Double Or Nothing | Pastor Micah Berteau | Parables Series

which is all about soils. Week two, parable of the persistent widow. And now today we are getting into the parable of the talents. One of my favorite ones, but also one of the longest parables, Jesus taught. Remember, parables are things Jesus' stories and illustrations Jesus used to unveil the kingdom of God and how the kingdom works. These are secrets to the kingdom, if you will. And so we're gonna go to Matthew 25. Now it's one of the longest parables. So if you're asking me, are we gonna abbreviate it? No, you spent your hard-earned gas money to get here. We gonna read the whole dang thing. Yeah, we read in the Bible today, half of Matthew 25 basically. 14 through 30 are the verses. Let's read this amazing story together. Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants. He entrusted money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, one bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. Well, the servant who received the five bags, he went to invest it and he earned five more. The server with the two bags of silver, he went and he worked and earned and got two more. But the servant who received the one bag,

he dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. After a long time, the master returned from his trip and he called them to give an account. That's important. He called them back together to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant of whom he entrusted the five bags, he said, came forward. He said, master, you gave me five to invest. I earned five more for a total of, ooh. We gotta go back to school. Of course, 10. The master was full of praise. You ever heard this statement? Well done. Good and faithful servant. It comes from this parable. You have been faithful handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward, the master, you gave me two. I came back with two more for a total of, yeah, you rocking with me now. The master said, well done, good and faithful servant. Same response. You've been faithful with handling this small. I'm gonna give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. We're learning something with God right there.

You've been faithful in that. I'll give you this. That's a really, really cool understanding of God. How do I get that extra? You've been really good at this. God's got this waiting. But you gotta be good at handling this, at what you do have. So he does that for the two. Now, the story turns a little bit, poor guy. The servant with one bag of silver. Master, I knew you were a harsh man. He's making some crazy claims. Harpsing crops, you didn't plant gathering crops. You didn't cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money. So I hid it in the earth. Look, here's your money back. But the master reply, you don't cross Jesus like that. You wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops, I didn't plant. Gathered crops, I didn't cultivate. Why didn't you deposit my money? I at least could have got some interest on it. Then he ordered, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10. To those, this is huge. To those who use well, what they are given, even more will be given and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing,

even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and ashing of teeth. 'Cause Jesus always knows how to land the plains awfully. He said, to close out this story, you might go to hell. (laughing) This is the one bag of silver guy, yeah, it's so, yeah. This is a story and an illustration. Jesus broke down beautifully. Now we worked on the soil week one. We worked on the persistence last week. But now we're arriving in a whole different place. That you have life, but it matters how you live it. You might not realize that every decision matters. It's a weight and everything, how you navigate. The family you build, the marriage you have, the business, the things that you plug your life into, the way that you conduct your even affairs and like that matters to God. So you can't live flippantly. God said, I am intentionally, that are kingdom results, by the way. God-centered results, not just self-centered results, 'cause we're good at that. God-centered results. So here's my sermon title for you today. Double or nothing. Yeah, double or nothing. God be with us over these next few minutes. We pray as your word goes forth, we are changed.

God, I pray it builds us, encourages us, convicts us, and it does exactly what it needs to do, makes us more like you. Let us understand more of your kingdom from this parable. Thank you for your word, in Jesus' name. Come on everybody, say amen. Amen, amen, amen. Come on, let's jump right into it. We're gonna get right to work with this. This is like walking into the gym and going right to the squat rack. You know what I'm saying? Anybody like leg day? You like leg day? You don't skip leg day? I skip leg day for the glory of God. I happily skip it. This is one of those scenarios where Jesus kind of just says, I'm gonna tell you a long story and it's gonna be a leg day story. Now here's what I need to let you know. He said, I'm gonna lie on the three servants up. He said, this is not just me giving the money to the five, the two, the one. Three servants lined up, five, two, and one. It is money, but this is not a money parable he's trying to get at. It's a bigger word. The word is stewardship. Someone say stewardship.

Stewardship is how do you handle what is not yours? How do you manage what is not yours? Now you might be looking around be like, well, it's all mine. Have you ever driven a rental car? Yeah, I know, it's a bad memory, you know. But like for the most part, we're, I've driven a ton of rental cars. I'm very safe. Come on, how many know in your own car? You speed, not in a rental car. Why? Because you're treating it different because you know that you're not the owner. In areas you're the owner, you'll make more mistakes. But if you understand that you are the manager of what that, this thing is you'll realize I'm a little bit more careful because I'm not over this. And so this is stewardship. Stewardship is the understanding that I'm the manager, God's the owner. So he arrives, he says, I'm gonna line up my three servants. I'm gonna give one five. I'm gonna give one two. I'm gonna give one one. Now this creates a little bit of a conundrum. If you're, if you're, if you're like me, you know, I would not want to be the one bag of silver guy. You know what I'm saying? Like you're sitting there watching your friends, watching your folks, your people get five two and you're gonna get one.

You ever get picked blasting dodgeball? You know what I'm saying? Like it's that moment. You're like, this is horrible. This is horrifying. They're seeing that I'm not super gifted. They're seeing that I'm not starting like they're starting, but here's the revelation we need before we jump into this talk. It's not that God was okay with just giving them one and them staying at one. You don't need to see one as one. He said, I gave you one, but I didn't want you to return the one. I wanted it to be returned in a bigger number. So some of you are so upset that it's one, but God said it was never meant to stay one. It was your problem for you to think to yourself, I only got, but God said, that's how you started. That's not what I'm concerned about. It matters how you finish. What are you gonna do with what God gave you? Now they show up and it says he gave them his money. That's pretty generous. He's gonna give them his money. And here's what I've realized that it had nothing to do with it because previously the servants had nothing before they showed up. 'Cause sometimes the best thing that you could do

with stewardship is to realize you started with zero. And I only got one, well that was a lot better than what you had before God. 'Cause with God you always have more than enough. So you're starting at an advantage, no matter where you're starting with. And so you start there, but what you gotta realize is that it didn't come from you, it came from him. And here's number one for you, it all belongs to God. It all belongs to God. It's not yours. I wanted to name this servant, sermon. It ain't yours. I just thought that would go over, you know, for like just one point though. It's more of just this point. It's not ours. And if we start to get the belief that this life is ours, these kids are ours, that this money is ours, you will wreck in the areas you believe you're the owner in. You become the endo. You become everything in that place. Now, he's your savior, but he might not be your Lord, right? He saved you, but you don't wanna let God lead you. I'm okay with him dying on the cross. I'm not okay with him telling me who to date and who to marry. I'm okay with him dying from my sins. I'm not okay with him telling me how to raise my kids.

I'm okay with him having resurrection life. I'm not okay with him telling me what to do with my money. You see how this works? We want certain things from God. So Jesus felt this pressure to say, like not a pressure to do something, but he just felt the pressure of the culture to say, you know what? We're really bad stewards out here. They don't even know that what they have is not from them. It's from God. So in Psalm 24, one, look at this. The earth is the Lord and what? Everything. Come on, so we'll say everything. And if you say it with whatever you gotta do, realize everything is his. It is not mine, it's his. This money, this family, my brain, my heart. Why? Because you did not bring yourself to life. You did not decide one day that you wanted to live. God had to come along, knit you together in your mother's womb, that way before you were ever a thought, you were a plan in the heart of God. He knows you, he loves you, but he called you into life. He's given you the breath, your breathing today. So stop for a moment and realize it. If I don't have God, I'm not here.

So everything must be his. It must, and if he wants me to continue living, 'cause he could have had me in the 80s, but he has me now. He could have had me in the 1800s. I have people that would be watching the old movie. I just, but I belong in a different era. No, you don't. Welcome to the era you belong in, because this is the era God put you in. So either wake up to the era you're in, or you're going to absolutely be, just struggle on the struggle. You're just gonna struggle through this era, because you're like, I don't know. I just don't wanna get along with the times. Everything's just evil. Well, we need you to be righteous in this evil time then. Play that part. Walk in that role. Do what you gotta do. And understand it all belongs to God. My body belongs to God. My next decision belongs to God. I am stewarding it. I am the manager. God is the owner. Have you ever had a management job? I did. I used to work in almonds, which is a crazy thing to admit, but there you go.

Almonds say they would sell almonds, and I would be the manager. I was the marketing manager. And I remember, I felt like at times I had my own staff, and I felt like at times I had my own money. And it's called a budget, right? Like, I got my own staff. I got my own budget. But whenever the owner walked in the room, how many know? I straightened up real quick. It wasn't my staff. It's your staff. It's not my money. It's the owner's money. And some of us have been functioning in rooms too long, where God's not been a part of it. And you have believed that you are running your own budget. You got your own employees. You got your own future. But friends, you get the owner back in the room, and you realize real quick, he can do a lot more and a lot less time. Come on, he can give you favor in places that you're frustrated in. He can open doors that have been locked for years. He can touch it one time and watch God make a miracle out of what was something in your life that gave you hell. Because at some point in your life,

you have to realize it's better for you to be a manager. And that's how we begin stewardship. Realizing that if it's not mine, let me consult the owner before I make a decision about it. Before I go, before I do, even with our money, we get weird, right? We act like we serve El Chippo. Come on, we used to have El Shaddai, oh, my God. What are you talking about? We out here be like, I can't give. What? What if God just told you that one day? I got God's like, well, I can't give either. Thank God he doesn't function at the same character level we do. He's a good father. But at some point, you're going to have to break open and break through. I'm not just talking about money now, so I'm going to use a word that you think is going to be attached to money, but it's way bigger than money. It's a spirit. It's called a poverty spirit. It's a lack of everything. It's not even just a lack of money. It's just a lack of you giving your resource, lack of you giving your time. It's a lack of you giving energy to the kingdom. It's a lack of you praying for the kingdom.

It's a lack of you caring for what the house of God wants to do. You want to live your kingdom and get God's blessing. God says, I need you to be about my kingdom if you really want my blessing. That means every business you-- That's the level we gotta get to. And it gets hard, so Jesus teaches this, it says hey, guys, you're thinking about you too much. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to me, and this is what it's okay, Pastor, what am I stewarding? Can I help you with stewarding? What am I stewarding? What am I managing in this life? Three things, time, talents, treasures. You're managing time, talents, and treasures. You're stewarding these things. Now, sometimes we're really good at like two of the three. And here's what he's saying. You're not just stewarding them. That doesn't mean you're just handling them. Are each one of these things wrapped and drenched in the kingdom of God? Is your time and everything that you do with your time builds around the kingdom of God? Well, I just have a really busy schedule. If God isn't in every step of it, then what's the point of it? I'm just at a ball field. What matters about that?

You kidding me? What an opportunity. Well, you have parents. I was just, I've met many of them every Saturday for hours. What an opportunity. I got parents sitting next to me for hours. I'm thinking about how my son can run a kid over, or I'm like, hey, what you doing tomorrow? 'Cause you have to watch my kid. I'm gonna let you know about who God is. Because I'm gonna manage my time with the kingdom of God, and my talents. Listen, we get a lot of people that sign up. Pastor Tabari knows this. They wanna sing on our house worship team. I feel like there might be even some people out here that might wanna be the new face, Pastor Tabari. They wanna be the new face of house worship. And they wanna be on Spotify, just them, just their face. Now, the problem is this. Not that you're not sweet, not that you're amazing, but you can't sing. (congregation laughing) You just can't sing. And so, at some point in your life, Mom told you that you sound amazing, baby, and you took that as, let's go try out for the voice. (congregation laughing) You know, and we've had people, this is the church, right? This is the church.

Can we be real for a second? We've had people come into our context and because they didn't get platform in a short amount of time, they went to a smaller church to find the platform. The problem is they're searching for platform, not purpose. And there's a pivot there. So we struggle with this and we're not using our talents, our giftings wisely because maybe your gifting wasn't singing. Maybe that was your joy. Not your gift. That's different. I enjoyed playing football, but it wasn't my gift to play it in the NFL. At some point, you gotta get real with yourself. I'm 5'10" and white. I'm not making it out in those streets. (congregation laughing) Self-awareness will take you so far in life. Let me just tell you real quick. Some of y'all are trying to do what you're not gifted to do. Help me preach this. You are not gifted to do that. Stop it. You're not gifted to. I just feel like I'm supposed to. People are like, man, I'm gonna do it. And I'm just like, I don't know.

Maybe you should get some accountability. Maybe you should ask some more questions. You do have a gift. Part of it is identifying what it is. But the other part of it is this. Some of people just want the results of a good gift without cultivating their own. In a social media day and age, we see everybody's results, but nobody's journey. So we want the results without the practice. We don't wanna spend the hours. I'm not saying you can't sing ever. I'm saying you haven't been working all at enough. So that's exactly what Jesus is teaching. You're not stewarding your own gift. Steward your gift. Like, I met some business people that are brilliant. They can put A plus B plus C. Don't grab an X over here. They'll grab a Z. They'll grab an M and they'll put it all together and they'll have this beautiful tapestry. And I'm like, what are you looking at? And how did you do that? And they'll build a Fortune 500 company. And I'm like, how did you? There's a gift. But if you ask them about their journey, they've been working on it since they were young. There is no overnight success.

It takes 20 years to be an overnight success. What are you doing right now with the gifts God's gift and you is what he's asking us? Right now, like right now. So yeah, we got time. Then I'm like, I'm stewarding them, but by the time we're good at what we're-- My question is, who is the center of what you've built? Is it you or is it him? Because God needs to stay the center of all of it. And then it gets to your treasure. You don't have to be talking about my money. You're like, no, we can see who you serve if we just check your bank account. 'Cause at some point you gotta realize he doesn't want to be uninvolved. God wants to be a part of your life, and that should thrill you. That should excite you. That God wants to be invited in to the personal places of our life. But you have to have the revelation that what? It all belongs to God. It belongs to him. It belongs to him. It's not mine, it's his. So what are you doing with what he gave you? So he lines the five, he goes to five, he goes two, and he goes one, and then he disappears. God.

And didn't Jesus do this? Right? When he ascended to heaven, David blamed that thing, like just floated up to heaven. And he said, hey, by the way, I'm not gonna leave you on your own, I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna give you the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for that. Now we have the Holy Spirit that's with us, but here's the thing. You no longer get Jesus in physical form, right? Like when you pray, you don't get long hair flowing, robe, Jesus, show up in your robe. If you do, call the cops, you know what I'm saying? (congregation laughing) 'Cause this is not gonna happen. You know, here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna get the power of the Holy Spirit in your room. Like that's what's gonna happen. So you don't get physical Jesus everywhere that you go. He went, he went on a trip. He's at the right hand of the Father, and he's coming back soon, but he's at the right hand of the Father. So here is this placement now. We are living life. It's not like we can look around. Well, there's Jesus, no, no, Jesus isn't here. The Holy Spirit is. But Jesus is, it's like Jesus is the Holy, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But physical Jesus, sandals on his feet, Jesus. Flowing hair, Jesus. He's at the right hand of the Father and joined his life. But man, we got the power of the Holy Spirit right here. So okay, what do we do with this information? How do we go from here? We now have this scenario of what he built. I'm gonna give you something, and I'm gonna go away, and I'm gonna come back, and I'm gonna see what did you do? In the five, he worked and earned. Turned five into 10, baller. Two, the same thing. Two into four, baller. One, we'll get to him later. But here's what it lets me know. Number two, I'm called to be productive. You would have never phrased it like that, but when Jesus broke this parable out, I said, oh my goodness. He's actually telling us, or calling. Here's where we mistaken this. You think you're calling as a destination. I think it's productivity. Because if you think it's a destination, you'll wait your whole life to get there and never be productive. But if you're called to be productive, you will wake up on Monday morning saying, well, what are we gonna do with the day that the Lord has made? For he has made this day, I will shout it.

I'm gonna give God praise in it. I'm not gonna waste a day God's made. Preductive people end up in the purpose of God. So he's called you to be productive, which is five to 10, two to four. Now, I'm gonna tell it like it is, because this is a revelation right here of a sin that we don't talk about. There's a sin he's after, there is a sin. It's called the sin of maintaining. The sin of being unproductive. Pastor, can we get more than just the parable of the talents with that? Absolutely. Remember, Genesis, God made humans. He shaved them. Some a little more curvy than others, you know what I'm saying? He shaved all these little humans. One's gonna be a pole, one's gonna have some curvy, and he said, get on out there, live life. But what do you say? Be fruitful. The first call of humanity. He didn't say, man, you look good. Go out there and do you, boo. Go make that money and make it rain. Stupid, you didn't do any of that. He looked at him and said, be fruitful. What do you say? Produce something.

Do something. You ever see that meme where he's holding the stick Christians sometimes. Just like, is he alive? I mean, I gave him a lot to work with. He's still complaining about how he was raised. He's still complaining about the lack of opportunities. He's still complaining that he didn't get a handout and his friend did. Does he not realize what I gave him was not what I gave them. And until he sees it, he's going to be stuck in a rut. God gave you enough to be fruitful, multiply. First call of humanity ever. So when we're not, it's called the set of being unproductive. Crazy, right? Crazy that there is a sin of maintaining. I can get to the one in a second, but just think about it like this. The one didn't even lose his stuff. He just didn't use his stuff. It would have been worse if he lost it. I had one, came back with zero. Fired, do you know what I'm saying? No, he said, "I had one, and I came back with one." You wicked and lazy. I was watching the, I was listening to a podcast the other day. It was a young podcaster. And he came out and said, about Matthew 25 about this parable, he had the audacity to come out and say, "It was fine. It was good until this moment." And he said, "You know, if you want to be more productive, you just got to stop being lazy. You know what? Lazy is too harsh. You just got to start trying hard." Or he says something like that. And I said, "Lazy is too harsh. You just call Jesus harsh, because Jesus is the one who used the word lazy." That some of us sometimes need to hear that we're being a little bit lazy and so married. So let me just tell you real quick, the area that you're probably struggling and sin the most is probably the laziest area of your life. It has the, you're probably lacking a little bit of discipline in that area. You've lacked that authority to apply, to try, to pray, to believe. God forbid you wake up and you read the Bible when you don't feel like reading the Bible. God forbid you pray when you're a little bit weary and a little bit tired and big going through a little things and you haven't seen God come through, but you're going to pray anyway. God forbid you have to do that. No, your emotions are not always going to line up, but your God is always going to be true. So I have to say the emotions, you are terrible leaders, but you're going to be really good servants. You cannot lead me, but I do need you. I don't want to be a dry robot, but I cannot maintain. I have to be fruitful, produce something from your life, build the business, make it as big and wide and large as you can. Why? Because

when I get to heaven, I want to show God I built the kingdom with it, not my own sand castle kingdom. I built the kingdom of God with it. Build it, have the family. Look, look around, be like, man, you know what? I'm not sure if I should get married and have because everything that I've seen. Who cares what you've seen? I know that's like, oh, don't don't, you know, like you should care. I do, but what I'm trying to tell you is you've cared too long and it's hindering you. Can I just be real and be a coach for a second? Some of you are still stuck because you're still offended about something that nobody else is concerned about. It's time to forgive and move on. It happened to you, but it doesn't have to stop you from achieving the goal that God has for you. I know it hurt, but let the hurt turn into a testimony and let God use you in a mighty way. Don't get stuck on that stuff. Be productive. Be productive. Get up tomorrow morning. Be productive. I'm not saying like, oh, pastor, I'm in between jobs right now. Too shallow. I'm going deep. I'm going deep into what you believe in life. Do you really believe in life that you're called to be, hey, I'm calling, I'm heading out the tail. Okay, you can't just say amen on a Sunday morning when someone says you're the heading out the tail and then you go act like a tail all week. I'm gonna see myself out on that one. If you're above or not beneath, stop acting like you're underneath. You're not under it. You're over it. Come on in the name of Jesus. Be fruitful. Multiply. You are God's multiplication planned to the world. Get in that business. Be the best employee. Why? Why? Just for cardinal reasons. No, because you're a living, breathing testimony of God. Like, that's why. And you want to show the goodness of God through everything you do and sometimes you can't say it sometimes you're So that's the beauty of being productive. Well, I just, you know, there was five, and there was two, and there was one. I just didn't get enough. Comparison will kill you right in your tracks, right where you're at. Steve Jobs was at an Apple showcase in 1997. Now this was before Apple really blew up. Microsoft, in that day, was the big monster of the day.

They were the heavyweight giant. He gets up at an Apple showcase, he jumps. Apple showcase. He puts, he puts Bill Gates and Microsoft on the screen. He puts them on the screen and says, hey, now everybody in the room's like, oh no, no, no, that's the end, that's the competition. What do we do with? Why would you put him on the screen? And he's trying to make a point. He said, for Apple to succeed, we do not need Microsoft to fail. He said, for Apple to succeed, we need Apple to be really good at what Apple does. He was preaching. You know what he was preaching is you're so concerned about somebody else that you're not stewarding you. You don't need anybody else to fail for you to succeed. God is, you think God is that small? You think God has to reduce somebody else to increase you? God said, I'm the God of the universe. I own everything, I can increase everyone that I put my name on at the same time. Don't worry about the economy. Don't worry about what's going on in the world. He's the God of increase. He's the God that's in charge of everything. And so you're over here trying to figure out, well, how's God gonna do it? I'm just, I'm not sure if he's gonna, does he know?

I don't know if he knows. There's an oil thing going to gas, does he know gas prices? Let me just tell him about that damn gas price. Stop. Stop. You're telling God every reason why he can't. God's over here like, listen to him. If you think gas prices are gonna stop him, you tapped into the wrong oil. Help me, Jesus. Help me, Jesus. You got the wrong oil. You thinking about, that was Pentecostal. Okay. (congregation laughing) But here's why. You can't look to the left or right. I need them to increase. I need the five to come down. I need to feel better about what I have. I said, no, I gave you what you have. I gave you what you have produced. You know what stops us fear? Let me just tell you real quick, fear barriers your gift. So this is the short conversation I'm gonna have about the one. It's not gonna be long. Why did he do it? Matthew 25, 25.

He tells us why he did it. Why would you, why would you take what God gave you and do nothing with it? We're sitting here saying, what a ridiculous notion but how real is that for us? It's pretty real if you actually think about it. Matthew 25, 25, look at this. I was afraid. You got so fearful that you just didn't do it. You were so afraid that you stopped. I was afraid to point this church but I did it anyways. Some of you were afraid to get married but you did it anyway. Some of you were afraid to raise kids because you didn't know how you never had a good model but you did it anyway. Sometimes you need to do it nervous. Sometimes you need to do it fearful. See, faith doesn't mean the absence of fear. Faith means I'm facing fear and I'm saying I choose God anyway. Fear is not the removal of Goliath. I got a rock and a sling. So put it back out 'cause it's not done because I'm about to give you class 101 on why you're not moving at the pace you need to be moving at. Are you ready? It's actually in the next three words. I was afraid I would lose. That's why you're not moving.

That's why you're not building. That's why you're not stepping. I was afraid I would lose. I thought I would lose. I thought I wasn't gonna work out. I thought I wouldn't go to play. I just thought friends you have to break the spirit of fear over your life and start to steward your time, your talents, your treasures according to God's plan, not your feelings. If you're afraid that you'll lose, you're in good company. We've all felt it. But the God who gave it to you is the God who will sustain it for you. So if you have God on your side, let me say it like this. You have nothing to lose because you didn't give it to you in the first place. If it came from him, you're not actually losing it. Everything that you thought was a loss was an investment in investments in the kingdom of God always come back what? And the soils, I'm going back to the soils, 30, 60, 100. And it does that. So all of a sudden, he looks at the one, he says, "You didn't manage the little well." The other two, five and a 10, two and a four, fantastic. But here's the problem with you. I now have to give you the punishment because you chose to live a life without me.

You chose to live a life of maintaining, of mundane, compromised life. And you chose no Jesus, no spirit. But can I just declare to you today, why would you live in fear when this whole parable is about this? That he's coming back soon. Why live in fear if you know? The whole parable is this. There's a man going on a journey who is going to come back and you're gonna have to give an account. But the good news is this, he's coming back. So I'm here to tell you, why are you so anxious? Why are you so depressed? So concerned, so worried, so heavy, so oppressed? Why are you living this way? When you know God's gonna come back one day and all those fears are gonna go away realizing that I'm a child of God. Man, he's coming back. Yeah, this family is his. Man, he's coming back. Yeah, my life is his. Who cares about money at that point? He's coming back. He's not saying to be a bad steward. He's saying, get a right revelation. He's coming back. And if he's coming back, it matters on your tombstone.

There's a dash, it matters what I do with my dash. It matters the decisions I make. It matters the people I've run with. It matters the things that I build. It matters, it matters. That's why when I present things like the kingdom of God and we wanna buy land and we wanna expand. I want people to say, yeah, yeah, Pastor, how could I be a part of that? Hey, I wanna do that too, because if time is running out then we got soul's to reach. That should move us. And if it does it, there's something missing. Because he looks at the ones that did produce and he says a statement that is so impacting. Well done. Oh, good and faithful servant. He looks out there and he says, you know what? You did well. Can I just tell you, the ones who will hear well done are the ones that did well. I know that's simple, but I pray it hits you. You're in your did well season right now. Can I just say it to you like this? This is why you have to do well at praising God in valleys. This is why you have to do well at forgiving people and moving on from the offense. This is why you have to do well in looking at giants and being an overcomer and being more than victorious. That's why you have to do well at building a family

and thinking about the next generation. That's why you gotta do well and say, I choose not depression. I choose not fear. I choose to break every generational curse. I choose generational blessing over my life. I choose to do well because I know I got one life. My life is butter vapor. It is short. I don't have time. Time is running out. I gotta do well with this life that I'm living and I choose to give God my best praise called my life. God, I'm gonna do well. God is yours. Can you stand your feet? Stand your feet, stand your feet, stand your feet. Do well. Oh, well done. Good and faithful servant. Not only for those that do well. Those are only for those that sacrifice. Lay their lives down for the what the kingdom of God. That's what this whole parable is. Double or nothing. You either double your life or you end up with nothing. Double it and realize this life is not our own. It's not about me and you. This is not about us. This is about everybody else that's gonna be impacted

by the kingdom and I know we haven't been thinking that way but Jesus had a whole parable to say, stop thinking about you. Start thinking about the kingdom of God. Sit up coming back and you care about gas prices up coming back and you care about what you're gonna eat for lunch, I'm coming back. This is why it gets me fired up 'cause I don't know how many will hear well done. Not well kept, well done. Not as mine, it's yours. Not good job, hoarding. No, I know life was heavy but I saw you before. Servicadee by heads, lift your hands. I just feel the spirit of God in here. Well done, it's what I wanna hear. If you wanna hear well done, yeah, yeah, lift your hands. 'Cause you're in your well done developing right now. Right now is when you're developing, you're well done. If you're still on planet Earth, you're still developing. You're still facing decisions that the enemy is trying to get you to be done with and walk away from God. But that's not gonna be who we are. We're not gonna be done, we're gonna be well done. Good and faithful. Hey, will God be pleased with how you handled that crisis? May God be pleased with how you raised your children. May God be pleased with how you stewarded that business. May God be pleased with the marriage that you have.

May God be pleased with your time, your talents, your treasures, God, we just declare today, it's all yours. God, we take a moment right now. We rededicate some things back to you because we've realized that we've strayed, we've fallen away, we've compared, we've gotten lost in some other things and distractions. But God, today, we are course correcting to realize we wouldn't have anything if it wasn't for the grace of God releasing to us what we have. So God, I pray right now, whatever scenario we're facing that is gonna have implications on our well done. I pray that we face the test, we pass the test. Because one day, God, we wanna hear those beautiful words. Well done. Good and faithful. Serving. With every head bowed, if you need to receive Jesus, I'm not even gonna stay long in this, you know who you are. Time is short, time is short, time is short. Time is running out, he's coming back soon and you wanna play games with your life, don't do it. Don't do it. Give your life to him right now. When I get to three, if you wanna give your life to Jesus, I want you to lift your hands. Ready, one, two, three, lift your hands if that's you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Praise God, I see a lot of so many. You're not sure, come on, if he comes back tonight, you'd be like, you know what, I wanna make sure I gave my life to him. Pray this for I say, Jesus, thank you for your grace. 'Cause I need all of it. Forgive me of my sins. I've fallen short, but thank you for your cross and your resurrection. I choose life today and abundant life and in the name of Jesus, I'm set free in Jesus name. Come on everybody, say amen. Come on up, I'm well done, praise right now. Thank you God. Oh my goodness, may I pray that you were blessed and touched by today. You're amazing, favorite church of the world. The house will always, always be one of the best. You guys have to understand when you go out there, be called by God, be used by God, be anointed by God and watch God multiply in your life. Be fruitful and multiply. Let's read this declaration together before you get out of here. Come on with faith. I believe what God has spoken over my life. His word will not return void. This year will reveal his faithfulness. This year will produce fruit. This year will be filled with miracles.

In his time and by his power. Come on, you do it. And God's gonna do it. Hey, we love you. Man, I better see you next Sunday and the best is yet to come.