The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 9: Don’t Waste Your Life

Episode Date: June 18, 2017

Don’t waste your life. Don’t waste your time, your talents, your treasure...but use all the treasures that God has given you to treasure Christ before all things.

Amen. How are we doing, church? Doing okay? Looking good. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do, grab it. Matthew chapter 25, as we will spend the majority of our time. And to all the dads, I'd like to say, happy Father's Day to the dads. Yeah, that's about what you get, all right? Pretty much dad life right there. Hey, that really is all. So Matthew chapter 25, that's where we're going.

We're in this series called The Storyteller. We're going to study the parable of the talent, so we'll talk a whole bunch about that. And the reason that we're digging in on the talents, and I think it was 2001, I heard a sermon that really affected the trajectory of my life to lead me to this point right now, doing what we will be doing here for the next 50 minutes or so. At that point, the guy wasn't very well known. Now he's like a super famous pastor guy.

A guy named Dr. John Piper preached a sermon in 2000 at a college event called One Day. And I was doing college ministry at University of Georgia and Athens. And about a year later, I was not at that event, but about a year later, one of the college kids got a DVD. Remember, though? It's got a DVD of the sermon. And we sat in the living room of a friend of mine, and we watched this sermon. And I don't know that it had a title necessarily, but now it's known as Don't Waste Your Life. You wrote a book about it and all this stuff. And as I sit and listen to Dr. Piper unpacked this idea of what a life not wasted looks like. I got to let you know, it changed the way I thought about everything.

It confirmed my calling into ministry. I'd been a Christian for a little while at that point and thought I was going to do this forever. But I determined watching that sermon that whatever I did, if it is true that you only get one life, you only get one life, and all of the rest of eternity is shaped by the way that we live, this one life here on earth,

that I did not want to waste of mind. And a part of what he said that I began to understand that blew my mind, again, man, I grew up in and around, I didn't really grow up in church, but for the previous seven years or so, I'd been going to church a bunch. And I'd never heard anybody talk like this before. That in order to understand who you are, you better first understand who God is because you were created in his image. So you'll never know who you are if you don't know who he is.

And that to understand your purpose on this planet, you better know the design of the whole universe because you and I are a small little part of this universe. we are a part of the design of this universe. So what on the earth are we here for? And I've got good news or bad news, depending on how you see it. But it ain't about you. It just ain't about you. This world, this universe was not created for your glory, but for the glory of God.

And that is like the most freeing thing you've ever heard in your entire life. Because if you think it's all about you, then everything in all of the cosmos has to rightly revolve around you for you to, find this pursuit of happiness that you're on. But you let one thing change. One thing change. Whether it's the weather or the traffic patterns or your health and everything falls apart in your universe. You see, because happiness is based on happenings. And there's something so much bigger than that. Because I'm going to tell you, man, some days it's going to go great. And everything's going to line up. Your team's going to win and the fish are going to bite and you're going to hit all the green lights and you're going to get the raise and you're going to be really happy.

And then some days you're going to get the 24-hour bug and you have diarrhea. And it ain't going to be awesome. And if that's what your whole life is wrapped up in, man, that is a really sad existence. But if we begin to understand that God created all things that are in existence for his glory, which means that you and I were created for his glory, then we actually have the freedom to realize it ain't all about me and my joy can be found in the never-changing. changing Jesus instead of this pursuit of happiness that's just wrapped up in whatever happenings are happening to me.

And so with that in mind, we want to unpack this idea of what it looks like to not waste your life. And when we do, we're going to study Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the talents. That's what it's called. Talents was a measure of money in the first century. And I've just got to let you know, as I'm reviewing this text and getting ready to talk with us about what a non-wasted life looks like, I really believe that we are a part of a five-talent church that God is doing exceedingly more through us than any of us deserve

and any of us ever hoped or imagined. Here's what I mean. Three weeks ago, on just a regular Sunday in June, we as a congregation at all of our locations, we rescued over 1,600 children from poverty in Jesus' name. Amen? That is a big, big deal to the glory of God. And then last weekend, instead of a 130 service in here, we did our 130 service. out at the beach. And before the 130 service happened at all our other services and all of our

locations, we had 37 people last weekend surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And then during this service, we all went to the beach and thousands and thousands and thousands of 22ers and family members gathered together to celebrate the baptism of over 250 people on one day. And that is a five-talent church. And I don't say, man, and nothing of that has to do with 1120. it's off of the glory of God. And so is 1122 this movement? Are we being faithful?

Man, I hope so. But what it will require is for all of us together individually to understand that we will be held accountable before an almighty God. You know what the Bible teaches in Hebrews 13? The Bible teaches that one day I, as the lead pastor of this thing, will stand before an almighty God and give an account for you. For you. So don't screw this up for me. You understand? So for the next 49 minutes, we're going to talk about what does it look like for you and I to live to the glory of God and for our joy.

And so I think the best scripture in the Bible to talk about that is Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. But I've got to give you a little context before we get to this actual parable, because the parable is the answer to a question. And so the question we find in Matthew chapter 24, the disciples come to Jesus and they ask him, they basically ask him about the end of the world. It says this in verse one, Jesus left the temple, and he was going away when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. And but Jesus answered to them, you see all of these, do you not know? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. He's talking about in 70 AD the temple is wiped out because we don't need a sacrificial system anymore because Jesus is the ultimate final sacrifice, the Lamb of God slain for the forgiveness of all sins.

And then not only that, he's talking about his own personal temple. He prophesied that you tear this temple down and in three days it will be built back up. And everybody's like, how could that be? It took generations to build this temple. And he was talking about his own body. That the temple of God, Jesus himself, would suffer and be crucified and died at Galgothal on a Friday. And then three days later, he would be resurrected from the grave. So he is talking about the gospel.

And then, verse three, it leads his disciples to ask these questions. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? So in other words, the disciples want to know, can you tell us what the end of the world is like? And then Jesus launches into all of these very direct warnings and prophecies and signs about rumors of wars and wars and all of this kind of stuff. And he talks about the abomination of desolation. and he quotes Daniel and books of the Old Testament. And I think as he's doing this, the disciples are looking at him like you were looking at me.

Like, what are you talking about? And so then Jesus makes it very clear when he gets to verse 36, he says, but concerning that day, like the end of the world and our, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the son, but the father only. So he wants to be very, very clear, because there are some people at 1122, because we're a movement for all people. And some of you are very, very concerned about the end of times, and you read all the left behind books, and you've got charts,

and you're matching up like political parties with certain beasts from the book of Revelation, and you're really into that stuff. And if that's you, man, God bless your ministry. You scare me a little bit, but that's just me, all right? And in fact, I've got this family member, this lady in my family, and she's always, every time I see her, which is maybe every other year, and she always wants to kind of catch me in the corner and say, okay, I've been listening to your podcast,

and when are you going to talk more about end times prophecies, to which I typically just go, look, there's Jesus, and then I run over to the normal people in my family, okay? So if that's what you're into, praise God. But let me tell you this. What Jesus says is, instead of getting caught up on when it's going to happen, because he says he doesn't even know when it's going to happen, he then gives three parables to let all of us know

what we need to be doing while we are waiting on the return of Jesus. And he gives three parables in a row in chapter 25, The first parable is called the Parable of the Virgins. And essentially, the point of the parable is this. The point of the parable is, don't miss the party. That all of us are invited to the party. But if we wait until the party starts to show up, then it's over and you'll miss the invitation. In other words, before you breathe your last breath, you better surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus.

The second one is the parable of the talents. That's what we're going to spend all of our time on today. The point of it is this, don't waste your life. Don't waste anything that God has given you because he didn't give it to you. for you. He gave it to you for his glory and the best way for you to enjoy everything he has given to you is to spend it for the glory of God.

Every breath, every day, every dollar. And then the third one is called the parable of the sheep and the goats. And that parable is kind of the final exam of how to get to heaven. And it essentially is about knowing Jesus. And if you know Jesus, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did

unto me. That if God changes you from the inside out, then your activity lines up with your identity. that identity precedes activity. That's what it's about. The theme through all three of the parables is this, do you know Jesus? So instead of getting hung up on the end of the world,

get really hung up on this. Do you know Jesus? And so the second parable is the one we're going to spend our time on about how to not waste your life. Verse 14 of chapter 25. For it, again, the end of the world, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants

and entrusted to them his property. his participation. Whose property? His property. So what everybody understands here is no matter how much property each of these servants had, none of it was really their property. It was all the master's property. If we understood this point of the parable, it would change everything about the way we see everything. That everything we have is on loan from God. That we are not really owners of anything, but really managers of stuff that God has let us have for a little while. And I know some of you're like, no, I'm a self-made man. What did you make yourself with?

Like the education you had, the opportunities you had, the country you grew up in, like God gave you those. Everything we have is a gift from God. And none of us own anything because we are all temporary. And one day we're going to be done and our stuff's still going to be here and you're going to own nothing. Listen, fathers on Father's Day, don't you wish your children understood this? Don't you wish your children understood how much property they own, especially if they're still young and living?

your house? Can you imagine how amazing this morning would have been as if when you got up and you fix your kids a bowl of cereal, you probably didn't, but you were probably there part of it, you know, if you fix your kids a bowl of cereal and every single morning your kids received it with gratitude, oh, father, thank you so much for the cereal that you have richly blessed me with. I realize that children around the world don't have cold milk and cereal to eat and beds to sleep in and roofs to live under, but you, because of your grace and mercy, have poured this out on me. And so would you please bless this food to the nourishment of my body

and thus that I service? What would you do? First of all, you would faint. There may be a DNA test. Two children are these, right? Because what you want from your kids is gratitude, not entitlement. And yet a lot of us talk about what's mine to a God that has given us every single thing

that we have. And so the master entrusted to the service, his property. And so to one, he gave five talents. to another two and to another one, each according to his ability. There's a lot here. So the word talent in the New Testament, it's really a measure of money.

It means 20 years wages. So what you need to think about in our economy, it'd be like $5 million, $2 million, and a million dollars. So this ain't chump change. I mean, this is Buku dollars, all right? And the word talent that we know, like skills, gifts, aptitudes, our English word talent actually comes from this word in Greek that means a measure of money. So as we talk about this parable, don't just think dollars and cents. You think every single gift, every gift is a gift from God. Every good gift is a gift from God.

And everything that we have, this day, the air we breathe, if you have eyeballs to see, if you have ears to hear, if you have hands that work, if your feet brought you in here, if you have relationships, opportunities, every single thing that we have on the planet is a blood-bought gift from Jesus. Christ, to us, everything. And most of us in the room, like 99.9% of the room, are five talent people, globally speaking. I mean, think about this. Financially. If your annual household income is $35,000, you're in the top 2% of richest people in the world.

That's a talent, man, given to you by God. If you have any kind of gift or ability, if you can sing, if you can write, if you can think, if you can speak, I mean, if you have any kind of like if you're good with math, if you're good with numbers, if you're good at anything, anything at all, it is a gift from God. I mean, some of us, all of us, man, the educational opportunities that we have. And I'm not just talking about did you go to college and grad school, but if you have the opportunity, that globally speaking, if you have the opportunity to go to high school and get a degree or get a, to graduate from high school, do you understand what a gift that is from God?

And listen, man, and I grew up in Dillon, South Carolina. you know what the South Carolina educational motto is? Thank God from Mississippi, all right, because it was the only state lower than South Carolina when I was growing up. And again, if you're from Mississippi, you don't know what I'm talking about, so that's fine. Now, also, the very time period that we live in, do you understand that that's a talent or a gift from God? Like seven or eight years ago, man, my appendix ruptured.

Do you know what this means? If I was born 200 years ago, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'd be dead at whatever age it was, 33 or something like that, okay? but because God has given us these gifts like medicine, doctors, technology, for me, it was an overnight stay at the hospital and then I'm back home watching football in the name of Jesus. Two days later. The fact that we live in this country and that we live under the protection of freedom is a gift from God. I'm telling you, we are five talent people.

And notice that it says that he gave one five, another two, and another one each according to his ability. You see, some of you go, that's not fair. No problem. Fair is not a biblical value. It is not. In fact, we don't want fair. And God is not a socialist. God does not gather it all up and say, okay, if everybody can't have one, nobody gets one.

That is not the way it works. That God hands out each according to his ability. Why? Because he's the sovereign God in the universe and he does what he wants. And so, let me give you a big fat warning. The moment you realize life's not fair, and the moment you realize that some people have five talents and some two and some one, One of the number one ways to defame the name of God as a person created in the image of God is to begin to compare yourself with other people.

Because the moment you begin to compare yourself, essentially it's an accusation against God. Because what you're saying is, God, you didn't hand out the talents right. Why did you give her those gifts and not me? Why did you give him that money and not me? Why did you give that girl that opportunity but not me? And essentially what you're saying is God, you don't know what you're doing. I could have done a better job than you. And when we compare, it is a lose-lose proposition

because there's only two destinations in this comparison trap. One, sometimes you compare yourself to other people and you feel way better about you. And this always puffs up and it leads to pride. You know what I mean? I was in Disney all last week. Man, there's sometimes I had to really not compare to your surroundings because you look around about it.

You know what, we're kind of awesome. And you better watch out because it'll lead to pride. The other thing that happens is sometimes we compare ourselves to others and we're beaten down with condemnation. We feel less and less and less about ourselves. And any time you hear these whispers of pride, hey, you're pretty awesome. Or these whispers of condemnation, neither of these voices are the voice of the Heavenly Father. That is the voice of the Father of Lies, the enemy. Because when we compare, here's what we always do.

We compare what we know about ourselves to what we don't know about other people. we compare our B-roll with their highlight reel. And you just don't know what you're comparing to. And here's how I know this, man. Some of you come up to me at the end of services. This happens every weekend, and you say really wonderful things to me, and I really appreciate it. But you know what it's evidence of? You don't know me.

All you know is this 55 minutes of my week. And I'm going to be honest, this is the best 55 minutes of my whole week. I mean, preacher, teacher, Joby is the best version of me. that there is. And if you don't believe me, just ask my wife. She will let me let you know there's a whole other version of me that you just don't know about. And the reason, it's not your fault, you're just comparing what you know about you to what you don't know about me. And by the way, social media is killing us on this one. Killing us. Because every time you're scrolling through somebody's feed and you compare your unfiltered life to their filtered life, it's just not real.

you were comparing your reality to somebody's just social image, which isn't true. And here's how I know. I was, on Thursday night, I was scrolling through Instagram to look for an illustration of this, and I ran across my son's Instagram account. He's 11. I just found out he's got an account, okay? Who knew? So I'm not exactly dad of the year.

And this last week, we were on a family trip to Disney. Now, notice I said trip, because we have family trips. That's where the kids come, and family vacations. That's just me and Gretchen, all right? So that's kind of how we distinguish them. And so we were on a family trip to Disney, and my son posts on Instagram this picture of our family. All right, check it out.

So here's what it says in case you can't read it. And he's got two likes. I liked it and he liked it. So that's all he's got right now. I just noticed that. J.P. Martin 7759. Here's what he says, coming back from Disney today with the best family ever. Now, look at that.

Leave that picture there. If you look at this picture, from this picture, it looks like the best family ever, all right? We were at the hoopty-do. I don't know if you've ever been at. It's like He-Haw at Disney World. I like it. All right, it's fried chicken and ribs and other things and country music. So what's not the love?

And we get together, and if you just look at this picture, if you think this picture is an actual representation of my family, then you would think best family ever. You look at little Reagan all precious with her ears and smiling and just cute. And there's JP with his glasses, all his studious. his cool part, you know, and there's the wife, Gretchen, just, just nuzzling a hairhead against my well-chiseled shoulder right there in the photo. And you think best family ever. Now, let me tell you what's actually going on moments before this photo was taken by a professional

photographer with many filters on it. You ready for this? First of all, you can take it down now. First of all, we got on a bus to get on a bus, to go to this thing. And it's raining at Disney. And so we've got on these ponchos that smells like the guy we've been. bought it from died in it two months ago. You understand? I don't know what they do to make it smell like this, but that's what we smell like now. And then once we got to the place and we're

looking, we're kind of figuring out what to do, J.P. comes up to me and he's like, Dad, I've got a crushing headache. To which I'm like, boy, what is wrong with you? You hadn't had a headache all day, but now we quit riding rides and you got a headache. And so JP and I go out scouting Fort Wilderness to look for Children's Advil. And I find this one little store that has Adville, but on the front of it, it says fever. I don't know if you're supposed to take that or not because It doesn't have a fever. He's got a headache. So I've taken pictures of it, and I'm texting them to Gretchen, will this work?

And she's not texting me back. So I replied with some version of, how come when I'm with you, you only look at your phone, but when I'm not with you, I can't get you to answer her a text. Something like that. It's a small world after all. Okay. To it, she gives me some very clear instructions about what to do with the Advil, and so I gave it to JP, and then we come back and sit and get ready for the picture.

and what you can't hear in the picture is, J.P., stop it. And I'm just poking my finger in here, and I'm like, you better shut up and sit there and smile. Come here, quit talking to your friends, and get over here, three, two, one, smile, and they take the picture. Best family ever. Do you understand? Is that when we compare ourselves to a filtered version of real life,

man, we're not even comparing ourselves to real life. You see, God created you to be the you that he created you to be. You? Let me think about this. You were his idea for his glory and not just your own happiness. He wants something greater than happiness from you. He wants joy. And your joy will be found when your satisfaction is found in him and him alone and not in your happenings.

And so he gives one five, he gives one two, and he gives one one, and they don't waste time comparing themselves with one another. And then he went away. The master went away. Verse 16. And he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. Like he didn't waste time. Because listen, Christian, delayed obedience is disobedience.

And some of you know God has given you something, a gift, a talent, an aptitude. And you know what he would have you do with it. And instead of doing that thing, you've just been kind of waiting. And delayed obedience is disobedience. Verse 17. So also, he who had the two talents. made two talents more. You see, I think the two-talent guy might be the actual hero of the story.

Because you know what he doesn't do? He doesn't whine and complain and he doesn't make excuses. You can either make excuses or you can make a difference. And he doesn't complain. He doesn't go, well, I've only got two, and why did he get five? He was just obedient with what the Lord had given him. And he knew that he would be held accountable, not for what God had given somebody else, but what God had given him.

And I hear this phrase so much now, and it honestly makes me sick. I hear a bunch of people say, you know what, that's not my fault. It's not my fault. It's not my fault. To which I reply, if you're a Christian, I don't think you should ever use the phrase. It's not my fault. Do you know why? Because thank God, Jesus did not show up to this earth and say, it's not my fault. But in fact, he saw something that was not his fault, our sin.

And he took responsibility for that thing that was not his fault. And if we are followers of Jesus, you know what this means? that we are supposed to be able to make wrong things right, even if they're not our fault. That's true in your family. That's true in your neighborhood. That's true in work. That's especially also true in our society.

Where things are wrong and broken in our culture and in our society, where things are in our society. And even if it's not our fault, that doesn't matter. But because Jesus took responsibility for things that were not his fault, the church is supposed to take responsibility for pushing back the darkness

in this world and say, hey, it might not be our fault, we will take responsibility for bringing the gospel into it. And so he doesn't talk about fault. He just takes responsibility. Verse 18, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time. Now, it's important to Jesus says a long time. One, remember, he's talking about the end of the world.

When's it coming? Long time. How long is a long time for the infinite God? At least 2,000 years. Secondly, I think this applies to us a bunch. Sometimes it takes a long time for our disobedience to really manifest itself. That right in the beginning, the one talent guy, he immediately goes to work, digging and hiding, and immediately we don't realize that's a bad thing until the master shows back up.

In my opinion, the modern day application is this. There's about, I don't know, 90% of evangelicals that take the gifts. and talents that God gives him, and instead of risking it for the glory of God and the sake of the mission of God, we just choose to go dig a hole and hide those things. And here's the way this plays out. I think if you were to ask people, hey, what's your vision for your life? Most Americans, even good old church-going people would say, you know what, my vision for my life is just kind of live a comfortable life. Have a nice, comfortable life. Go to college, get a degree, maybe stick around, get another degree, get out of college, get a job that has nothing to do with my degrees.

Then maybe meet a girl, get married, buy a house, live in a comfortable neighborhood, make enough money to fuel and fund comfortable vacations. My career, I don't care what it is, as long as it's funding my way of life. And then retire early enough that I can still do all the fun stuff that I really want to do, spend all of it on me, die in easy death, hopefully, and then avoid hell. Who lives that way? About 90% of people that claim Jesus is the Lord and Savior. And the problem with that is it's a very me-centric way of thinking and living. And in my opinion, it is ruled by fear and it's ruled by, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take what God has given for me, and my dream for me is all about me,

and I'm just going to go hide it and take the comfortable way. And yet, God has so much more in store for you and I. God has so much more in store for you and I because the way we were created to live was to glorify God above all other things that understand that it ain't about us it's all about him and when the cross is at the center of your life everything in your life does not have to revolve around you

and you're free you're free to do what the master has called us to do and so after a long time the master of those servants came to settle accounts with them. Again, every single one of us one day will stand before the master and give an account for everything he has given us. Every breath, every dollar, every

relationship, every opportunity. Every opportunity. And I'm telling you and say, so what did you do with this life I have given you? And in that moment, everything we do will either bring reward or regret. Everything. And look, I'm not the anti-fund guy. You understand? I think we should

glorify God in everything we do. instead of making it all about us. And so they came to settle accounts with them, verse 20, and he who had received the five talents came forward. Well, of course he did. You know why? Because he's stoked about the master coming back. He's like, look, master gave me five, I made five more.

I can't wait to talk to the master about this. You ever been there? You ever been at work? Your boss goes on vacation for two weeks. And while your boss is on vacation, you close the biggest deal in your company's history. who's stoked about the boss coming back to work? I mean, that Monday morning when the boss is at work,

you're standing in his office with his favorite cup of coffee, handing it to him going, hey, boss, welcome home. So tell me about your trip. Why don't you ask me about my week? That's what you want to have. Why? Because you know that you're going to bring him good news. And so the five-talent guy, he is first in line.

And he says this, he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more saying. This is big. Master, you deliver. to me five talents. Now stop right there. You see, what he starts with is this. Here's how you know, the five talent guy knows the master, because he starts with gratitude. He doesn't start with what I have done on your behalf. He starts with what you did on my behalf. He says, listen, master, thank you.

For whatever reason, you decided to give me five talents, and I couldn't have done it without you. So thank you, thank you, thank you. You see, it starts with the five-talent guy. It starts with gratitude. Let me ask you this. If God were to just give you an extra 50 grand right now, what would you do with it? Or if he were to give you an extra five weeks off this year,

what would you do with it? You see, here's the thing. This will be a red flag for you. If you always think immediately that more is mine than you're telling on yourself. Because when you think that way, you immediately begin to think that the master is here to serve you instead of you serve the master. Because whatever your annual income is, check it out, it is already from God.

100% of whatever you have in this world, not just income, but relationships and opportunities and leverage. All of it is a gift from God. Do you see it that way? Now, this doesn't mean that everything that you have, you bring it to the church. Here's what it means, that everything you have, you bring it to God to glorify God. So let's take wherever you live, for example. The house that you buy or the apartment that you rent should be to the glory of God. So you make some money and you decide to buy a house, praise God.

You should do some God-glorifying stuff in that house. Like you should throw a party in that house. And you should throw the kind of party where you invite people into it that can't pay you back by throwing their own party. That's what Jesus said you're supposed to do with a house. Or you could host Bible study in that place. or you could raise a family to the glory of God. You see, every single thing that we have been given, we will be held accountable to.

And what are you going to do with it? You see, this five talent guy says, Master, you delivered to me five talents. And then he says, here I have made five talents more. In Greek, it might be better translated, here you go, I have made five talents more. Because what he's saying is, The five talents started with you.

You gave them to me. You didn't even give them to me for me, but for your glory. So here you go. I have made five talents more. Verse 21. And here's what his master said to him. Well done. Good and faithful servant.

Well done. Good and faithful servant. Underline the word done. Here's why. Because we serve a God against stuff done. Well done. That we are not saved by our works, but we are saved to good works. we are saved by the work done by Jesus on the cross.

In Psalm 22, Psalm 22 was a prophetic Psalm. 1,500 years before Jesus was crucified, David says in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus quotes it on the cross. And then the rest of the Psalm prophesied that Jesus was going to die on the cross, that his hands and feet would be pierced for our transgressions. By the way, this was 500 years before crucifixion was ever even invented as a way to torture and kill people. And so the very last line of Psalm 22 is this,

It shall be done. And then on the cross, Jesus pushes up on his nail pierce feet and he says, It is finished or it has been done for you. And then that day that whenever we die, whenever we breathe our last here on earth, every single follower of Jesus Christ is going to hear these words, well done, good and faithful servant. What the master does not say to the five talent guys is this. He does not say, well intention.

mentioned. Great plan that you never got around to. Nice prayer. And I am pro prayer all the way. Unless prayer is actually a diversion from you actually doing what God has told you to do. He says, well done. You know why? Because we don't get credit for intentions. Intentions are useless. And come on, we know this. Anybody here got a gym membership that you haven't seen since third week of January? Right. How much help is that as your intention doing for your waistline right now? Not one of you have walked into church and somebody's like, girl, look at you, what you've been doing. You're like, I got a gym membership. Oh, where you go to the gym? And I didn't say, I go. I just got the membership. See, I put this little, I put this little card on my, on my keys,

and then, boom, check me out. That is not how it works. Or if you've ever bought a piece of gym equipment that you were going to put in your bedroom, right? And you had great intentions. You and spent money on it and convince your husband or wife you needed to get it, and you brought it in and you set it up right in front of the TV, and you read the little brochure, you're like six weeks, man, I'm going to have buns of this and abs of that. I'm going to own this thing. And then you got on that thing for like twice.

You're like, man, this is hard. I'm going to eat ice cream. And right now, right now, that piece of equipment with great intentions, what is it doing for you? It's drying and laundry. And that's it. It's doing nothing, nothing, nothing. You see, we don't get credit for intentions, but our actions.

James, the brother of Jesus, says it this way. In James chapter 1, verse 22, James says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hear of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who intently, who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror. For he looks at himself and he goes away and it once 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.

You see, James kind of shares a parable. He said, listen, you know what every single one of us did this morning? Every single one of us, or maybe this afternoon, at some point you got up from your bed or wherever you slept, and you went and you looked at a mirror. And when you looked at a mirror, you know what you did? You did the same thing all the rest of us did. You looked in the mirror and you assessed the situation. And based on that reflection back to you, all of us said, there's a problem.

There is something that needs to be done about this current situation. And then the next thing that you did, and now some of you be like, I didn't even look at a mirror. We know, okay, we should talk about that at another time. But you looked in the mirror and then you took responsibility yourself. You did not abdicate the responsibility. You didn't say, well, it's not my fault. Hey Martha, we need to get new pillows. Why?

Because look what the pillows are doing to my hair and face. No, no, no, no. You didn't blame it on your sheet count or thread count. You said, I'm going to take responsibility for this. And then you know what you did? You did something about it. You stood there and did something for as long as it took for you to feel okay about going out in public. You powdered it and you moisturized it and you frosted it and you teased it and you curled it.

And if it was straight, but if it was straight, you try to make it curly. And I'm just talking about the men of 1122. You understand? But what you did is you did whatever it took to do something. Because if, if you looked in the mirror and didn't do anything about it, not overnight, but over a long time, guess what would happen? After a few weeks, you're showing up here, people that love you and care about you eventually would lean into you and be like, hey, man, do you feelin okay? Like, yeah, why do you ask? Well, I'm just saying, you look kind of, you're looking rough.

I mean, you've got, like, creases on your face and you're puffy, and are you trying to grow dreads just on one side? I mean, is that on purpose? What do you kind of smell? And we look for it on the knees board and didn't see you? I mean, is everything okay? And if you were like, oh, you mean this? Oh, I looked in the mirror.

We would say, yeah, yeah, but you don't get credit for just looking in the mirror. You've got to do something with what you've seen. And also, this would be true. I know it would be a little creepy, but just think about it. If all of us were in your bathroom this morning, when you first walked in. And we saw you look in the mirror. I know it's creepy, but it's just a parable.

Give me a second, okay? And we saw what you looked like fresh out of bed when you first saw you in the mirror. And then you thought, man, I got to get to work, all right? And then we saw you walk in here today. Do you know what we would say to you? Based on what it looked like this morning versus what it looks like right now, we would say, well done. Good and faithful servant.

Why? Because you don't get credit for just like having the right intention. you get credit for the follow-through. So this is what happens to this brother. The five-talent guy, Jesus says, well done, good and faithful sermon. James says, hey man, don't just be a hearer of the word and deceive yourself. Here's what scares me a little bit about our church,

because we've got so many people here and so many people kind of showing up. I think we've got a lot of people that are being deceived. And here's what I mean, because you have great intentions. You show up here and you have all kind of feelings. great feelings that lead to really great intentions. And you're into the sermon. I mean, you lean in and you, you know, you move. That's when you're afraid to say amen and I say something you like.

You're like, mm, all right? And you leave. This is so good. Oh, so good. I'm going to tweet it right now. So good. So good. I think I'm going to forward a podcast to my mother-in-law.

She needs to hear this, right? And at the end of the service, man, you're stirred to like lift a hand and come and pray. And you've got all these ideas of what you're going to do. And yet, when you leave and the service is over, it's like by the time you get to the parking lot, you just forgot. Forgot whatever it is that God was leading you to do. And so it's not well-intentioned. It's well-done. Good and faithful servant.

Now, please hear this. The gospel is not, if you do enough good things, then when you get to heaven, Jesus says, well-done, good, and faithful servant. Because what he says, the next line is, you have been faithful over a little. He does not say, well-done, good, and fruitful service. He says, well done good and faithful servant. You see, our faith is in what Jesus did on the cross. That's where our faith is. And when our faith is what Jesus did on the cross, it changes us from the inside out.

Therefore, we change everything we do because we say, I'm going to do what you said, because you are my Lord, and I'm not the Lord of me anymore. And so, Jesus says to the five-talent guy, you have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master. You see, folks, this is where true joy is. It's when we live a life on mission for the creator of all life. When we are freed from trying to just serve us all the time and trying to live for the glory of God. I said this a few weeks ago, I didn't make it up, I stole it from C.S. Lewis.

Our problem is not that we want too much. Our problem is we're satisfied with so little. I mean, I'm telling you, I'm coming to you from the happiest place on earth. What a lie. And I'm pro. I mean, you take your family on vacations and stuff, but if you think you were going to find ultimate happiness and satisfaction in your happenings, you're always going to be let down. That God has called us to so much greater than that. Do you know what the Christian living for themselves looks like? It's like a grown man in the kitty pool. You're like, bro, what are you doing? You're too big for this. What are you doing in here? Won't you come to the beach with us? Once you come to the deep end, it's so much better over here. It's like, no, I think I'll just hang out in the kitty pool. You're like, like you look ridiculous and have you not realized it's much warmer than it should be here you should get out of that and step into this adventure that god has called us into verse 22 and he also and he also who had the two talents came forward saying master you delivered to me two talents here i have made two talents more and his master said to him check this out the exact same thing he said to the five talent guy

so we don't get we don't get judged based on productivity we get judged but we get judged based on fulfilled potential. John Maxwell says that potential is God's gift to us and then what we do with it is our gift back to God. In other words, man, you just be the you. God created you to be for his glory, for his glory. And so the two-talent guy, guess what he hears. Well done. Good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. You see, a big part of what this whole thing is about is that the master came to settle accounts,

to settle accounts. I started out at the beginning of this talk with the fact that I believe we're a five-talent church. We're about 75% of the way through are before all things initiative. Where we declared that in every area of our life, we were declaring that Jesus is before all things. And our church set out for four big goals

to continue to cultivate ministry. That just means keep doing church. down roots, which means we're going to buy the San Pablo location here, to plant the gospel in new communities and sow gospel seeds by planting churches around the world and investing in our city by helping people get jobs. So we know that we will be held accountable for this two-year initiative. Here's where we are right now, 75% of the way through. Our goal was to plant 100 churches around the world. To date, we've planted 108 churches, and by the end of next month, it will be 130 churches.

54 in Kenya, 25 in Uganda, 24 in Brazil, and 5 in the United States. That we have trained over 1,000 pastors since before all things started. That next week we will commission Anthem Church to be planted out of this church with Pastor Ed, one of our staff guys, leading that local autonomous church. 40 people that are 1122ers are going to become whatever you call people that go to Anthem, and they are planting with that church. We partnered with some folks in our city to help people get jobs. Currently at Hope's Closet, we have 13 participants.

One of them surrendered to Jesus. One is enrolled in full-time school, and two have already found full-time employment. We partnered with the Salvation Army. 364 men have been trained on the computer lab that we help put together, and 34 of those men have been able to secure full-time employment. We've partnered with a thing called Operation New Hope, and we've given 339 distinct client stipends to pay for their training so that they could be employable. That since we've started this Before All Things initiative, 1,517 people have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus.

Amen? That's the one that gives me most excited. That we've planted two campuses since we started. This past January, we put a campus at Mandarin, and Mandarin averages about 925 people a weekend. there's been 32 salvations at our Mandarin location. And then a year and a half ago, we planted our Bay Meadows location. It averages about 1,000 people a weekend, and 152 people have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Christ.

That two weeks ago, we purchased the building that we're sitting in right now with Hobby Lobby as our tenant. And in the next, I'm hoping, in next 14 days or so, I will be able to tell you the exact location of our next campus, which will be north, and they will immediately begin to work on our one that will be north. like airport kind of area. And we've baptized 915 people since we launched into this before all things initiative. Amen? I mean, this is big. Now I tell you all of that to say

this. In this parable, they didn't know when the master was going to show up. We know before all things there's a two year, two year initiative. And so I believe God is doing more in us than any of us hoped or imagined. And so I would encourage you to kind of assess yourself. Hey, where am I in living for the glory of God. And if God gave me five talents or two talents or one talent, what am I doing with it? Am I hiding it or am I risking it for the glory of God? You see, because when the last guy shows up for his assessment, verse 24, if there was a soundtrack to this parable, it's not going to go good for this guy. It says, he also, who had received the one talent came forward, saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

So I was afraid. And I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. Now, there's two really big problems here. Number one. You see, in a minute, this guy's going to get kicked out. God's going to take from him and throw him out. And it's not because he's screwed up.

It's because he never surrendered his life to the Lord'ship. the master. You see, he knew about the master. He said, I know all these things about you, but instead of aligning my life with who you are, I just decided what I wanted to do. So you ain't the boss of me. I'm going to be the Lord of me. And it was evidence of his wasted life that he did not know the one that gave him everything that he had. The second thing is this, is he says it right here, I was afraid. I've told you this a thousand times. I'm going to tell you this a thousand more. That the opposite of faith is not doubt. If you've got doubts, so about this whole Christianity thing.

Hey man, welcome to the club. I got really good news for you. You could make a great disciple. The original disciples had all kind of doubts about the claims of Jesus. And what they did is they just followed Jesus. So if you've got doubts and questions and how come and why did this, great. Pick them up, follow after Jesus. One day, all of your doubts will go away.

I promise. It probably won't be on this side of heaven. But if you surrender your life to Lordship of Christ, one day all of your doubts go away. because in heaven you will see clearly that he will answer every question, everything that you've ever had a lack of unknown. You guys realize when we get to heaven, I'm not going to be teaching you Bible anymore. Everybody understand that?

You will not need me to do this. It's not like heaven intercom comes on and be like, over by the pearly gates, Pastor Jobi, we'll be teaching on the book of Timothy, you know, and I gather together, but like, if you've got your Bibles, turn to Timothy. Hey, Tim, I, Paul, what's up, Paul? That is not how it's going to go. that you will be full of faith.

Actually, faith goes away because you don't need faith in heaven because Jesus is just like sitting on the throne. And so if you've got doubts, no problem. The opposite of faith, there's not doubt. The opposite of faith is fear. Because faith produces action. I'm going to take a step and follow after Jesus. But I don't understand.

That's okay. Because we don't put our, it's not just about fully understanding, it's just about fully trusting. And the faith produces action. to follow after Jesus. And fear paralyzes. Fear paralyzes. And this guy is paralyzed by fear.

He says it. I was afraid, so I hit it. And then here's the master's judgment. Verse 26. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant. Slothful just means lazy. You lazy servant.

To which, if you're the attorney for the one-talent guy, you go, I object. Objection. He's not lazy. He's not slothful. This brother, has been working his fingers to the bone since the whole time you've been gone.

I've watched. The other two guys, they went and immediately invested, they had been doing anything for years. This guy has been working because you gave him a million dollars, and you didn't put it on a gift card. You know how many wheelbarrels of Denary? He had to haul to a vacant lot and dig by his own hand, because, you know, we don't have backhoge yet, to dig up like a pool-sized hole for him to hide a million dollars in, and then cover it up, and then hide it with pines straw. And then about the time he finished hiding it, you showed up.

And so he had to go get more wheelbarrows and get more shovels and undig it back up and haul it back here. He has been working himself to the bone. And yet the master calls him wicked and slothful. See, here's what I think. I don't think very many of us are slothfully lazy. I think we're selectively lazy. You see, what this guy did out of fear

is he chose what was comfortable. He got busy with what was comfortable so he could avoid what would require faith. And you see, I think one of the things that we do that show our lack of faith is we get really, really, really busy with the comfortable instead of risking it for what requires faith.

Like, we get real busy with church activity, but we avoid taking a step of faith with Jesus. Or we get real busy with our hobbies, but lazy with our most important relationships. Or we get busy at work and we get lazy with being on mission. Or we get busy with entertaining ourselves and we get lazy with loving our neighbors. And we get busy by compartmentalizing our life to choose that comfortable, complacent life. And we begin to think about our life this way.

You know what? I'm going to give God first and family second and work third. And then when we do that, we say, God, I gave God an hour and a half at church. So check, I gave God what was his. And it's a terrible way to think about things. Instead of thinking about God is one and family is two and work is three, what we need to think about is everything on the list goes on the paper, which is God himself. So how do I glorify God at work and how do I glorify God in my family?

And how do I glorify God when I'm having fun? And how do I glorify God in everything that I do in all of my life is to the glory of God, not just an hour and a half on a weekend. You see, I think a lot of us get really, really busy just doing stuff. and it's essentially like we're hiding everything God has given us, putting it in a hole, because the comfortable life is just easier. It's easier than living a life on mission for God. And so he says, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scatter 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 all the snowflakes. said, 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 into the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You see, this man's wasted life was evidence that he did not know the master.

So let me try to be as clear as I can. Here's the point. Don't waste your life. Don't waste your life. Don't waste your life. don't waste any aspect of your life don't waste your money don't waste your time don't waste your talents

but use all the treasures that God has given you and I don't just mean dollars all the treasures that God has given you to treasure Christ before all things and then you will find the joy that you were looking for see Francis Chan says it this way

everything we do will either bring regret or reward Jim Elliott a guy that gave his life on the mission field said he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. So as you evaluate your life in the cosmos right now, what describes your life? Which word? Faithful or fearful? And maybe you need to ask, is there an area of your life that you know that you know is a gift from God that is a talent from God? And a long time ago, out of fear, or out of a pursuit of the comfortable, you went and you dug a hole and you hit it there.

And maybe the spirit of God is convicting you to go dig it up and bring it back to him and say, here you go, God. Here you go. My life, this aspect of my life, this part of my life, that I have been afraid to turn over to you, God. Here you go, for your glory and in so doing, for my own joy. So I'd like to ask you a few questions here.

Do you know the master? Do you know him? because honestly if you don't know him you're not going to know what to do with the things that he's given you and maybe a step beyond just knowing him do you trust him do you really trust to put your whole life every aspect of your life in his hands

and if you would say yeah I know him and yeah I trust him does your life show it and if not what do you need to change you see because I believe when God was knitting you together in your mother's room

that God had a vision for your life. You realize that you were God's idea for his glory. God somehow believed that he could be more glorified by creating you, that you would reflect his glory in some significant way. And what I'm afraid is that somewhere along your journey, along your path, if you look at your life and you're like, man, I don't think I'm living out God's dream and God's vision for me. because I know it's not about me, but everything I do seems to be for me.

So how do I orient my life to live for him? It's probably because you either got scared and you went and dug a hole and hit it, or you're actually living out somebody else's dream for your life. And do you realize that our culture spends billions of dollars a year to get you to try to live for you at a great expense to you? And God has a bigger vision for your life than that. Or I'll ask it this way. somebody asked me this question a long time ago it affected me like crazy what would you do for the glory of god if you knew it wouldn't fail what would you do for the glory of god if you knew it wouldn't fail

and the moment you know that i dare you write it down write it down show it to somebody and if you know the answer then why aren't you doing it why aren't you doing it don't be afraid don't be afraid because he is with you and he has equipped you to do everything that he has called you to do. And Sir, Church, can you imagine? Can you imagine if we, as a body of believers, actually believed it?

I mean, not just believed it enough to have an emotion as we sing a song, but can you imagine if we believed it enough to not be merely hearers of the word and so deceive ourselves, but if we believed it enough to be doers of what God has called us to do. Did you know there's somewhere between, it's hard to figure this out exactly,

there's somewhere between 12,000 to 14,000 people in Jacksonville that consider 1122 their church. And over this next generation, if every single one of those people who are followers of Jesus Christ believe this to the point that we were willing to risk everything that he had given us for his glory and to live for his glory, I think the same thing would be said of our church that was said of the very first church in the book of Acts. you know what they said about them they said hey they're just ordinary uneducated men and women who had been with jesus and they turned the world upside down and god says come on church come into my joy would you please pray with me our good and gracious heavenly father god we love you because you love us first god i pray that you would save us from ourselves that you would save us from a comfortable life from a complacent life

from the merry-go-round of normality, but God, you would call us into the joy of our father, the king, the master, the sovereign king of the entire universe. God, we know that you did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline. God, perfect love drives out fear. So God, by the power of Jesus on the cross, through the love of the Heavenly Father, through a move of the Spirit of God, standing on the authority of the Word of God, Lord would you drive fear out of this place? Would there be men and women and students that don't waste their one and only life? But we all live it for your glory and in your glory, God, we find the joy that we've all been looking for. We pray it in Jesus' name.

Amen.