in there and talk some sense to him one time, and I come out and I say,

he ain't crazy, he's a prophet. He knows what's going on. He was that close to the Lord. So he passed his way. And Gretchen's mom asked me to do a part of the grade side service. You don't talk about being nervous, man. I mean, I'm fresh out of seminary. Been out a year, maybe. And so we go to the funeral and we show up, Lone Star is the name of the church that he pastored. It probably seats, 150, it's not very big, and it is jam. I mean, we go to the funeral. I mean, we go to the funeral. I mean, people standing around and not only is the sanctuary full, but the Fellowship Hall is full. If you've only come to church at 1122, Fellowship Hall is a building that smells like burnt casserole that people hang out with each other in, okay?

Talk to me. That's full, the kids' wings, it's full, full, full, full. And you know, when you're in the family, you get there first, so I didn't realize how full it is until we are going out to the car to go to the graveside. And I mean, there are cars everywhere. And I'm looking around and I'm like, what in the world, man? there's way too many people here for some old country preacher. And so I began to look at the license plate,

and there are license plates from all over the place. We're in Virginia, we're right outside of about an hour north of Roanoke, Virginia. And there's license plates from Oregon to Florida to Texas to Ohio to Pennsylvania. I mean, literally just all over the place. And I'm like, babe, was your, did your granddad have like a radio ministry or something you ever told me about? or did he write some kind of best-selling book back in the day and he's Christian famous? And she was like, no, remember?

When he finished being the pastor at Lone Star, he didn't think retirement was a biblical value. He was just graduating to his next assignment. And just up the road from there was this home for boys that had fallen out of the foster care system called the Patrick Henry Boys' home. And for over a decade in his 60s and 70s, Gretchen's grandfather and grandmother were like mom and dad to these boys.

And again, man, it ain't necessarily the gifted and talented group, right? It's a group of boys and their family situation is not going the way that they thought it would go and they had nowhere to stay. And he said, I'll take them. And he fathered these boys, bunches of them for over a decade. Now all these boys had grown up and they were in their 30s and they had families of their own. and they had come from all over the country to pay their respects. So they asked me to do the graveside.

Well, I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I've been doing it for a while. But in seminary, they give you this little black book to tell you what to say when you don't know what to say, and I'm literally walking up there looking for graveside to figure out what to say. And as I'm walking up, you know, it's weird. They put down the little carpet with the seats that are always crooked and the tent, you know, and there's never a place for the preacher.

Nobody ever thinks about that, but whatever. Okay, so I'm walking up there. and Gretchen's just told me, reminding me about the Patrick Henry thing, and there's this dad, and he's standing there with his boy. I'll never forget, this dad had the craziest hair I've ever seen. It was like a Ronald McDonald red afro, this big, right? And he leans down to his son, and I know it's his son, because his son's got like the micro version of the exact same. Like, you can't make this up, man.

And I pause for just a second as I'm walking up to do my part, And that dad leans over and he says, son, the reason that I'm your daddy is because when I didn't have one, that man was my daddy. Okay. And I thought, that's it. That's it. That's all I want to do with the rest of my life. I don't care if I'm making money. I don't care if I'm famous.

I don't care about the stupid, trinkety things of this world. God, all I want to do is make disciples, that make disciples, that make disciples, that make disciples, that make disciples. Because it's the only thing worthy of the one and only life that we've been given. That's it. And I had no idea to be all of this. And you know what? You have no idea what hangs in the balance. So why don't you just go and do the thing that he told you to do?

Foster the kid. Make the phone call. Write the book. Start the new career. Share your faith. Whatever it is, take all of the talent and the time and the treasures that he has given you. And don't spend it on you, man. Use it to treasure him because he and he alone is the one this work.

worthy. And so we're going to close, and we're going to sing, and we need to sing like an army of believers who've mastered has given us some marching orders and said, go get them. And we're going to bring, because it is a weekly reminder and a weekly act of worship that this stuff does not rule me. And we're going to pray. And some of you need to come and pray for strength to go back to work tomorrow, but do it with a new attitude. Some of you need to pray for the phone call that you're going to make and call your dad and be like changing majors. Some of you need to pray because he's going to change everything, and you're going to become one of our hundred missionaries right now.

And the one thing I would encourage you on is simply this. Just don't come alone. This is not the kind of thing that you pray about by yourself, because being a follower of Jesus is not an individual sport. It's a team sport. And so won't you stand? I'm going to pray for us, and then we will respond. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything.

God, I thank you for the faith and the example of Lloyd White. God, I thank you. not because of anything that he did, but because he believed when you died on the cross, it counted for him that in the year 2000, when he breathed his last year on earth and his necks in heaven, he heard the words, well done, good and faithful servant. And Lord, I pray for every man, every woman,

every student in this place right now. God, I pray that the scales would fall off our eyes. We would see you clearly. And Lord, I pray you would clean out our ears of all the clutter and the noise that this world tries to fill them with so that we could hear your. your voice clearly in what you were calling us to do.

And then Spirit of God, would you give us the courage to just go and do that thing? We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing. And again, man, we need to sing like an army. We're waiting orders from the master. And we're going to bring our first and best like we always do. And we're going to pray. And I want to invite you to come and lay it down at the altar.

And you come and say, all right, Lord, whatever you call me to do, that's the thing I'll do. Let's respond.