Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today.

Our program will be done, and you can take everything that's been taught this month and do with it as you see fit between you and the Lord. Verse 14 says, For the kingdom of heaven is as. Now remember, we're talking about God's economy.

We're not talking about man's economy or the Earth's economy. God does things different. So you and I need to figure out how God operates. And we need to adapt to that. God does not adapt to us. Everybody agree with that? I'm not saying everybody does that.

I'm saying everybody has to at least agree with that. God does not adapt to us. We are to adapt to God. The kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.

These servants or employees is also translated out this word as a steward. Verse 15, And unto one he gave five talents to another two, and to another one to every man, according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. Likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two.

But he that received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. Notice that phrase in verse 19, After a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliverest unto me five talents. Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Don't you think this guy was figuring it out by now?

You know, getting his case ready. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not straw. And I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is thine. It's amazing he didn't even dig it up and bring it to him. You ever notice that? He said, you know, what you gave me, it's there in the earth. He didn't even dig it up and bring it.

Interesting. Verse 26, His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant. Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to put my money to the exchangers or a bank at least. If you're not going to invest it, at least put it in a bank where it gains at least a little interest is what he's saying here.

To the exchangers, notice this if you can. And then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury or interest. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. For unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away. Even that which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Very simply this morning, this Lord or Master who is pictured in this story as the Lord, as God. He brings his stewards together, his servants, and he gives each of them a different amount. He gives one five talents, one two, and one one. This is going to make your mind easier if you just want to translate it maybe into money. This word talent is interesting because this word talent literally can mean something that is monetary or unmonetary.

It literally means it doesn't have to just be money. It's the principle of something that is given to be used for the Master. It would be like the Master could have this talent could be translated out that he gave this man a plow.

He could grow something for the Master. Same principle and as he does, the Bible says he went to a different or a far country. Where's Jesus now? Well he's in my heart.

I know that. But he's at the right hand of the throne of God. He went to a far country for a long time. And then he brought his stewards back to see what they did. And the one that he gave five doubled it. Had invested it.

Had used it and worked with it. And brought back ten. And he said well done. And the one he gave two doubled it. He went and invested it and worked it. And he said well done. And then the one that he gave one to just kind of didn't want to lose it.

Kind of wanted to make sure it just was there. So he dug up the earth and hid it. And when he came back and said Lord I haven't lost anything. And the Master said well you haven't gained anything either. He sent that slothful servant. Interesting story. So why was he so mad?

Why was he so disappointed? In fact in the story remember the Bible says the kingdom of heaven. Now this is the kingdom of heaven.

And don't get confused by that. But it says here that he sent that slothful servant to hell. You say does that mean if I don't make money God's going to send me to hell? Yes. No that's not at all what it means.

Let's all hope not. That's not what he's talking about here. That's another sermon. But let me, if I can, give you some observations of why this story is given, and what is it that we're supposed to learn from this, and why was the owner so upset that this servant didn't turn a profit, didn't bring back more than he was given to use. You know, essentially, the Bible is warning us not to make money our idol or our God. I want you to look at this verse. You know it, 1 Timothy 6, 10. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through, listen to this, with many sorrows.

Sorrowful. See, us preachers sometimes don't just get up and preach on stewardship because we just wanna be mean. We wanna keep your family from these kind of sorrows. We're all gonna have troubles and trials in our life.

And some are big on a big scale, and some are small. And some of you have had rough times recently, and different things. But the Bible says that when we make money our God, and money is not the root of all evil, we need money. And money is fine, and money needs to be used for the Lord. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil. But there are sorrows that can come into your life.

And people sometimes wonder, why is this? And you know what, you can't ever, as a pastor, because it would look as if, but sometimes you wanna say, have you been faithful to give and honor God with your talents? And your treasure? And your time? It's not just about, hey, have you given in the offerings? That's not, but you know, have you been giving your life more for other things? And we wonder why these sorrows come into our life?

It's an interesting question. Let's pray as we just give some observations and let you go today. What does God want us to learn about the opportunity we have in stewardship?

Lord, I love you. Pray that you would bless our time. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Let me say this, the Bible talks about money more than any other subject. There are more passages and verses about money than anything else. You say, oh, so you're saying money's more important than anything else?

Oh, no, no, no, no. As far as I'm concerned, salvation's more important than anything else. It's God letting us know that that is where we are going to struggle the most if we're not careful.

Number one this morning, and this struggle is real, but let's just look at this passage and let's just make some observations. Number one, I want you to notice this, the servants brought nothing to the table. Do you know all these talents came from the master? None of them came from the servant.

You saw the video, here was a man who had nothing. That's what you and I had, by the way. That's what you and I would have without the grace of God. You say, well, preacher, I've not been in church my whole life, but I'm gonna tell you, I've done well. But again, you wouldn't have the mind or the health or the body or the energy or even the breath if it wasn't for the grace of God. You and I bring nothing to the table. You're like, well, preacher, I'm pretty smart. You and I bring nothing to the table. Number two, the talents never belonged to the servants. These talents never belonged to the servants. Oh, the talents were under their care and under their supervision and yes, they had them available to use and invest or do with it as they felt led, but it never was owned by them. Number three, you're like, well, these are going fast.

Yeah, I only have 38 of them. It's gonna go extremely fast. I had a lot of time to observe at the hospital for four hours. Number three, the owner gave them an opportunity. The owner gave them an opportunity. Now, I don't know if there were other servants.

I would imagine this man, if he had money and looked at the money, he would say, I would imagine this man, if he had money and literally was gonna leave in a far country and had enough money that he could just leave part of it back here for these men to use. This must have been a wealthy man and he had other servants, but for some reason, these three, he gave an opportunity to. And you know what, whatever you have in your life and whatever you've been given, of all the people in the world, God gave that opportunity to you, to you. God gave your children to you. God gave that husband or wife to you. God gave you this marriage.

It's an opportunity. Notice number four, the master was angry because the servant did not even try. It wasn't that he was mad that this man wasn't as smart as everyone else and I don't even think that he was really angry because this man didn't know investing maybe as everyone else and couldn't turn a dollar like everyone else. What made the master mad here is that this man just buried it and didn't even try. He called him slothful, which means it wasn't a matter of the fact, but this man said, I was just afraid. I know you're a hard man.

I know that you are, you want things done a certain way and so I just didn't wanna lose it. So he said, I feared thee. So what he was saying is I did this because I was afraid. No, he didn't. The Bible says the master knew why this man had done it.

He was slothful. You know, we sometimes are gonna fail to do things. Well, I can't give this month and I really can't tithe as we call it and I told you, the more I'm into it, I think the tithe oughta be the basis.

I think that oughta be the start because that's what was required under the law. You are not required anything now under grace and because we have grace, we oughta wanna give more than that bottom line. But that's just my opinion. But you can say, I'm not gonna give this.

I'm afraid I won't have enough. You'll say it's fear, but it's not. It's laziness. It's slothfulness.

It's selfishness. Look at this verse if you would, Saint Corinthians 9 six. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give. He which soweth not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. Listen to me. For some reason, many Christians think that as long as we present God with what he gave us we'll be okay.

Not so. For some reason we think as long as I just give God back what he gave me, according to this passage that's not the case. God expects us to multiply what he gives.

I'm not talking about a monetary number. I'm talking about taking the resources that God has given and use it. We don't hide it or bury it. We use it for his glory.

Principle number five. This is about wasted time as much as it is about wasted treasure. Look at verse 25 if you would. What does verse 25 say? And I was afraid, he says, and went and hid thy talent in the earth.

Lo, there thou hast, that is thine. That means this man went to a far country, the Bible says, for a long time. And this man immediately, when that master gave him that one talent, the Bible says that this man said he immediately went and buried it. So what did he do during that entire period of time that the master was gone? He did nothing. You see, it wasn't just the fact that the master was mad that he hadn't multiplied it.

He was mad that he hadn't done anything. All that time he could have used to do something for the master, he did nothing. You see, not only did the master give that man that talent, he gave him the time to use it. God has not just given you your finances, he's not just given you your family, he's not just giving you your resources, God has also given you the time to use it.

And we will answer for that one day. Have we honored God with that? That means he not only wasted the talent itself, but he wasted all of the time that he had it. Principle number six, the objective here was not to further the servant's income, but the master's agenda. You know, the master never gave the servant's talent so that it could further their income. The whole purpose was for them to do what they could to give back to the master so that he could continue to use it in his business. As that translates to us, we didn't bring anything to the table, everything we have came from God. So we are to take it and use it for the Lord, and it's not about us taking it to benefit us, it is about us taking everything God's given to benefit his kingdom. That's the objective.

I've said that enough, I think you get it. Principle number seven, unused talents lose value over time. Unused talents lose value over time.

Now this is gonna be a little bit complicated, let me just say this quickly, because I don't want to lose you this morning, you've done fantastic, it's been a much better spirit about this already today. I guess, because the Jacobs are here, whatever. Do you know one of the first things that any good finance class or financial person will tell you is the time value of money? Now I know some are not familiar, but I want you to understand it simply means that money today is worth more than the same amount in the future.

Why is that? Because money that you have today can be invested. Money in the future can't be invested today. So money is most valuable today, because that means it's here, I can invest it, I can use it to create more for tomorrow. So if God gives me $10 today, and 20 years from now I give God back $10, I've blown it. Because I have not given him the same amount back.

I've given him less. There is also a thing called inflation. It means this, that if you're going through, maybe your in-laws, or maybe you had a grandparent or a great grandparent pass away, and maybe you're going through their house, and you uncover, pull out a drawer, and there is a $5 bill from 19 whatever. You say, wow, $5 is $5. No, it's not.

Preacher, what do you mean? That $5 will not buy you as much today as it would have in 1940. So if God gives you your resources, and you determine you're just gonna give God back the same thing, you have actually given him less. Not the equal value.

Anybody this morning like. Number eight. Let me put it this way, before I go to number eight, let me say this statement. If we do not help grow God's kingdom, even a little bit, then it is as if he never gave us any talents at all.

Then whatever talent he gave us, he wasted to give it to us. Number eight, notice where the slothful servant hid his talent. Where did he hide it? In the earth. Isn't that interesting?

What a scenario. How many people take what God's given, and they hide it in earthly things? A TV is more important to them than unsaved people in China. A nicer this is more important to them than furthering the work that their church is trying to do. Principle number nine. Any talents that God has given, if invested, never returns a loss. You know, this is a wonderful principle that I never saw in this story, and I just said, Lord, I need you to just give me insight on this story.

If you start reading things, or trying to check into things, you're gonna get all kinds of ideals that'll get you, and I said, Lord, I just wanna read this passage. I know this is what you want me to preach on, and God, just give me some insight. Just give me some things about this, and this is something I have never seen, that what the whole principle of this is not that there is no servant that invested and lost. You say, well, in our world, I could put a whole bunch of money in the stock market, and who knows how that's gonna go. God does not operate like a stock market. Whatever you give God always returns an investment. That means you're safer to invest in God's work than anything here on earth, because that might return a loss, but God never does.

It is literally a non-risk investment. Maybe I'm getting the flu. Oh my goodness, I don't know.

I'll be at the back to shake hands after the service. Number 10, we're almost done, even a little growth, according to this passage, even a little growth is better than no growth. Verse 27, do you know at least that this man would have made a little nominal effort and at least put the money in a bank? He would have earned at least a little interest. It means that this master isn't demanding that he be as multiplying as someone else. In fact, the story starts that he gave talents to each of these servants according to their several ability, which means he knew that this person probably can handle this much, and this person probably should be able to handle this much, and this person should be able to handle this much, which tells us that the one that he gave one talent to, that master knew that that servant could have done something to turn it into more, but he chose to bury it and be lazy.

Even a little growth, he said, even if you just would have put it in the bank, even if you would have done something for the Lord, but you chose to do nothing. Principle number 10, being faithful stewards of little leads to being fruitful stewards of much. Being faithful stewards of little leads to being fruitful stewards of much. Verse 21, verse 28, and verse 29. Look at verse 29. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away.

What is he saying? He said, when you show up, and I call my servants back, and I've been into a far country, and I gave you resources to use, when we show back up, he says, he that hath shall be given more, but he that hath not, like this servant that didn't do anything with what he was given, it shall be taken away, and he literally says here in the passage in verse 28 that the person that has been faithful in a little, that I will make you ruler over many. Being faithful stewards of little. You say, preacher, you know, really, I know what you're trying to say, but you know, I don't really have enough that if I really participated in grace giving, it wouldn't really make a difference.

Oh listen, number one, dear friend, it would make a difference. Not only in this church, it would make a huge difference in your life. Because when God sees that you will be faithful with little, he'll reward you with more. Principle number 12, the servant most blessed was the servant who invested the most. The servant most blessed was the servant who invested the most. Verse 29, he said literally, the person that has shall have abundance. Malachi 3, 10, the verse is on here. I have to at least say this verse during Stewardship Month.

I've avoided it. God challenges us with a promise. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house. See, it's about the master, not us. Listen to this. He proved me now herewith, saith the Lord.

He says this, if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, he shall have abundance. Last principle, it was never about how much the servants had to work with. It was about how much they multiplied what they had.

One had five, one had four, or two, one had one. It doesn't really matter if you have as much as so and so. It doesn't really matter if you have as many things or as much money, or if you have a smaller business or a bigger business, or if you have no business.

It really doesn't matter. It wasn't about how much they had to work with. It was about how much they multiplied what they had. It's easy for us to sit around and say, well, I'd give more if I had so and so's money. Oh, I've heard that so much. Can I tell you something?

Pfft. No, you wouldn't. If you're not gonna give God $10 out of 100, you're not gonna give him 10,000 out of 100,000. You're not gonna give him a $10 out of 100,000. You're not gonna give him a dollar out of 10. You're not gonna give him a million out of 10,000,000. He that's faithful and little will be ruler of much. Listen, dear friend, may I challenge you when it comes to stewardship in your life.

It's not about if you have as much talent as another person, as much ability, as many resources. You might sit here and say, preacher, I just don't feel like I really have hardly anything. You know, isn't that funny? Because of all the grand meals, I'm sure we're prepared for Bible times and during Jesus' ministry. One young man was mentioned who had a very small, insignificant lunch. But he gave it.

Interesting. Matthew 6, 19, and I'll close. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt nor thieves do not break through and steal.

Why do we even speak on stewardship at all? Look at me, look at the verse. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. ["Pomp and Circumstance"]