Parables: Part 3 | The Parable of the Talents | Pastor Alex Himaya

So, thank you so much for joining us. And I look forward to seeing you all next time. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Today in fact turn to Matthew 25 if you got your Bible and let me say this as we start reading this all of chapter 24 and all of chapter 25 are Jesus response to the question his disciples asked in verse 3 of chapter 24 And chapter, you know, there were no chapters and numbers when this was originally written, right? That was added much much later. And so this is one discourse He's with his disciples and they say tell us about the end times When is it coming? And what will it look like and Jesus told back-to-back in succession stories to answer their question about the end times Okay, so with that in mind, we'll pick this story up again meaning like the other stories, right? the kingdom say kingdom Circle that word in your Bible because this is all about the kingdom the kingdom of heaven It can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a really really long Trip he called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone

Does anybody's Bible say something different than money? Yeah, what Goods anybody else Yeah, okay silver talents right the the word talents and so some sometimes we think of this as the parable of the talents meaning like my Talent my ability to sing or speak or teach or whatever. That's not at all the picture. We'll talk about it in a minute He gave five bags a five of silver to one two bags of silver to another and one bag of silver to the last Dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip okay, so you got the context of the story that Jesus is telling and you and I read this story and we think the Hyperbole is in the master giving his servants some money while he goes on Vacation but for them the really crazy part is how much he gave them It says here that he gave them five two and one Bag of silver. That's the New Living Translation. By the way, the word in the Greek can mean silver or Gold some of your translations say silver some of them say gold it can mean either but but the word Is the Greek word to Lento? Which is The origin of our English word talents, which is why this is called the parable of the talents But that English word for talent did not exist when this was written So that's not what it's talking about as talents like what you and I think of but what's really important here is what it refers To and how much it refers to because you and I read this and we think $5 $2 and $1, right? in fact when I was a youth pastor Pat you remember this the The pastor gave to the whole church He preached this message and he gave like, you know Senior adults $5 and regular adults $2 and all the children $1 Distributed all of it. We're not doing that today Okay, but but that's what he did and that day and then he told you I don't remember the period of time nine weeks six Weeks, I don't remember there was some period of time You're supposed to go invest it and see what the Lord will do and then bring it back to the Lord, but but the word refers to a monetary equivalent of 20 years wages

Now in this day and age, that's a lot in that day and age It was crazy because you live day to day nobody had savings back then In other words one bag of silver would take you 20 years to acquire So let's just do the math for a second. Okay to make this easy for you to understand. Let's just pick a round number Let's say that the average salary in and our nation is 50,000 I don't know what it is, but let's just say it's 50,000 because I can do the math with 50,000 Okay, so 50,000 times 20 years equals 1 million dollars So let's take that number and put it into the text and read it into our culture He gave 5 million dollars to one 2 million dollars to the other and 1 million dollars to the last you got it Now imagine if your boss calls you into his office Your parents call you on the phone your neighbor drops by and tells you I'm going on a long long trip And I need your help. Here is a million dollars of my own money Take it do what you want to with it start in a business invest it just use it to make even more Money some of you would love that right you got your little Robin Hood app You're all you know you're doing a little trade here and there or you've got a million business ideas Incubating in your brain and you would jump at the at the chance to get a million dollar seed money For some idea you had others of you would automatically get really really nervous And you would think what if I lose it right or what if I don't make enough money or what if something tragic happens? That's too much money And here's what I want you to see the people in Jesus day who heard this story for the first time felt everything you just felt Right this anxiety around money Money is not a new thing, right? And anytime we hear or read about money in the Bible, some of you, like your butt tightens up and your throat gets a little, you know, like you get a little nervous. Listen, I hear that and I understand that and I want you to relax because this message has nothing to do

with what we want from you. It has everything in the world to do with what we want for you and Jesus wants that for you also. And hidden in this parable, in this kingdom text, are truths that when applied to our lives lead to kingdom living. And he goes on to show how some of these attributes about money, when shifted towards kingdom realities, will lead to having more margin and more generosity in your lives. So before I jump back into the parable, I just wanna lay some groundwork of biblical understanding of things, okay? And particularly money, because that's what this is about. And the first thing that I wanna remind you of is that everything belongs to God. Can we say that together? Everything belongs to God. Psalm 24, verse one says that the earth and everything in it is the Lord's. That's pretty, you know, expansive understanding. The earth and everything in it. As the creator of the universe, he lays claim to everything. And here's the truth. Some of us have a problem with that. We think, wait a minute, I worked for this. I earned this, I made this.

It is mine. But the truth is, it's not. It's God's. In fact, the very strength, very intelligence, very talent, very skill that you have that enabled you to make that were also gifts from God. So not just the thing you earn, but the ability to earn it are all God's. And the next thing we see in scripture is that everything comes from God. Let's say that one together. Everything comes from God. James 1, 17 says every good gift, say every. Every good gift comes from the Father above. Anything you have, you have because God put it in your hands. In other words, we don't claim ownership over it. What we claim is stewardship over it. Like the servants in the story, they did not own those bags of silver, but they were simply stewards of the bags of silver. And the last principle, foundational principle I wanna point out is that everything is distributed by God. Let's read that one together. Everything is distributed by God in the same way that the master in the story got to decide who got what. So does God in his infinite wisdom decide what and how much and what gifts

and talents and resources we get? Remember that word is talento, which literally means a measure. But here's the question I want you to ponder. Who measured it out? The master in the story. And if you're new to Bible, that's God. He's pointing to God. He is the one who measures out our lives and our abilities and our willingness, and then he measures resources back to us to match that. It's his to distribute to whomever he wants, however he wants. And let's be honest, some of us don't like that, right? And we think, you know, I'm good as long as I have more than my neighbor. But if my neighbor has more than me, then I don't like that, right? So with that in mind, let's keep reading the parable and let's pick it back up in verse 15. He then left on his trip. Context, in that day when you went on a trip, you were not gone for a few days. That was not even possible, right? You would be gone weeks or even months. And you did not set a date for when you would get back, right, because you had no idea what would happen with the travel, with the weather, with the business. So on a business trip, you had no idea how long it would take.

And when you got back or started heading back, you would not call in and say, hey, I'm getting ready to come back. There were no phones back then, not even ancient rotary phones. Existed in Jesus' day, right? So the master didn't call up the servants and say, on my way back. And everybody was like, oh, the master is coming quick. Let's look busy, right? That was not possible. You had to stay busy the whole time that the master was gone. Now, I'd already told you this parable is told in the context of Jesus teaching on end times. Meaning what? He's the one who went away and he's the one who is coming back, right? So that is about his second coming in this text. He's been gone a while. Two millennia is, you know, it's a while. And none of us know when he's coming back. Point of the story is you and I are supposed to stay ready. And everything else in this story is all about his expectations of any of us who live in his kingdom until what? Until his return, until he comes again. So look at verse 16. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and he earned five more.

The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and he earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master's money. Now the temptation is to think this guy did nothing, but I want you to see that. Jesus chose those words to indicate the guy did something. In fact, it was hard work what the guy did. And here's what I want you to ponder because some of you are busy, you're just not fruitful. Busy, but not fruitful. Remember, think of each bag of silver as $1 million. Not a dollar, not even $100 or $1,000. If it was $1, it would make sense to put that in your shoe or your pocket or dig a hole and put it in the ground. But this is a million dollars. What could you do with just a million dollars? And the idea that the last servant was just given one bag of silver like he barely had anything at all is not true in the context of the story. He had a million dollars, right? He was given a lot. Now what he had was less than what the other two had in the story, but it doesn't make what he had small by any measure. And here's what I want you to see. What you've been given through God's wise distribution should never be compared to what he gave other people. Amen.

Never. In fact, comparison puts you in one ditch or the other. On one side of the road, you'll become prideful over what you have as you compare to others. On the other side, you'll become depressed and anxious and shamed, right? Neither of those are how the heavenly Father speaks to his children. But here is the point. What you do have, you are responsible for. Look at verse 19. After a long time, say long time. Their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account. Now all of you know that this principle appears all throughout the scripture, right? That one day we will give an account for all things that have been put in our hands, that we've been called to steward, right? So the point is that the master had an expectation that they would use his money. There is an expectation of all of us to do something with whatever it is that God has given us, okay? So look at verse 20. The servant to whom he had entrusted five bags of silver came forward. I bet he did. Your boss ever been out of town and you killed it that week? And he comes back and you're like,

hey, when can I see you in your office? And you walk in, how was your trip? Ask me about my week, right? Ask me about my week, right? He did well, so he's the first one to report, right? You gave me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more. Now watch this. The master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Have you heard that phrase before? Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate this thing together. In other words, you were faithful with a little, so now you will be given a lot. Some of us want a lot to begin with. All of us want a lot to begin with, right? When we were being called by God to come to this church that was dying and had millions of dollars in debt, 120 people dropping like to 80 quickly, I remember saying to God, I think I'm more talented than this assignment, God. And here's what he said to me. Do not despise humble beginnings. Do not despise humble beginnings. And here's what I would say to you to be true. It makes the story way better, by the way. Doesn't it?

It makes the story way, way, way better. We want God to give us something before we're ready to receive something. But we gotta prove we're ready for a lot by being faithful with a little, right? And if we can use what God has given to us, appreciate it, treasure it, and employ it to advance the kingdom of God, then God will advance us in his kingdom. Are you following? Now watch this in the text. Look at what he says. The servant who had received the two bags of silver also came forward. Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest. I've earned two more. The master said, well done. By the way, pay attention. He only earned two. The other guy earned five. They get the exact same word for word for word for word for word result. Don't miss that. My good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in handling a small amount. So now I will give you many more. responsibilities. Let's celebrate this together. But notice this word right here, faithful, right? Notice he did not say hardworking. He did not say good and righteous servant. He said faithful. In other words, this is not about works righteousness. Jesus is certainly not saying if you work really hard you get

into heaven. That does not fit the gospel at all. He says if you are faithful, if you put your whole trust in me and from that faith begin to put your salvation to work. Watch and see what happens. I'm gonna come back to that but before we do let me finish the story because now we turn the corner to the part that makes this the most difficult to interpret of all of the parables and it also makes it hard to read. The servant with one bag of silver came and said, master I knew you were harsh, harvesting crops you didn't plant, gathering crops you did not cultivate. That word harsh can mean cruel by the way. And the context of Jesus telling this story is Herod the Great has died. He's appointing his sons Herod over. They jump on a boat and go to Rome to politic and say make me in charge. The Jews got on a boat also and went to Rome saying don't make these guys Herod the ruler. This is the context. And so Jesus is referring to, they know this, that a king like Herod is not a good guy. He was the type of guy who would steal from hard-working people. So again Jesus is shocking them by comparing God to some evil king. But remember everything is owned by God. Now look at verse 25. I was afraid. Circle that in your Bible. Say that word. That all by itself keeps believers from multiplying all the time. The fear of man according to scripture is a trap. God did not put in you a spirit of fear but of sound mind of discipline right. He didn't give you fear. Fear is not from him. I was afraid. I was afraid I would lose your money so I hid it in the earth. Look here is your money back. The story by the way is a little out of sync of today's economics and certainly out of sync with the economics in that day. If you ask any financial advisor they will tell you that an 100% return is virtually impossible on any investment right. The best you can count on over time is 8 to 10 percent per year. So when you see this guy that took this little bag of silver and he buried it so that no one could get it on the surface it actually feels smart. But the problem is remember when the master handed out the money what did he say was the reason that he gave each of them five two and one. Let me let me take you back to it. He divided in proportion to their abilities. In other words he knew what each of the servants was capable of and the servant did not live up to those

expectations. So what happens in the story? Well look at verse 26. But the master replied you wicked and lazy servant if you knew I harvested crops crops I did not plant and gathered crops I did not cultivate. By the way look at this he's not agreeing with what the man said. He's simply repeating what the man said. Which the application of which is is your perception of God is no excuse in the end. I thought God was harsh. I thought God was cruel. I thought God more than he gave. All of those are false and that false perception will not be an excuse in the end. In fact what he says is this is so important. The master said you could have put it in the bank and earned some interest. Well guess what? As I studied this here's something I found to be true. The law says that charging interest is a sin. And you know what the rabbinical tradition of the day says that if you're given some money the best thing the smartest thing you could do with it is to dig a hole and bury it. In other words in this story Jesus is going against all tradition. And there's another hint about how many bags that they get in the scripture. And by the way several of you asked me over the the last several months of how do you know how to get into the Jewish culture. Let me just tell you the question that you ought to ask yourself when you read the Bible over and over and over again. Why do I need to know that? When there's something in there that you're like why is that detail in there so specifically? Why did Jesus in this case say five two and one? Well if you understand anything about the Jewish numbers it makes sense to you because it would have been a big red sign for them. Five for the Jew always is associated with the Torah. The first five books of the Old Testament. It's the law. Two is almost always associated with the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. But one was the prayer. They prayed every single day. day. The Lord our God is one every day. The Shema, the most prayed prayer in the history of the world. So the first two servants represent tradition. The last one represents a real thriving relationship with God. And what happens when a thriving relationship with God is buried or worse yet rejected? Well Jesus tells us, look at verse 27. Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I

could have gotten some interest on it. Then he ordered, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. And they will have an abundance from the, 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 gnashing of teeth. That escalated quickly, didn't it? Again, the parable, it was probably meant to shock the audience, but, but what shouldn't be lost on us is the importance of the message. Now to say how you treat your finances is a matter of life and death. Maybe it's taking it too far, but it's certainly not a stretch to say that we need to view our finances through eternity. Everyone who understands finances here on earth will tell you part of the strategy is long-term. It's a long-term vision. It's a long-term investment. And the reason that that strategy works here and now is not because of the 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years you may be on earth. It's because that principle works as you zoom out. You don't just think long-term life. You think long-term eternity. That's the reason this works. And the answer to the question of eternity lies in the reason that the lazy and unfaithful servant was punishment. What his punishment was, right? He was thrown, look at what it says, into outer darkness. He was not thrown into outer darkness because he was poor. He was not thrown into outer darkness because he was not good with money. He was thrown into outer darkness because of, watch this, his response ability. His response ability. His ability to respond. When you think of this parable, I want you to think of the word response ability. The master gave the responsibility of his resources to three guys. The first two took those responsibilities very, very serious. The last one decided not to do anything with it and instead he ends up playing the blame game, right? Which we do in our culture all the time. It's the algorithm of social media. It's for you to compare, compare, compare, right? We live with this instant blame society every time we compare. We can easily find someone to blame for all of our problems. If you're late to work, we blame traffic. Not the fact that you were lazy, didn't go to bed,

didn't set the alarm, and it didn't get up, right? If you don't like your work, you blame your co-workers or your boss, right? If your team loses, we blame the refs. If we get angry with our kids, we blame the kids because they got on our nerves, right? Now, if we do something good, we want to take all the credit, but if something goes wrong, we want to find blame. We want credit for everything and blame for none of it. The only way to fix that problem is to take response ability. Now, go back to the biblical foundation. Everything, say everything, belongs to God, comes from God, and is distributed by God. Once it's distributed, look, it becomes our responsibility. God distributes to us what we are capable of being responsible for. Remember how he divided it up? He divided it based on our ability. We've already said this a few times, but I want you to get this. Here's the deal. We've all been given responsibility by God, and our level of responsibility will change over time. It does change, right? What you're responsible for now is not the same thing that you were responsible before. Think about kids, right? How many of you would say, yes, I'm responsible for way more now that I brought children into this world, right? You had less responsibility when you didn't have any children, right? But your life changes in terms of level of responsibility to other people, right? Some of you are empty nesters, but responsibility has shifted. But now you add an ailing parent who needs you, and now you're responsible for them. But here's the important part to remember. You are judged by your own level of responsibility, not by anybody else's. And that's good news. As a boss, listen, you're not unfair by not promoting somebody beyond their ability. That's honoring. To promote them beyond their ability, what they can't handle, it would not be a kind thing to do to him. The second guy was not deemed lazy because he didn't earn five bags. He earned two, which lined up with his level of responsibility. The last guy didn't and he didn't need to earn two, he just needed to earn one, and his level of responsibility was way less than the other guys,

but he didn't keep up his end of the bargain. And a lot of us want the blessing without the responsibility. We want the corner office without the long hours. We want the nice house without the heating bill. The fancy car without the interest payment, right? But when we accept the blessing, we also accept the responsibility, and we also take what it means to hold onto that treasure we've been given. We call that stewardship. And when I read stories like this, or parables like this, or when we think about the idea of finances, one of the things that comes to my mind, because I live in the culture that you live in, is this phrase, that's not fair. And you can just write this down as a revelation from heaven. Life's not fair. Get used to it. We don't all get the same amount of stuff. Some of us get less and some of us get more, but we will be judged based on what we can handle. And responsibility is our opportunity to make, to join God in making the world right. To participate with him in making the world a better place. And we can use something as worldly and earthly as money to do that. In other words, every dollar that passes through our hands

is a chance to reflect God's generosity. And generous people never say, that's not fair. And the beautiful thing is that we all have this opportunity, meaning this message is not a message for the rich, right? It's a message for everyone. If you've been given anything by God, you've been given responsibility, right? And you can use that responsibility to help others, to spread the kingdom all around the world, to show the lost what it means to follow Jesus, to make your world a little more right again. Now here's what I wanna say to you. This story by Jesus is certainly about money, is certainly about talents, and it's certainly about responsibility. Everything I've told you thus far is a great application to the things that Jesus said. We spent all of our time there on the practical. And I think it's really good, actually. But there's certainly a spiritual application. Verse 30, look back at verse 30 in your Bible. Look back at it, look back at it, look back at it. He used three symbols, metaphors. Outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Church, what are those three things always referring to? To hell, right? To hell. Those three things are always attached to hell. Meaning what?

This story has to mean more than this. That there's an eternal perspective that must be understood. Look, we all know Jesus is the master in the story, right? Raise your hand if you agree with that. Do not raise your hand if you don't, because you will be wrong. Jesus is the master. We all know we're the servants. Raise your hand if you agree with that, right? We all know that we will all give an account, right? All clear. Now here's the thing I've been pondering for the last 48 hours. What is the most valuable thing that God has given us? Salvation is the most valuable thing he has given us. Isn't that true? Think eternity. Salvation is the most valuable thing that God has given us. And by the way, my mind has been racked all week around this, to some this amount, to some this amount, to some this amount, because the culture just hates that. And I'm trying to think through where Jesus, at different times in his teaching, categorized people. And there are a couple of times he did it, a couple of ways that he did it often. One of the ways was the rich and the poor. He did that a lot, didn't he? And he said it's easier for the poor to have faith than it is for the rich. In fact, he said it's easier for the poor

to enter into the kingdom of heaven than it is the rich. In fact, he compared it to the camel going through the eye of the needle. Do you remember that? And so maybe the five, two, and the one, maybe the one is the rich person. He doesn't have as much faith. Because it's easier to faith God when you need. something every day than when all your needs are taken care of. The other way that Jesus categorized people on a regular basis was the humble and the arrogant. He did that all the time didn't he? He gives grace to the humble but he rejects the arrogant. Maybe if you're arrogant you don't faith God as easily. I don't know what all of it means but let me just say this to you. If salvation is the most valuable thing that God has entrusted us with and it's clear in this text that the principle is faithfulness equals multiplication. That's clear. You could take the word faithful out in the text and put in multiplier. If what he's entrusted us with is salvation, the most valuable thing that we have. By the way it can't be anything else because you don't go to hell because you mishandled money. You don't go to hell because you mishandled a talent or an ability. You go to hell because you mishandle salvation. Paul said it this way. We have this treasure, say treasure, in jars of clay. That's what he said. What's the treasure? It's salvation. Paul says it this way in 1st Thessalonians. We have been entrusted with the treasure of the gospel. We've been given salvation. What will you do with salvation? A couple applications. Number one, I want you to multiply your salvation. Jesus expects you to multiply your salvation. Five weeks from today, March 29th, is our next Gospel Sunday. Would you begin praying about and investing in people's lives that you would earn the right to bring them on March 29th and see how he might multiply the salvation he put in you and on you? The third guy did not receive the gift. He rejected it and gave it back. And maybe you're here today and the application for you is you need to

receive God's salvation. Would you pray with me? Every head bowed, every eye closed at every campus. If you're a believer, you're praying for those around you. And if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus to be your Lord and your Savior, I want to lead you in a prayer helping you do just that. And I want to remind you that your view of God, good view or bad view, will never be an excuse. And I just want to declare of you today, he's a good father, a good, good father. And if you want to trust Jesus and give your life to him, I want to lead you in a prayer. I'm going to ask you to pray it out loud after me. You're going to hear people praying out loud at every single campus. But if you want to receive the gift of salvation, would you just pray with me and say, Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. Today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus, would you come into my life to be my Lord, my Savior, my forgiver. In the best way that I know how I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone, Jesus, to save me. Thank you for saving me. If you just prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Welcome to the family of God. Would you take 10 seconds and pray about who God would have you to invest in and invite? And as he lays a name or names on your heart, would you begin to pray for them and pray for an opportunity to reach out to them? Father, use our church to expand the kingdom. In Jesus name we pray. And together we all say, amen and amen. Thank you.