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These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Well, hey, and welcome back to Words of Life. For the next two weeks we're going to do something a little bit different for this show. Recently, the Salvation Army in the USA South held an event to celebrate the graduation of new Salvation Army officers.
Basically, celebrating the graduation of new pastors coming out of seminary. At this event, a Salvation Army officer and good friend of ours, Jessica Pierre, delivered a sermon that we enjoyed so much we wanted to share here for our listeners.
So this will be part one, and then join us next week to hear part two. It is such a pleasure and privilege for me to share the Word of God with you this evening. I do not take it lightly. But before we get to the Word of God, I just want to share just a little bit about myself. I'm Lieutenant Jessica Peer.
I am wife to the most, oh, I'll take a walk. Thank you. I am wife to the most amazing man of God, Jimmy Pierre, and together we are. Parrots. to two toddlers.
Pray for us because the toddler stage is rough, so we covet your prayers, but we love our little humans with full personality. Isaiah 51, 16 says, And I have put my words in your mouth and hidden you safely in my hand. I stretched out the sky like a canopy and laid the foundations of the earth. I am the one who says to Israel, You are my people. And this evening, because of the sacrificial love of Jesus, all of us here are included.
When God says to Israel, you are my people. You see, because of the work of Jesus, we've been grafted, we've been adopted, we've been given this privilege and blessing of belonging in the family of God. Look at your neighbor and say, hey, child of God. That's right. Being a child of God is the highest blessing.
But with every blessing, with every privilege, comes responsibility. I just shared with you that I am a wife and a mom, and outside of Jesus giving me Himself, there is no greater blessing that I have in this life than that of being a wife and a mom. But listen to me. There's so much responsibility that is attached to the blessing of being a wife and a mom, especially a mom to toddlers. Blessings and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin.
And tonight's focus is all about the responsibility that comes from the blessing of belonging in the family of God. And what is that responsibility, you may ask? That responsibility is to serve. God will always call us to himself first and then to others immediately after. We're saved to serve.
If you say you are a child of God, there will be proof. Look at your neighbor and say, where's the proof? Service is the responsibility that is attached to the blessing of being a child of God. And in the Word of God, the scripture that best encapsulates this kind of responsibility is found in Matthew twenty five and the parable of the three servants. In this parable, Jesus gives us an exclusive look into what the kingdom of God values when it comes to service and stewardship.
So, let's read the word of God for us this evening. Starting at verse 14, Matthew 25, says this: Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags 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.
The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earn five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went and worked and 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. After a long time their master returned from his strip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest and I have earned five more.
The master was full of praise.
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 together. The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more. The master said, 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 together. Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn't plant, and 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 replied, You wicked and lazy servant, if you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, 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 the ten bags of silver. 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 gnashing of teeth. And that's the word of the Lord for us this evening. Hey, you're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. We're going to take a quick ad break, and we'll be right back. Hello, it is Ryan, and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacasino.com.
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Terms and conditions apply. Before we continue, I want to do some housekeeping and make sure that we all have shared understanding as we dissect this parable. Though Jesus uses money as the illustration, the deeper spiritual truth of this passage is not about money. Nor individual success nor personal gain. This is Jesus' words, and the heart of this message has its roots in the Great Commission.
It's about investing in the kingdom of God. And how do you invest in the kingdom of God? by investing in people, by serving people.
Now, I'm not going to focus too much on the first two servants because, y'all, they did what they were supposed to do. They received the let's celebrate together from the master.
So, for the sake of time, there's only two things that I want us to learn from the choices of the last servant. The first thing that we learn from the last servant is that self-preservation displeases God. Jesus said that the master gave the servant a bag of silver to invest, and instead of investing, the servant took the safe route and placed it in a hole.
Now, How can you invest in God's kingdom? How can you serve others if what you have been given is hidden away where no one has access to it but you? Yeah. The act of burying the silver is a clear picture of selfishness. In selfishness, when we own Focus inward, when we only care about our comfort, when we have this me-first mentality, we end up caving in on ourselves.
We end up looking like spiritual hunchbacks, unable to stand up straight to discern the face of God and the needs of the people around us. Self-preservation is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus. You cannot convince me that you can read the living word of God and walk away encouraged to live a life that only benefits you and yours. You can't convince me of that. And our culture is working so hard at trying to rebrand selfishness.
Y'all, selfishness has a new PR campaign. I've been seeing this post go around social media for months, and it's directly targeting young adults. And it says this: your 20s are your selfish years. This ideology is meant to encourage you to take your twenties to build up your kingdom. Secure yourself.
Don't worry about what everybody else got going on, you know? And no matter how appealing that may sound, no matter how aesthetically pleasing that Instagram post may be, how cute it is, it got flowers on it, I don't know. But this is not biblical. This is demonic, actually. It's secular, it's not sacred.
Jesus says in Matthew 16, 25, if you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. What Jesus means is, if you are trying to succeed in life through selfish ambition, it will leave you thirsty and it will never satisfy you. And let me tell you, this church, people can be in their church and still try to succeed through selfish ambition. This is not just for people outside of the church.
You will be lost living in this way. But Jesus says: if you want true satisfaction, the kind of satisfaction that comes from the very source of life Himself, you need to prioritize the kingdom of heaven over your personal desires. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you. Seek God first. And your purpose, your provision will follow no matter your aid.
We just saw that in the presentation. Imagine if Eliza Shirley had thought to herself, y'all, my 20s, those are my selfish years. The devil would have rejoiced. And I don't know about you, I am not in the business of making the devil rejoice. We pray that you're enjoying and being blessed by this conversation.
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Terms and conditions apply. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10, Galatians 5:13, for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. Philippians 2:3 to 4: Do nothing out of selfish ambition, not even in your 20s.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Instead, in humility, value others above yourselves. Value others above yourselves. Think of others as more important than you. You won't see that on a billboard in Hollywood.
You won't see it on the cover of a magazine. Listen, you will not find that message by watching politics all day long. You want this to be the value from the fiber of your being. You have to have a new mind that is formed by Jesus Christ. And how do we get that?
We heard Commissioner Shelley said it this morning. We have to increase our capacity. We have to engage with the Word of God daily. We don't renew our minds. That's not our job.
Our job is to create the means of grace so that Jesus Himself can do it. But we have to give them the space. You have, young adults, you have to put in your schedule, in your calendar daily to engage with the Word of God. That's how you renew your mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Instead, in humility, value others above yourselves, focusing not on your own interests, but on the interests of others. upside down kingdom. And in Matthew 23, 11, Jesus says, The greatest among you will be your servant. You want to be great? Serve.
Friends, you are blessed to be a blessing. You have been given all of these gifts. We've seen it all weekend, all of these talents for the betterment of the kingdom, for the betterment of others. The second thing that we can gather from the example of the third servant is regarding the servant's motives. At face value, we want to say that fear is the motive because the servant says outright, I was afraid I will lose your money.
But the beautiful thing about serving an all-knowing master is that he always searches out the happenings of our inner lives and he gets to our motives. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit SalvationArmyUSA.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit SalvationArmysoundcast.org.
Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life.
We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next time.
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