Pastor Sid didn’t
beat around the bush. He just spoke plainly: “How daring are you?”
His words made
me squirm. I don’t like taking risks. I avoid going out on a limb.
Sid was talking
about The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 in which a master
entrusted his wealth to his servants. “To one he gave five bags of gold, to
another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability” (verse
15, NIV). And then the master left them.
Sid was referring to stewardship. We hear that word “stewardship” a lot, but what does it
mean?
Stewardship is
something we manage or take care of that is not our own.
Like the guys
in The Parable of the Talents, God has entrusted you and me with “talents,” things
like money, time, skills, and experience. In the parable, the talents were of great
value. Treasures. Blessings. Gifts.
Sid told us those
“talents,” those blessings, those gifts, are not only for our own use and worldly advancement. The
gifts He gave each of us are not just for our own enjoyment and material gain.
No, God’s best
for us is this: That we manage our “talents” so they impact God’s work locally
and around the world. That’s why He has given us all of those “talents.”
Furthermore, Sid
said, the God we know in the Bible doesn’t want us to be conservative in our
use of our money, time, skills, and experience.
Whoa. Read that again. God doesn't want us to be conservative in our use of money, time, skills, and experience.
Let’s get back
to The Parable of the Talents. When the master returned, the five-talent and
the two-talent servants had doubled their holdings.
“What did the
two of them do,” Sid asked, “to double their five and two talents? They didn’t
play it safe.”
I don’t know about you but that statement, “they didn’t play it
safe,” makes my stomach knot. I always want to play it safe.
Let’s look at
the man with only one talent. Instead of investing it, buried it—because, he
said, he was afraid.
Today we don’t
dare to do great things for God, Sid said, “. . . because we fear God won’t
live up to His end of the bargain.”
“. . . because
we fear God won’t. . . .”
Won’t what?
Won’t give us
strength and tenacity
to do hard
things?
Won’t stick
with us through the difficult times?
Won’t supply us
with what we need along the way?
Sid said:
The degree of
safety that we invest in our lives
indicates a lack of faith.
Gulp. Lack of
faith. Being unwilling to trust God to keep the promises He’s given us in the
Bible: His promises to enable us to do what He calls us to do with our talents,
His promises to stick with us, to meet our needs (not necessarily wants, but
needs) along the way.
It felt like
Sid was pointing right at me.
He left us with
questions and challenges:
Are you playing
it safe with what God has given you of time, money, skills, and past
experience?
How much do you
trust God? Let go. Invest your “talents” in what God’s doing around the world.
Do you have
God-sized dreams and investments?
Or are they too
risky? Too scary?
It’s tempting,
Sid said, to play it safe and take it easy. He compared life to a ship in the
harbor—it’s safe there, but that’s not what ships are for. Staying in the
harbor is not what its creator planned for it. What has your Creator planned
for you?
Do great things
for God.
Trust Him. Don’t
settle for playing it safe.
What could God
do if every person
who has a
relationship with Him
dared to be
great?
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