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Morning Message Text: Mathew 25: 14-30
The Parable of the Bags of Gold
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more.
17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more.
18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed?
27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “ ‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags.
29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Morning Message:
I felt that I needed to bring a message of thanksgiving and gratitude today. This is my last opportunity to speak to you about this before Thanksgiving Day. I will be away for the next two Sunday’s enjoying time with the southerners in my family. Thankfulness and gratitude is something that we find hard to hang onto; it’s not that we aren’t thankful; it’s more to do with our constant wanting for instant gratification and a mindset that is always thinking about what have you done for me lately. None of us, including myself, will admit to that kind of thinking, but it shows up in the way we live our lives.
Here is a thanksgiving verse that we should all remember and say to ourselves often. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1Thessalonians 5: 18) We normally think of time in terms of past, present, and future. But with every tick of the clock, the present becomes the past, and the only thing we can truly influence is the future. And because much of the future is not under our control, the best way to prepare for it is to develop an “attitude of gratitude” before the future arrives. The only thing that we can ultimately control about the future is our response to it. Whatever happens to us we can respond with thanks when we remember that all things come from God.
When Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, they were thankful to be rescued. But their gratitude soon turned to grumbling in the desert of the Sinai Peninsula. Moses led them into the wilderness instead of directly into Canaan because they would have encountered the war-like Philistines and would have wanted to return immediately to Egypt. There is no indication that Moses explained this detour to the people, and the grumbling continued throughout their forty years of wandering. Now think about this. Moses, or God, should not have had to explain anything to the people. If they had simply remembered that it was God who brought them out of slavery and walked forward with gratitude and trust in their God. The best way to prepare for the future is to commit to trusting God and being grateful for whatever the future holds.
Let’s look at the difference between the faithful servants in today’s scripture and the one who was not. The bags of gold represent all the opportunities God gives people to serve him, including their wealth, reputation, abilities, and learning. This parable warns believers to diligently take everything God has given and invest it for His glory as they await Christ’s second coming. Why do we not do that? There are a couple of reasons that come to mind. First, our faith is weak, and we do not trust that God will take care of us if we let go of what He has already provided. Second, and more to today’s point, we have forgotten all that God has done for us and our thankfulness and gratitude have waned.
Listen to this statement and consider where you are in your walk with Jesus. Faithful servants, regardless of the bounty entrusted to them, use what they have been blest with to extend their master’s influence. This is not all about money, but when I hear that, I am reminded of the widow’s mite. Remember what Jesus said about her? “She has given more than anyone else.” The amount is not important, it is about being thankful, having a sense of gratitude that makes you want to dedicate your whole life to your Savior. The rewards God gives for such faithful service are abundant, out of all proportion to the tasks accomplished. You can never out give God. But that’s not the point. God gives us everything, even the very air that we breath.
Let’s look at this poor servant who got it completely wrong. On the surface it doesn’t look like he really did anything so wrong. He didn’t waste the master’s money; he simply held onto it and made sure it was safe so that he would not lose any ground in his master’s sight. Did he do this out of respect for his master? No! He played it safe out of fear. He didn’t trust his master, and he certainly was not thankful for all that his master had given him. God does not save us so we would live in fear of him. He saves us and entrusts us with the Gospel of salvation so that we might put our whole being into sharing this wonderful gift with others.
I want to give you one more scripture reference. (Romans 7: 24-25): “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We frequently read news stories about people who were saved or rescued from danger: a skier buried in an avalanche; someone rescued from a burning building; a child lost in the woods; and many others. There is no end to the gratitude expressed by those who are saved from such dangers. As dire as such circumstances are, they can’t compare to the salvation from eternal separation from God provided by Christ Jesus. The same dramatic terms we read in news stories—saved, rescued, delivered—can be used to describe the salvation that leads to eternal life for believers in Christ. Ironically, the greatest salvation we could ever experience is one that we sometimes take for granted, one for which we fail to thank God for as often as we should.
Thanksgiving for salvation ought to be a daily practice. The more we recognize what we have been saved from, the more consistently grateful we will be. And remember, don’t miss this very important point. When you are truly thankful you don’t just say it, your actions prove it. If you are unable or unwilling to give yourself back to God in a meaningful way, then the loving, giving, redeeming spirit of God is missing from you. Yes friends, I say it out loud, selfishness, holding on to what God has blessed you with, is not only a lack of gratitude, it reveals something far worse, a soul that has not been redeemed.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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