What's Mine Is Yours

Awesome. Well, hey, want to say thank you for being here, for priorit prioritizing being here, especially whenever the elements are a little adverse or uncomfortable. Really grateful for that. Grateful honestly just for you stewarding this morning to putting yourself in a place where you can come and sing to Jesus alongside some other folks and receive God’s word.

If you are new with us, what we’re about to do next might feel a little different for you. But we we don’t just want to be a church that talks about prayer. We want to be a church that prays. So we set aside a portion of our Sunday morning, every Sunday morning, just to pray. So I’m going to invite you to grab your neighbor. And what we’re praying for throughout the month of October, we all know someone who is far from the Lord. And what I mean is somebody that may have grown up in church, may not have, but the way they are living and the things that they are plagued by it makes you wonder. It makes you kind of worry. You have a deep concern for them. You want them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus. You want them to have some peace. You may be somebody’s one. You may be here this morning because somebody’s been praying and inviting you.

And so what I want you to do right now is just take a moment and grab your neighbor and pray. Pray by name for the person that you know that does not have a relationship with the Lord. Someone that you’re worried about, you’re concerned for. If this is your first time with us and praying out loud is a little odd, you’re off the hook. Don’t worry, we’ll the rest of us will kind of fill in the space there. But yeah, if I want to invite you go ahead and grab your neighbor and pray, who is your one? The one person that you know that does not know Jesus.

Holy Spirit God, you’ve brought all of us here for a particular reason. I believe you’re going to speak with us this morning. I believe that you are going to help us to take your word in. You’re going to help us to walk out of here loving you a little bit more. And God, we’ve all come in here this morning feeling burdened for somebody. God, thinking about two of my really good friends. God, really good guys. They do a lot of good things. They try to live by some high morals. Lord, I I think in a lot of ways they’re better than me, God. They’re really successful. They’re really smart. They’re super well-meaning. But Lord, they just they don’t have peace. They’re trying to live life in their own strength and in their own wisdom, and it’s just not working. God, I thank you for that. I want them to be well. I want them to to to have peace and to to have harmony in their lives. But I know, God, that ultimate peace doesn’t happen outside of you, God. I pray that you would save them. I pray that you would bring other believers into their lives, Lord. God, with one of them, with one of them, it feels like I’m the only person that’s trying to share the hope of the gospel with him. Father, I pray for everybody else’s one in this room right now. God, I pray that you would get a hold of them. That you would give us opportunities to share the hope of Jesus with them. God, that something that would happen in their lives this week would open their eyes to the need that we all have for you, the need for a redeemer, for someone to make us right with a holy and good God. Please do that. Holy Spirit, do a supernatural work in here this morning that I can’t do. God, we can we can come and sing great songs. We can do great things like packing shoe boxes. God, I could do a great thing like opening the Bible and speaking from it. But Lord, unless you fill it with your power and your life, Lord, nothing really comes from it other than us patting ourselves on the back. And I pray that you would do something with us this morning. God, we love you and it’s in your great name that we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, if that was your first time praying out loud, thank you for humoring me. Thank you for doing that. I think that one of the the deepest joys that I have not just as a pastor, but as a follower of Jesus is inviting people to pray out loud for their very first time. I could remember sitting at a [inaudible] up in Colombia when we were at our old church and having lunch with a guy that I really didn’t know very much. He’s a blue-collar sort of a dude, which meant his hands were a lot tougher and rougher than mine are or mine ever will be, but man, just like a good guy. And we sit down to lunch, and I say, “Hey, man, I bought you pray,” and he’s like, “I what you hold on? What are you saying, pastor?” And I’m like, “Man, you can do this. Just, just thank God for this food.” And he’s like, “I don’t know if I could do that.” I’m like, “I think you can, Brian.” And so he does, and he prays, and he says amen after kind of like a stocotic of herky-jerky sort of little prayer. He says, “Jeremy, I’ve never done that before. I never prayed out loud before in my life.” I said, “Brian, man, there you go.”

So, for some of y’all, you just had that moment. That’s not connected to the sermon whatsoever. But I’m proud of you if you just took that opportunity. We are talking about opportunities this morning, though. I was struck by this this week. A couple things happened. It just kind of refreshed this question for me. What do I want my legacy to be? I want you to think about that. At some point, your life will be over. That’s a little heavy, but it’s true. How do you want to be remembered? Somebody is going to write something about you online or in a newspaper or on a tombstone. What do you want written about you? What do you want it to be said about you?

You know, this past week, I was reminded that we never really know when the end will be for us. Friday morning, I’m just doing my normal thing over at the YMCA, and Carter gives me a phone call. The principal of a local school had reached out to him and said, “Hey, can you be on campus this upcoming Monday? One of our students passed away, and we need pastors on campus to be able to talk with kids that might have questions.” Some of us make it to 80, 85 years, and we are naturally thinking about the end. Others of us make it halfway through fifth grade. What do you want to be said? What sort of opportunities do you want to take now? What do you want your legacy to be?

Jesus talks about these things. And Jesus, one of His hopes is that while you are here, you would take your opportunities that He’s giving you so that your legacy would be a life well spent doing the right things. That’s what we’re going to talk about this morning. If you have your copy of God’s word, I hope you do. It’s we’re going to be reading out of Matthew verse chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. If you’re still learning how to navigate your copy of the Bible, you just open it in the middle. You probably landed in the Psalms or Proverbs. Take a right. Eventually, you’ll hit the New Testament. Matthew’s the first book. Matthew chapter 25.

Jesus tells this parable, which we call the parable of the talents. We’re in a series on parables because we want to see what in the world is Jesus teaching us. What in the world does it look like to have wisdom in His kingdom and in this world? So Jesus tells this parable. What I’m going to do this morning is we’re going to read it, make some observations along the way, draw a couple meaning conclusions, and then I’m going to ask a question or two at the end to help run this all home.

Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 14. For it is just like a man who is about to go on a journey. He called His own servants and entrusted His possessions to them. To one He gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another just one talent, depending on each one’s ability. Then He went on a journey. Immediately the man who had received five talents went, put them to work, and earned five more. In the same way, the man with two earned two more. But that’s not good. But the man who had received one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid the master’s money.

Jesus starts off this parable saying, “It is just like He’s been teaching about the end. Been teaching about that moment when He will come back.

and He will finish what He had begun in His ministry. He’s teaching about the end of time. He’s teaching about what it means to live now recognizing that someday your life will be finished. Jesus is just like this. He is speaking about these end time realities. And He says it’s just like a man who’s got substantial possessions. He’s got servants and he’s about to go on a journey. The man that He’s describing in this parable has some serious stuff. He’s got tons of talents to give to his servants. That word talent, it’s not the word talent that we would use. We use talent like America’s Got Talent, like a singing or an acting thing. Talent right there is a Greek word that means a measure of money. In fact, one talent was the largest measurement of money that those people could have ever conceived of. So this man, he’s got five talents for one guy, he’s got two talents for another guy, and he’s got another talent for another guy. He’s got tons of money. He is flush with cash. He gives tons of money to one, he gives a lot of money to another, and then he still gives a lot to a final one. I was looking up and a talent could have been anywhere from 60 days of pay to 6,000 days of pay. For us, it really doesn’t matter how much this is in today’s USD. What this matter, what we need to learn is this is substantial treasure. This is a lot of possessions. This guy, he’s going on a journey and he places his possessions into the care of his servants for them to steward for his benefit. The five talent servant and the two talent servant, it they it’s incredible. They double what they were given. But but the one talent servant takes this, buries it, and totally wastes the opportunity that he was given.

Let’s continue reading. Verse 19. After a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five talents approaches, presents five more talents, and says, “Master, you gave me five. See, I’ve earned five more.” And his master looks at him and he says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over just a few things. I will put you in charge over many things. Share your master’s joy.” Verse 22, the man with two talents also approached, and he says, “Master, you gave me two talents. See, I’ve earned two more talents.” And the master looks at him, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful again over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.”

Now, eventually the man comes back. He didn’t tell them ahead of time when He was going to come back. He didn’t say, “Hey, you got five months to make this thing happen.” It was nothing like that. It wasn’t, “Hey, when the seasons change,” or “These will be the signs.” He just tells them originally, “I’m going away.” And one day He comes back. They would not know when it would happen, but they knew when He left that they needed to do something with their master’s money. It’s interesting they call Him master. That word master, we might look at that and think boss. That’s not what He’s talking about. When Jesus uses the word master, it’s this Greek word kurios. You know, say it with me. Kurios. It means lord. It’s the root word for Caesar. When the Lord goes away, when the Lord comes back, that’s what we’re talking about. This is not an employer. This is a king. This is a ruler. When the Lord, the ruler, comes back and He sees that the five talent servant and the two talent servants have doubled what He entrusted them, He looks at them and declares this ultimate statement. Well done, good and faithful servant. Man, who doesn’t want to hear that? Who doesn’t want to hear at a boy? Who doesn’t want to hear you have done well? Who does not want to hear this incredible statement of someone you love and respect and them being satisfied with your work? That’s what He gives them. He says, “Well done, good and faithful.” And notice that word faithful. He could have said, “Well done, good and fruitful.” He doesn’t say that. He doesn’t say well done for doubling my money. He doesn’t say well done for being so smart at working the stock market. He doesn’t say well done for making all the correct investments. He says well done good and faithful. You were faithful to the job. You stuck with what you were supposed to do. And their reward for their faithfulness with just a few things is to be entrusted with more. This master, the Lord, is rewarding what I call calculated risk for the right purpose. Imagine if you were the five talent servant and in your best ability, you had squandered it all, but you were trying to serve the master. Imagine if someone comes to you and they offer you $50,000 and they say, “Hey, I’m going away. While I’m gone, work with this and let’s see what you can do.” And to the best of your ability, it all goes to zero at the end. And your boss comes back. We’ll use boss language. And they still say, “Well done. You tried. You were faithful to it.” The master here is commending them for being faithful to risk.

Let’s keep going. Verse 24. The man who had received one talent also approached and says, “Master, I know you.” Uh-oh. I know you. You’re a harsh man. Goodness. Reaping where you haven’t sown. You gather where you don’t scatter seed. So I I was afraid. I went off. I hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what’s yours. Here’s that one talent back. His master replies, “You evil, lazy servant.” “If you knew that I reap where I haven’t sown, and I gather where I haven’t scattered, you should have at least deposited my money with the bankers and I would I’d have received my money back at least with some interest when I came back.” Take the talent from him. Give it to the one who has 10 talents.

Verse 29. For to everyone who has more will be given, and the he will have more than enough. But from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Throw this good forno servant into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Man, this guy’s situation just goes from bad to worse. The master already knew that he didn’t have the ability to manage five or two talents. He doesn’t even take his opportunity to invest that one talent. And then he when the master comes back, that one talent is taken away. And then this man is placed somewhere he never would have imagined.

When the master comes back, he finds that the one talent servant hasn’t done anything because the one talent servant believes that the master is harsh. See, he’s afraid. That one talent servant claims to know the master better than the others. He claims to have a better understanding of the master. And what he claims to know scares him. And in his fear, he wastes his opportunity that the master gives him.

Man, I’m curious. If you were the master in this moment and you had given your servant something for them to grow while you were gone, what would you have said to the servant? Would you have wanted to sweep it under the rug? Would you have wanted to say, “Nah, man. It I’m frustrated, but it whatever. It’s okay.” Would you have gone off even worse? The master when he finds this one this one servant who doesn’t do a thing with his money, he looks at him and he calls him evil, lazy. He looks at him. He says, “You are good for nothing. You’re bad. I can’t do anything with you. You at least could have done the bare minimum. You didn’t even do the bare minimum for me. If you knew me, then you would have at least done the bare minimum. If you knew me, you would have at least tried. If you knew me, we wouldn’t be here.”

See, here’s the deal. That servant that was only given the one talent, he did not know his master. If he did, he’d at least do the bare minimum. But he doesn’t know the master. So, he doesn’t live for the master’s purpose or the master’s desires. And if he’s got a servant that’s not going to live for his purposes, the master is not going to tolerate. The master takes his stuff away and casts that servant into a place of weeping and darkness.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses that language, place of weeping, nashing of teeth, outer darkness. That’s not a slight reprimand. That’s not an HR infraction. That’s not a spanking by mom and dad. This is eternal punishment. It’s hell. In the context of the parables, whenever Jesus mentions a place of weeping and darkness, nashing of teeth, He’s not talking about a place you experience as a temporary consequence. He’s talking about an eternal place. That’s what happens to the servant that is faithless.

to the task. So let’s make some major observations and start with the servants. You see in this parable that each of the servants were meant to serve the will of their master. And when the master came back, they were called to account for what they had done. They had a job to do. They weren’t just supposed to sit on their behinds and twiddle their thumbs. They were supposed to be about the master’s business.

And each of the servants had varying levels of ability. One, we know he had the ability to manage five talents, tons of money, more than some of us will ever make in our lifetime. Another servant was only held to the ability to manage two talents. Super successful. One servant, the final one, he was known to only be able to manage a little bit of money. They were each held to the accountability of their own ability, and their servants, their destiny was decided by their decisions, not the whims of the master.

When the master comes back, you don’t get an idea that they think what’s happening is unfair. They recognize they have earned what’s going on. It’s their own decisions. It’s how they use their time. It’s how they stewarded their opportunity that determines where they go. Two of the servants enter into the master’s joy. They were put over a few things. Now they’re put over a lot of things. One of the servants is not placed in a position of joy. He is put in a place of punishment and torment.

So that’s the servants. So let’s look at the master. This master has total authority. The parable begins. If you look at verse 14, it’s a man about to go on a journey. He called his own servants, entrusted his possessions to them. And then when he comes back, he’s the one that makes an accounting. And he’s the one that doss out all of the rewards. He is totally in charge. He’s the judge. He is the executioner. The master is totally in control. And he knows His servants’ abilities.

He looks at the five talent servant and says, “Hey, I’m going to give this guy what he can take care of.” He looks at the two talent, says, “I’m going to give this guy what he can take care of.” He looks at the one talent and says, “Hey, he is the least able out of the bunch. I’m only going to ask him to do what I think he can do.” He knows His servants’ abilities, and He expects those servants to do something with His own stuff for His benefit.

He’s not just saying, “Hey, I’m going away and I feel good. Here’s five talents. Go and have fun.” He’s not looking at them and said, “Hey, it’s been a really good year. Here’s two talents. Go buy your wife some pearls.” No, He’s saying, “Hey, here’s some of my stuff. I’m going to come back. When I come back, I want there to be more of my stuff.”

This master, He rewards the faithful risktaker and He punishes the faithless waster. The one that’s faithful, He commands. The one that is faithless, He condemns. And those that are faithful in little things, the master gives an opportunity to manage big things with.

What’s this mean for us? I’m 15 minutes in. Here’s the deal. You already know it. You just need me to say it. Jesus is clearly the master and we are the servants. In this parable, Jesus is the master and His followers are the servants. Here’s the deal. Jesus is God. Make no bones about it. There is a God. He is holy. He is good. And Jesus is His name.

God created everything. Which means that God owns all things. Jesus owns all things. Psalm 24 verse 1 says that the earth and the fullness are the Lord’s. Deuteronomy 10:14 says that the earth and all the contents of the heavens, they belong to God. Revelation 4:1 says that God is worthy of glory and honor and power because He created all things. Jesus created all things. All things are made by Him and through Him and for Him. Everything you sit on, everything you interact with, everything you grit your teeth against, everything you wish you had, that all belongs to Jesus.

And Jesus’s followers, Christians, we are His servants. Jesus is speaking directly to His disciples here. By extension, He’s talking to Sauldam Baptist Church right now. Jesus isn’t talking to outsiders. This is not an evangelistic message that Jesus is getting, inviting tons of people in. He is looking at the people that follow Him and He’s saying, “I’m the boss. I’m the master. You are a servant.” I do want to say something this morning, though, because it’s not just followers of Jesus that are in the room with us. I believe and I pray that there are folks in the room that do not yet follow Jesus. And what I want you to hear is that there is a God who is absolutely wild about you. He loves you so much that from before time began, before you were a twinkle in your mom’s eye, He set His sights on you in love. He made a plan that He would send His very own Son, Jesus, to come and live a perfect life. A life that you were designed to live but can’t because of your sin. A life that you want to. A life that if you and I are being extremely honest over a cup of coffee, you would say, “Jeremy, I am trying so hard, but I can’t seem to get the darkness and the frustration out of my soul and out of my mind and out of my life.”

Jesus came to live perfectly. He was tempted and tried in every way. Everything you go through that makes you question God’s love for you, Jesus went through already. Jesus went through every single difficult, painful experience you and I could ever go through. He did all that and never once questioned how good God is. Not so that He can hold His perfection over us, but so that He could loan it to us. So that when God looks at you and me, He sees the perfection of Jesus in our place, despite our imperfections, despite our inability to walk with God the way we’re supposed to, the way you want to, God can look at you through the lens of Jesus and see a washed and a cleansed you. That’s the life you want. And when you embrace that message, that’s when you gain freedom. That’s when you gain joy and self-control and gentleness and kindness.

I think some of us, we try to live our lives by just modifying our behaviors and we go to the garden of our life and we just pull up the weeds at the stem and we get confused when the weed comes back. The weed of anger, you just grab it at the surface and for some reason anger comes back. The weed of overeating and gluttony, you grab it at the surface and for some reason that weed comes back. The weed of greed. You grab it at the surface and for some reason that weed comes back and you can’t get the weeds of your life out because you’re not actually dealing with the problem. The problem is not what you see on top. The problem is what’s down below. And Jesus came to change what’s down below. So that your life would look different.

We try to clean ourselves up to approach God, to say, “If I give enough money, if I do enough Bible studies, if I don’t cuss enough, if I’m faithful enough, if I don’t click on those popups enough, then maybe God will accept me.” And that’s not the case. The Bible says that all of our good deeds are dirty to the Lord. All of our perfection, it is so tainted before God. So Jesus came to do all that stuff for you and He came to die for you. That anybody who would embrace this message that a perfect Savior came to live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death on the cross absorbing your consequence for your sin in your place so that God could shower you with His approval with His well-dones.

And after dying on the cross, Jesus was laid in a grave because He really did die. And after being laid in the grave and being there for three days, He rose again so that anybody who would trust in this would have freedom from sin. They would never go to a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, never be in outer darkness, but be in the Master’s joy. That’s what Jesus has secured for you. I tell you, please lay down all the stuff that would be keeping you away from the grace and the love of God. Nothing is worth it. There is no temptation of this world that is worth it. There is no relationship that is worth it. There is no toy or treasure you could ever have. There is no experience you could ever have that will be worth trading for the love of God. And He has offered you that in Jesus. Jesus wants to bring you into His kingdom to make you a servant because He is a master that is good. As you come back to this parable, you look at verse 24, and this one talent servant thinks he knows the master, and man, he’s got it all wrong. And I think some of us view God this way. We view God as harsh. We view God as unfair. We’re afraid of God. We don’t—we desperately don’t want to disappoint God. We don’t believe in God’s faithful and kind and persistent love for us. And because of that, we don’t live the way God wants us to live.

If you knew God, you take risks for Him. If you knew God, then you would not fear His condemnation because on the cross, Jesus said, “It is done.” And the full condemnation for all of your mistakes and all of your wrongdoing and all of your failures were already laid on the shoulders of Jesus Christ, never again to be taken off and put back on you. God does not double punish. He will not punish Jesus for your sin and then go and punish you for your sin as well. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, your sin, your wrongdoing, your consequence has already been punished on Jesus; He will never take that and then put it back on you again. God is not unfair. He’s kind and He’s faithful and He’s persistent in His love. He is a good master that rewards our faithfulness.

So what’s the point? Christians, we steward God’s stuff. We steward God’s stuff. If God created everything, then everything belongs to Him, which means nothing passes through your fingers and stays there. It’s all owned by God. God owns everything. There is not a thing in your life that is yours. God’s just loaned it to you for the few years you walk this earth. Everyone who calls themselves a Christian has been entrusted with God’s stuff to steward for Him.

So let’s talk for a few moments about the difference between stewarding and possessing because I think, man, we have a problem with possession. Stewarding goes like this. Stewarding is managing something for someone else’s benefit. Stewarding means I am going to recognize that this thing is owned by another person and I’m just getting to mess with it for a little bit so that the person that owns it will like it a little bit more. Stewarding comes from a heart of trusting in the master and a desire to be accountable to the master. Stewarding looks at something and says, “This is mine to grow for God.” So when things come into your life, you don’t think it’s for your benefit and you don’t think it’s to grow for you. You know it’s for God’s ultimate benefit to grow for Him. That’s stewardship.

Possessing. Possession is different. Possession means I own something for my benefit. It comes from a heart of wanting to control and feeling entitled about things. Possession means I’m going to look at something and say, “This is mine to grow for me.” Man, God has called His followers to be stewards, not possessors. But man, we are all tempted to possess what God just wants us to steward. God allows something good into your life and you say, “Mine.” At a certain point, we got a—or we—we all look like the two-year-old kid who gets the new trinket. And whenever somebody else starts messing with it, what does that two-year-old say? I’ve got a couple knowing grandmas in the room. What do they say, Donna? What do they say, Linda?

Mine. Mine. Mine.

We like the—like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. And God, our heavenly father, looks at us and He’s like, “It’s not, though. It’s mine. I’ve loaned it to you. You’re just a steward.”

What do we steward? We steward time, talents, and treasures. Let me explain. Every minute of every day God is loaning to you for His purposes. You have time. We all have the same amount of minutes and hours in every week. It’s just a matter of what are you going to do with it. We all have time that God is loaning to us. We all have talents. Now I’m actually using it in the—like America’s Got Talent. You can do things that other people can’t do, surely that I can’t do. And you were given those talents and those skills and those abilities not just for you to make a name for yourself, but for you to serve others in the name of Jesus. And you’ve been given treasure. Some of us in the room, man, y’all are—I’m not going to say us. Some of y’all are five talent people. You, man, y’all can take wealth and just grow it. Everything you touch starts making money. I’m sitting down a month ago with the guy and I look at him and I say, “You can literally turn dirt into money. I I can’t do that. Some of us literally have been given the ability, it seems like, just to make money just appear. You’ve been given that ability. Some of us though, I mean, all of us though, we’ve all been given some amount of money. We’ve all been given time and talent and treasure.

Let me break it down a little more clearly. We’ve all been given vehicles, vocations, relationships, homes, hobbies, skills, and the purpose of all those things is to serve God and His purposes. Man, when I think about using a vehicle for God’s purpose, I’m thinking about Rich and Christa Brandon bringing tons of kids to our church on Wednesday nights. It’s like every Wednesday night, they got a new child with them. And I’m like, man, how how are these kids coming here? And they’re like they’re from our neighborhood and they hop in our car on our way to church. Man, that’s using a vehicle for God’s purpose.

I think about a job. I think about Brian Bevans using his ability to do home remodeling, specifically security, to help a single mom in our area a few months ago. I’m thinking about relationships like Mr. Billy Platt sharing with me the other day how he was coming back from Charlotte down to Charleston, remembers he’s got a buddy that lives in Walterboro and says, “I I’m supposed to go to that guy and share the gospel with him.” So, he calls Al on his way. Al gives him some pointers. Billy ends up at that guy’s house and is sharing the gospel with him.

I’m thinking about how God has given you a home for His purpose. Like how Owen Braxton housed a down-and-out buddy for some length of time just to bring that buddy into church to help that buddy get his life straight for a season. I think about how God has given you hobbies for you to be able to serve God’s purposes like our incredible kitchen team that made an awesome breakfast this morning so that people could gather and share stories. Without the kitchen team making breakfast this morning, I don’t get to hear about Clyde Benton testifying to God’s grace in his life and transforming him for who he once was to who he now is. Clyde, without that hobby being used, I don’t get to hear that.

Without your skills, we don’t get to be all of who we are supposed to be. Without God blessing Sunny Morris with the ability to make things out of wood and just be great at carpentry, then we wouldn’t have some of the stuff that we get to enjoy here with our facilities. God has given you things to steward for God’s purposes. Every dollar you touch belongs to God. Every minute you spend belongs to God. Every ability you can employ belongs to God. Every fiber of your being belongs to God. Nothing you own is actually yours. It is all God’s. And He is going to call us to account for how we steward the stuff He’s given us.

The master is returning. We don’t know the day or the hour, but one day Jesus will return and He will say, “What did you do? What’ you do with that car I gave you back in 2026? What’ you do with that land in that house you got to bought you got to buy? What’ you do in that relationship with the non-believer? The person that was far from the Lord I kept crossing your paths with.”

Why does God entrust us with anything at all? Could it be that God has a grand purpose and a mission for the world? Could it be maybe that Jesus told us one day about what His great commission is for us? Could it be that we’ve already been given our marching orders as God’s servants and we know exactly what we’re supposed to be doing until the time He either returns or calls us home? He has.

Man, we get so wigged out thinking, God, what is your will for my life? And I feel like God is like looking at the Bible and saying, “Hey, man. I wrote that down 2,000 years ago. Your My will for your life is that you would make disciples of all nations. That you would baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. You would teach them to obey everything I’ve told you. My Will for your life is that you would be a blessing to your community. That you would be salt and light so that people around you would be preserved and that they would come to know Me as Lord and Savior. My will for your life is that you would love Me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. You would love neighbors as yourself. My will for your life is that you would be about My glory and My business until I return. So don’t waste it. Don’t squander it. You don’t know. You don’t know when that second date on your tombstone is going to be written. You know the first date. We get a date, a dash, and a date. You don’t know that second date. It’s coming. What are you going to do? How are you going to spend the dash? The Master is coming. Will you use what God’s given you while there’s still time? Here’s the deal. Jesus wants you to take some faith-filled risks. A day is coming when your opportunity to glorify God by using His stuff to help other people believe will come to an end.

When I die or when Christ comes back, I’m out of a job. My opportunity to preach the Bible, to preach the gospel is done. A day is coming when you as a priest to your family, a shepherd to your community will come to a close. Man, if you want to steward God’s stuff for God’s purposes, would you join me in a prayer of dedication? You can read it real quick before you pray it out loud. I’m not trying to hook anybody in anything. I’ll read it for us. It says, “God, what’s mine is yours. I’m sorry for thinking what’s yours is mine. Free my heart from possessing anything and help me to steward everything for Your glory and the good of others.” Amen.

Man, if you want to dedicate just your week, your paycheck, your life, your stuff to the Lord, will you join me in praying that? Pray it out loud with me. God, what’s mine is yours. I’m sorry for thinking what’s yours is mine. Free my heart from possessing anything and help me to steward everything for Your glory and the good of others. Amen.