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00:02 Good morning everyone. Okay, let's uh come to God in prayer now.
00:08 Dear heavenly father, we give thanks to you for your very precious word. And now as we come to sit under the authority of
00:15 your word, we pray please speak to us by your holy spirit and help us to be
00:20 attentive. Give us uh the ability to obey you. Take away the rebellion and stubbornness and
00:27 laziness in our lives. We pray all this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
00:35 Now, what is a wasted life? What is a wasted life? How can we not waste our
00:42 lives? Now, there's this uh man called William Wilberforce.
00:48 Should I point it here or here? Sorry, I don't think I've turned it on like usual. Okay, here we
00:55 go. Um yeah this this um movie was made recently called Amazing Grace. He's uh
01:02 it was it's a real story about this man in England in the 1700s called William Wilberforce. Now he was born into a very
01:08 rich family and he grew up as a nominal Christian as most uh English men of his
01:14 day were. He was a privileged rich kid. He was pompous. He was sarcastic. He was proud. He you know he was cynical. A lot
01:22 of young men in that time were like that from the upper class. And he went to Cambridge University and instead of
01:28 putting his hard work into his studies, he's sort of like enjoying himself, chatting the nights away and so on. But
01:34 because he was a rich kid, he had lots of good political connections and he managed to get himself elected to
01:40 parliament. And for years in parliament, he sat there as an MP, not achieving a single
01:46 thing, not interested in improving the lives of his constituents, only interested in advancing his own
01:52 reputation, his own popularity. Ring a bell? But you know that's that's the kind of thing he was like and he was
01:58 well on the way to wasting his life. Now the parable of the talents that we
02:04 are reading today is about how we ought not to waste our lives. Last week the we
02:11 looked at the previous parable in chapter 25 and it was a parable of the 10 virgins and the take-h home message
02:17 from that uh as uh David Adam shared with us last week is that we ought to be prepared for Jesus coming again because
02:24 if you're not prepared one day God is going Jesus going to come back and the door is going to be slammed in your face
02:30 and you will remain forever outside God's kingdom. But how to be prepared? What should we
02:37 do? Now the parable of the 10 virgins does not answer that question. It's up to this parable now that comes right
02:43 after to tell us how we ought to be prepared for Jesus return. So let's have
02:49 a look straight into the passage. Okay. For it will be like a man going on
02:55 a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. And to one he gave five talents to another two
03:02 to another one to each according to his ability and then he went away. Now this master is obviously a a very rich man.
03:10 Okay, he goes away on wherever he goes or maybe on business or something and he entrusts various sums of money to his
03:17 servants for them to manage. Now, how do we know he's very rich man? Well, it's
03:22 because he gave them a few talents. Now, in our English language today, talents means nothing like what it mean in the
03:28 original language. Okay? It just means in English now, a natural ability. And why does it mean that? is actually
03:34 because of this parable in the Bible. But talent is actually a Greek word originally which does nothing to do with
03:40 your natural ability. It it was just a sum of money. Okay? And talent was the
03:46 greatest unit of money that they had in those times. It was about 6,000 dinari
03:52 and one dinarius was roughly one day's wages. So 6,000 dinari is about you know
03:58 the amount that you can earn in 20 years. Okay. So imagine in our terms I
04:04 don't know maybe it would be at least $1 million. I'm sure you can most of us may be able to make one million if you work
04:09 for 20 years non-stop. Okay. Now he so he gave the first servant 5 million
04:14 ringit. Let's say that's quite a big sum of money. Okay. I mean you wouldn't give it to your children let alone to your
04:20 servant. Okay. But he gave this amount of money to his servants. 5 million 2 million and 1 million to three servants.
04:28 Now what does that tell us? That tells us God is so generous with us. You see,
04:34 before he asks us to do anything for him, he has given us very generously an
04:40 amazing wealth of riches. And we have so much that we actually don't deserve. In fact, everything that we have, all the
04:46 abilities and resources that we have was given to us by God. So this parable is
04:52 about how what God expects of us and it's about God judging us on the basis
04:57 of our actions. But remember, it starts with grace. It starts with what God has already given to us. God doesn't expect
05:04 us to produce something from nothing. Okay? Now, notice that God doesn't give
05:10 everyone the same amount. So to the first servant, he got five talents.
05:15 Second had two and the third had one. He allocates them. It says according to his
05:22 ability. So what are these talents? What do they represent?
05:28 Basically, the talents represent anything that God has given to you that you can use in his service. Okay? It
05:35 could be the fact that you know God, you're a Christian. You have the knowledge of God's kingdom. It could be
05:40 the specific opportunities that you have in your life that he has given to you.
05:46 It could be all the resources that he has entrusted to you. All the responsibilities that he has given to
05:52 you. All the things like your money, your time, your health, your wealth, all
05:58 these things are the talents that God has given to you. And the more ability
06:03 you have, the more God will give to you. The more responsibilities God will give
06:08 to you and the more he will require of you. Now maybe you feel I'm just an average
06:15 person in church. I'm nobody special. Okay? I'm that guy is better than me.
06:20 That guy is so gifted, so blessed. I'm not like him. Well, God doesn't expect
06:26 you to be like the next person. Okay? The next person may be more blessed, more gifted, but God also expects more
06:34 of that person. He'll be expected to work harder and produce five talents.
06:39 Whereas you might need to only produce one talent or two talents. Okay? God expects whatever he has given of you to
06:46 produce it back in return. Now another passage in in the gospels in the in the gospel of Luke everyone to whom much was
06:54 given of him much will be required and from him to whom they entrusted much
07:01 they will demand the more. In other words God will demand more of those he has blessed more.
07:08 Do you know for example that those of us who come up to the stage to teach to preach we will be judged more strictly
07:14 by God. You see, God expects more from us in in James. Not many of you should
07:19 become teachers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
07:25 Now, God may not call you to preach, but he has given you other opportunities, other responsibilities, other resources
07:32 that he expects you to use. Well, so the master
07:38 after giving him giving all these talents away, he just went off. He just left. He didn't tell them this is what
07:45 you ought to do with the talents. You should do this, do this, invest it in this or what. That's a bit surprising.
07:50 He just kind of gave it to them and went away. He didn't give any instructions. Now,
07:55 sometimes you might have the same experience in your life. You know, Jesus is gone. He's gone out to heaven. One
08:01 day he's coming back. But in this time before he returns, he expects us to do some work for him. But how many of you
08:08 have heard a voice from heaven telling you, "This is what I want you to do. I don't I don't know how many of you
08:15 okay but I doubt that any of us or very few. Uh so God ex gives us the
08:20 responsibility in general terms we roughly know what he wants us to do but he leaves the details up to us. He
08:27 leaves it up to us. And so what do the what are the servants responses? Verse 16. The first servant
08:35 he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more.
08:42 See he goes to work with his five talents. He does some trading and makes another five talents and the second
08:48 servant does the same. Now in those times very few people had large sums of money and especially not like you know
08:55 millions of dollars talents. Okay? So if you had so much capital presumably it
09:01 wouldn't be very hard for you to use it and make more okay to get a very high
09:06 return on your investment. Even today if you are a multi-millionaire I don't think it would be that hard for you to
09:13 make a few million. You can go and buy and sell property or shares or I don't know whatever. Okay. Basically you can
09:18 make a lot more money than the average person can earn in a lifetime.
09:23 Now note all these uh action words. What did the servant do? He went went at
09:29 once. He traded. He made five talents more. You see, the Christian life God expects is a life of activity. God
09:38 expects us to be doing things. We are not meant to withdraw into our monasteries and, you know, meditate just
09:45 in with our head in the clouds. And we're not meant to have all our holy huddles together in Christian ghettos
09:51 and you know just meet with Christian people and just do Christian things and shun contact with the outside world. No,
09:58 we are meant to go out there and do work for God.
10:03 So this first servant, he went at once. He went at once and did it. There was no
10:10 procrastinating. There was no bargaining with God. There was no excuses.
10:16 Now, how many of us procrastinate? Yeah, Lord, I'm going to do it, but but la.
10:22 Okay, I know you want me to do this, but I'm still young. I need to build my career up first, and then I'll be more
10:27 established, then only I have enough time and money to serve you, God. And then when you build out your career a few years later, oh God, now I have a
10:34 mortgage. I need to work very hard to pay off my mortgage first. And then after that, once it's paid off, I'll
10:39 work for you. Okay? And now you paid off your mortgage. Lord, now my children are in uni. So how I need to work hard to
10:47 make more money to put my kids through uni after that I can relax and serve you and after that oh Lord it's only a few
10:53 more years until I retire. Why don't I just wait a few more years and after retirement oh god I'm very
10:59 tired is that I spend the whole day playing golf so maybe tomorrow. You see we must learn from these two
11:07 servants how enthusiastic they are at once without delay they went and used
11:12 whatever they had to serve God. But the third servant, he did something
11:17 very different. He went instead of doing business with the money, he went and buried it in the ground. You might
11:24 think, is that so bad? At least he didn't lose it. He didn't use it. Well, we're going to look at that later.
11:30 So, what happens next is the master comes back after a very long time. It says, okay, after a very long time. He
11:36 was away for so long. And in that period you can just imagine you know if you are
11:42 those first two servants every day working hard there's no sign of the master coming back and slowly struggling
11:49 making more and more maybe in the first year they only managed to make I don't know 100,000 ringit out of few million
11:55 and maybe there were a few setbacks stock market crash whatever you know they made a few losses and it took a
12:00 while for them to to get to where they were there was a lot of hard work a lot of sweat a lot of tears and there was no
12:07 end in sight died and yet they persevered. And this is an encouragement for all of us today who may be
12:15 struggling in our ministry, in our service to God, wondering, you know, I'm doing all these things, I'm about to
12:20 collapse, what's going to happen and so on. The master will return one day. He will recognize your labor for him. So
12:27 don't be afraid. But this third servant.
12:33 So okay before we talk about the third servant. Okay. Uh let's talk about uh
12:39 okay this third servant in that period of time. Okay. When the master was away
12:44 for so long he must be having the time of his life. He's not like the other two guys struggling away with their talents.
12:50 So what do you think he did after he buried his talent in the ground? I don't know. He I think he will enjoying his
12:56 life. you know, he'll be saying, "Oh, no more no more worries, mate. I'm just don't have to worry about it anymore.
13:03 Huge burden off my chest. I've got that out of the way. Now I can carry on with my life." So, he wasn't necessarily a
13:10 bad person. He wasn't he didn't steal what belonged to his master. He didn't
13:15 beat the other servants or anything. He just led a very ordinary life. Maybe he
13:20 worked 9 to5. Then he went shopping. He had the kids. He went on holidays. He watched his TV. He relaxed on the
13:28 weekends, things like that. He was a very ordinary guy. And this thought of this one talent buried in the ground
13:34 never crossed his mind until this day when the master came back. He got a
13:40 knock. Hey, the master is waiting for you in his office. He wants to see you
13:45 now. Wow. Big stress. Quickly go and dig up the backyard. See, oh man, is this is
13:50 this talent still there? Wow. Sigh of relief. The talent is still there. Shiny, still good as new. No problem.
13:57 Okay, big slight relief. Go and see the master holding the talent. And so in this office, the the first
14:04 servant came forward bringing five talents more, saying, "Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I
14:12 have made five talents more." You can hear the the joy and the pride
14:18 in his voice. Now, that's not a bad kind of pride. It's not a bad kind of pride. It's a good kind of pride. like a child
14:24 saying to the daddy look daddy I've done what you asked me to do isn't it a sense of achievement the servant did not say
14:31 this all my my how great I am no say you gave me these five talents it is all
14:37 from you master I wouldn't be able to do anything without your grace but see now I have obeyed your instruction I have
14:44 not wasted what you gave to me and his master said
14:51 well done good and faithful servant you have Been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of
14:60 your master. Now what is the goal of your life? What
15:06 do you live for? At the end of your life when you are on your deathbed and you look back, what is going to matter most
15:14 to you? Is it how successful you have been? You know, you made so much money. You picked
15:20 the right investments. You multiply and multiply. You beat built a huge empire a big portfolio for yourself
15:27 or is is it how other people is going to think about you that's the most important thing how they will remember
15:32 you you are so influential so popular so fun to be with so fashionable
15:38 or is it the satisfaction that you have used every opportunity to maximize your
15:44 pleasure to enjoy everything this world has to offer everything that's worth seeing you've already seen you've
15:49 traveled everywhere you've done everything that is worth doing? What are you going to look back on?
15:55 See, the only thing that matters is to hear the master say this. Well done.
16:02 Well done. Good job. You are a good and faithful servant.
16:08 Now, the master's commendation is all that count. And so, how we live our life today, everything that we do must be
16:14 oriented so that one day we will hear those words. See, God is not looking for fleshiness.
16:22 It's not important if whether people recognize your work, whether they applaud you, they say you're so good.
16:28 You only have an audience of one, and that is God. And only his applause is
16:34 important in your life. God's not looking for genius. You don't have to be brilliant. You
16:40 don't have to be superhuman in order to please God. He's only looking for
16:46 faithfulness. He's just looking for somebody who will do as he says and persevere in doing it.
16:52 That's all. That's all you need to do not to waste your life. Just to
16:58 persevere in being faithful. Look at the seven second servant. I
17:05 think it's on the next page. Second servant, the guy with the two talents. His ability was less than the guy with
17:10 the five talents. And he comes up. Okay. And he went to work also. So he
17:16 got less than the first talent but of course they were distributed according to ability. So his ability also was less
17:21 but he went to work just like the first servant and he worked hard and produced two talents. And God told him he didn't
17:27 say you're not bad not bad you get maybe 70%. Okay. He didn't say you're not as
17:33 good as the first guy but still you are fine. No God did not say that. God gave him exactly the same words as the first
17:40 servant. No difference. Not a single word different. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have done
17:47 well. You have performed well in proportion to the degree of your ability." So God is looking only for
17:54 faithfulness that you can do the best with what you've got. And what reward do
18:00 these servants get? He says, "You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of
18:06 your master." Those who are faithful, God will reward them with the joy of
18:11 being on God's guest list. You see, God's kingdom is like being invited to the biggest wedding banquet ever. And
18:19 last year, I guess the biggest wedding in Malaysia would have been uh uh Lie Chongway's wedding. Okay. So, uh it was
18:25 the greatest society wedding in all of Malaysia here. Okay. And uh what an
18:30 honor it would have been, you know, to be invited, you know, the Aong was there, the PM was there, all the big shots were there. Okay? So imagine you
18:38 turn up there in all your finals and the person at the door says, "Oh, check
18:43 check check." A heart stop a bit. How come taking so long to check? Then suddenly, "Oh, please come in." You
18:49 know, your bridegroom is is glad to share his joy with you. Isn't that wonderful? You know, that is what we
18:55 will experience one day when we come before God. He will check and he will say, "Good and faithful servant, enter
19:02 into the joy of your master." God will honor every single one of us here if we
19:07 are faithful to him. God doesn't say, "Okay, uh, enter into
19:13 the joy of your master and now you can put out your feet. You have earned your rest, relax, sit around and do nothing
19:19 for the rest of eternity." No, he doesn't. He says, "I will set you over
19:24 much." You know, that means heaven is not going to be about floating around the clouds just playing hops and doing nothing else
19:30 for the rest of eternity. Thank God for that. I think that would be a bit boring. Okay. But actually, heaven is
19:36 not is is going to be about rest. Yes. But the rest is not the same as being idol. Rest is not the same as idleness.
19:44 You see, there's going to be work in heaven. There's going to be work. There's going to be exciting challenges.
19:49 There's going to be meaningful activity that we have no idea about. Now, work is
19:54 not a bad thing in itself. God created it in the Garden of Eden before sin
19:60 came. See, work is part of God's good creation. And today on earth, our work
20:06 is full of frustration and futility because of sin. But in heaven, work will
20:12 be purified from all that. It will be fulfilling. It will be restful. It will be purposeful. And God's reward for
20:19 those who are faithful to him now is to give them greater responsibility
20:24 in heaven. He will give them an eternal promotion.
20:30 Now what about the third servant? Okay, the third servant came forward
20:37 and silence in the room, he unwraps his shiny new talent. He presents it to the
20:42 master and tells the master, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where
20:47 you did not sow, gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground.
20:54 Here you have what is yours." So basically what he's saying is master
20:60 I know you're a really hard man okay you are a forceful guy you always get what you want you know you even go into other people's field something that's not
21:06 yours and you reap the harvest okay you are so strong and forceful I'm quite scared of you actually to be honest I
21:12 don't dare to touch your money okay I don't dare to lose any of it just in case so I thought the best thing I just
21:18 hide it in the ground make sure that I didn't lose any of it then now here you see it's all here I didn't lose any of
21:24 it sounds reasonable sounds like a good plan, but actually it's not a good plan. Okay.
21:31 Now, what was his uh mistake here? You see, he makes it sound so respectful, right? But actually, he's actually
21:37 accusing his master, insulting his master of being a harsh and a cruel man. He's he makes his master look really
21:43 bad, looks very unscrupulous. You're a vicious guy. You exploit people. Okay? But when his actual experience, his
21:49 master is not like that. Master is so generous, giving millions of dollars to you servants, right? Is that considered
21:55 as being unfair and vicious and exploiting? No. He's so generous. And
22:01 not just that, he's using his master as the excuse. He's blaming his lack of
22:06 action on his master. Actually, it's not my fault. It's your fault because you are like that. I don't dare to do anything.
22:13 So his master said, okay, his master is not going to be fobbed off with a lame excuse. Okay, he's not so easily fooled.
22:21 So he says, "You wicked and slothful servant, you knew that I reap where I
22:26 have not sown and gather where I scatter no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers at least, and
22:32 at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest." He's saying, "Really? You think I'm so
22:39 hard? You think I'm so bad that all I want is profit? Well, if you really thought I was like that, would you come
22:45 with nothing? Do you think I'll accept that? you know, do you think I'll be uh I will be able to just get my money back
22:52 with no profit at all? If I was really like that, your own explanation condemns you. Now, if you really believe what you
22:59 said just now, you would not have that to come before me with nothing. At least go and put it in the bank and get some
23:05 bank interest is better than nothing. See, the real reason that you have done
23:10 nothing with my money is that you are a wicked and lazy servant. That is the
23:16 real reason. So is the master being too harsh? Whoops. Too harsh. Too unfair? Because
23:23 he gets back his money at the end, right? Isn't he didn't lose any of his money? But you see, the master did not give the talents to his servants so that
23:30 they can keep it safe. You don't need ability to do that. He distributed it on the basis of ability.
23:36 Meaning that implying that he's in expecting them to create a return on this money. You see, you don't need any
23:42 ability to hide money in the ground. No, the master gave the talent so that they can make more talents to return it to
23:50 him untouched, unused is is not a responsible thing to do. It is a very negligent and disobedient thing to do.
23:59 So the real reason for the third servant's failure is he was wicked and
24:05 lazy. He couldn't be bothered. He couldn't be bothered to make all that effort. He just want to cruise through
24:11 life, enjoy things along the way. Don't get too serious about anything. Too many things competing for his attention. Just
24:18 want to make up some excuse for himself so that he can ignore what the master says. Ignore it. So people there rushing
24:26 around doing so much work. Urgent deadline coming up. Master coming back. Work is to be done. That's all. Guys,
24:33 just just go and chill out. Just relax. Master will understand. He's a nice guy. He's a softy at heart. Why you why you
24:39 so scared? He's not going to throw us out, is he? You see what did what did the master
24:46 say? Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has a 10 talents.
24:53 Somehow the servant who gave the 10 talents to the master, somehow he has it back. We don't know how he got it back, but he now has 10 talents. And now the
25:00 master says, "Give it to that guy. He has now got 11 talents." You see, if you are faithful, God rewards you way out of
25:07 proportion to what you did for him. The more faithful and more service you have done, the more will be given to you. But
25:14 then to everyone who has will be will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not,
25:21 even what he has will be taken away. If you are disobedient, if you are lazy,
25:27 whatever little you have, God will take away from you in the end.
25:35 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place, there
25:40 will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Now, I wish that the parable had stopped in the previous verse
25:48 where he just didn't get anything. But no, the parable goes on to say, and this
25:53 is the most scary part of the parable, this worthless servant was cast into the
25:58 outer darkness. So in case you think to yourself, you know, 20 years ago, I said the sinner's
26:05 prayer. I'm fine now. I have a ticket to heaven that nobody can take away. So now I'll live any way I like. I don't care.
26:13 Well, think again. It's not like that. It does not work like that. Yes. In order for us to get to heaven, we must
26:21 receive God's grace. We must accept it by faith. But it doesn't end there. See,
26:27 we must do the work that the master requires. This one talent servant, maybe by our
26:35 standards, he wasn't a bad guy. You know, he didn't go around robbing people. He didn't go and slash people with parang. He didn't rape. He didn't
26:41 commit any adultery or murder or anything. All he did
26:46 was he continued to live his normal life ignoring what God had required of him
26:54 and he was cast into the outer darkness. It's so easy for us to fall into that
27:01 trap. You know, we think we are fine. We Christians, you know, we live our lives
27:06 every day and you know, one day God will just take me in. Listen to these words from this book I
27:13 read. John Piper, don't waste your life. I I'll read to you some of it. He says,
27:18 "Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and
27:25 providing for the family." So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud, just lots of
27:31 hard work during the day and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening during quality family time and lots of fun
27:38 stuff on the weekend woven around church mostly. This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for
27:46 far more. And he says, "No one will ever want to say to the Lord of the universe 5 minutes after death, I spend every night
27:53 playing games and watching clean TV with my family because I love them so much."
27:58 You know, he says, "Even sinners work hard, avoid gross sin, watch TV at
28:04 night, and do fun stuff on the weekend. So, what more are you doing than the others?
28:09 How are you distinctive as a Christian? Now, how are some ways that we waste our
28:16 life in our modern society? Well, here it says watching TV. Actually, watching TV, drama, TV, actually, there's a huge
28:22 waste. Time waster. I realize, okay, having done that myself. It's a time waster, isn't it? You sit through all
28:29 these madeup stories and you waste hours on end and at the end they all very trivial and nothing. There's no nothing
28:35 important. Being caught up in materialistic pursuits is a waste of our time, our
28:41 life. You know, life is not about buying things that I don't need, obsessing about how I dress and how I look and
28:47 whether this thing matches with that thing. You know, there's a dying world out there crying out for the gospel. And
28:56 if all we can think about is sinking in front of our TV every night to watch mindless stuff and being preoccupied
29:02 with buying things all the time, then we are wasting our life and burying our talent in the ground.
29:09 Now you might say, what's wrong with all those things? What's wrong with watching TV? Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong per se with watching TV, buying
29:17 things. I also buy things and so on. But the question that we ask, what's wrong
29:22 with that is already the wrong question. And we shouldn't be asking a negative question. What's wrong with that? What's
29:28 wrong with this movie? What's wrong with wearing this? What's wrong with this music? What's wrong with this lifestyle? What's wrong with playing golf? What's
29:33 wrong with shopping? What's wrong with making this investment? You see, we should be asking the question, will this
29:39 thing help me to know Christ? Will this thing help me to serve him, to advance his kingdom, to display his glory to
29:46 others? How does this thing help me to make my life something worthwhile for
29:53 eternity? That's what we should be asking. Now we can live our lives in a way that
30:00 we don't have to waste it. We can achieve something of eternal value. So how can we do that? Let me consider some
30:07 practical examples of various aspects of our life that we can not waste for God.
30:14 We need to maximize our life for Christ in our church. So, how many of us sit in
30:19 our chairs on Sunday and look at what's going on up here and say, "Oh, I can do
30:24 a better job than that guy, that clown up there, you know, he can't even sing for nuts. Why is the song choice so bad
30:31 today? Why they they shouldn't do the VBS like this? It should be the other way around, you know. And what's wrong
30:36 with these AV guys, you know, they can't ever get their slide correctly and the video never plays properly?" You know, you may sit there and think that, but
30:42 then when Dr. Peter come and he say, "We need people for AV ministry." Everybody just kind of like looks down and tries
30:48 to like avoid eye contact, isn't it? Now, we have so many excuses.
30:54 Say, "Yeah, Lord, actually I do want to serve you, but do fill in your current
30:60 reason or excuse. We don't want to be participants. We just want to be spectators only."
31:07 You see, but Christian disciplehip is not a spectator sport.
31:13 Now I remember our brother Michael here sharing a few months ago I think uh about how he volunteered for the boys
31:19 brigade ministry like a typical Malaysian. He never put up his hand for anything he said. Okay. And he thought
31:24 I'm busy man. I my family needs me. Somebody else can do it. Somebody else is more gifted than me. They can do it.
31:31 But somehow God led him to be involved in the lives of these young boys and
31:36 girls in the boys brigade. And he has never looked back. uh heard this story of two little boys
31:44 uh saying how much they they appreciate each other. Okay. And first the first boy said to the other boy, "Hey, Bobby,
31:51 if you had a million dollars, will you give me half?" And the guy said, "Of course, I'm going to give you half if I
31:57 have a million dollars." And he said, "What about if you have a thousand marbles? Will you give me half?" Say,
32:03 "Sure, sure. I'll give you half." Say, "What about if you have two marbles?"
32:09 And pause for a while. Hey, that's not fair. You know, I've got two marbles,
32:16 isn't it? Now, we are often like that too. So, in theory, in theory, yeah, we would like to think that we will want to
32:22 obey God. We want to do this for God. We are diligent for God. But in practice,
32:27 when it comes to the crunch, we have all the excuses ready. God doesn't want the
32:33 thousand marbles that you don't have. God wants the two marbles that you have. He's not interested in all the
32:39 hypotheticals. He's interested in what you have now. Have you dedicated
32:47 your present abilities and resources and time for his service? There's so many
32:53 areas of service in this church crying out for workers. We just heard from Dorin some of them.
32:59 There are so many needy communities around us desperate to hear the gospel,
33:04 desperate for good works of service. is are you going to use your talent or bury
33:10 it? Now the next place that we can maximize
33:15 our life for Christ is in our workplaces. You see investing our lives for the
33:21 service of God does not mean that you have to give up your job and go into a full-time ministry. Yes, God may call
33:26 some of us into full-time ministry and we should go. But for most people here, God does not call you into a full-time
33:33 kind of ministry, but to serve him where you are now in your secular jobs.
33:39 See, as Christians, we must do our job well because everything that we do is working for the Lord. He's actually the
33:45 real boss in our workplace. So it says in Ephesians servants obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a
33:52 sincere heart as you would Christ. Not by the way of eye service as people
33:57 pleasers but as servants or bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. So there is no room for
34:05 a Christian to be lazy or slack at work, cut corners, cheat, take advantage of
34:10 other people. No. Because when we are working, we are actually serving Christ. But don't think that your work is the
34:16 gospel. We mustn't overvalue our work. Our secular work in and of itself
34:22 doesn't save anyone. If we don't use any spoken words to communicate the gospel, then it cannot save anyone. A work
34:29 doesn't bring people to Christ. The best it can do is to adorn the gospel. Okay?
34:35 So it says here in Titus, uh, servants are to be submissive to their own masters. They are to be well pleasing,
34:41 not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith. So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine
34:48 of God our savior. In other words, how you behave at work. It's not the gospel but it adorns the gospel. It's like a
34:57 beautiful woman wearing a nice necklace which adorns her. The necklace is not the most important thing. The beautiful
35:03 woman is. So in the same way, our work helps to either increase or decrease the
35:08 attractiveness of the gospel to unbelievers. The way that we conduct ourselves at work should adorn the
35:14 gospel. We shouldn't have people looking at wow this Christian so bad gossiping all the time and so on or you dishonor
35:21 salesman things like that. We shouldn't be like that because that puts a roadblock on people coming to know God.
35:27 Now for one thing if you if your work is going to adorn the gospel people at work must know that you are Christian to
35:32 start off with right? Otherwise how are they going to adorn the gospel if they don't even know that you are a Christian? So it's important to let
35:39 people at your workplace know that you are Christian. The earlier you do it the easier it is because after 10 years of
35:45 working then you tell that I'm a Christian then say hello you never told us so she she then never tell anyone
35:50 right but actually it's still better than nothing. Still better late than never. You see make sure that people
35:58 know that you're Christian and make sure that your life is consistent with your profession otherwise you bring shame to God. Okay. Now another way that we ought
36:06 to uh maximize Christ in our workplace is to bring the gospel into it. Okay, we
36:13 the relationships that God has given us there, he has put us there for a purpose. Know if you are a teacher, it's
36:21 easier for you to reach other teachers than for let's say pastor Rama or pastor Joshua go into your school and talk to
36:27 the teacher, right? Or same if you're a doctor, you're a businessman, you're IT professional, if you're tai tai also the
36:33 same thing. it's easier for you to reach people like you. Okay? He wants you to speak the gospel into their lives. And
36:41 of course, you don't just blurt the gospel out and leave it there. Show them genuine care and concern and love in
36:48 practical ways to adorn the gospel and break down the barriers to the gospel.
36:53 So these are some of the things that we can do so that we are not burying our talent in the ground.
36:59 And lastly, in our homes. Now, our homes are the places where
37:04 Christian disciplehip or the lack of it is the clearest because you can put out
37:10 a fake front in church very easily. And you can put on a fake front even at
37:15 work, but at home is impossible because your family members, your husband or
37:20 wife or children see you day in and day out. They know exactly what you are like. Disciplehip is not something that
37:27 you leave at the door when you come home from work. is something that starts in
37:33 your home. So for those of you who are husbands or fathers, God calls you to
37:39 love your wife sacrificially with everything that you've got
37:44 and to teach your children to fear and to know God. Now I don't have any children yet, so I'm not an authority at
37:51 all on this subject, but here's my two cents worth. Okay? Your children are watching you all the time. Okay? And if
37:58 you are hardly involved in their lives, if you lose your temple all the time unreasonably, if you are not being very
38:04 Christian in your behavior at home, then if don't be surprised if your children find it hard to swallow when you tell
38:10 them to live as a Christian. Now for those of you who are wives and
38:15 mothers, don't look down on your high calling. It's a noble calling that God
38:20 has called you to. You see our present today society does not appreciate the
38:26 role of being mother to them is like you could go out and work and earn money why you want to stay home and things like
38:31 that but in God's eyes you are performing a very important and valued service for him because you are shaping
38:38 and forming the next generation to be godly disciples of Christ and your
38:44 influence on their lives is very very important they will go ahead maybe to do great things for God so don't believe
38:50 the world when they say that it's ins significant to be a mother. Your impact may be far greater than
38:56 those of us who go out every day to work and come back and so on.
39:01 So in conclusion, what does the parable of the so uh of the talents teach us? I
39:08 think the single uh most important message is that you cannot gain eternal
39:13 life if you try to hang on to what you've got. You see the paradox is if you try to
39:20 play safe, you want to hold on to everything that you have, you refuse to take any risk at all in your life for
39:26 God's kingdom, then you are actually taking the biggest risk of all. You are gambling with your soul here.
39:33 Those people who are willing to pour out their life for God, those people will gain back everything. They're willing to
39:39 let go of everything. They're willing to be spent in God's service, to throw away their life. These are the people who
39:46 will gain eternal life. But for those of us if we hoard our time only for
39:54 ourselves, our money only for our own use, our homes only for our own enjoyment and we never share it, we
40:01 never use it for God, these are the ones who will lose everything on that last
40:07 day, even your own soul. See God I said earlier that Christian
40:12 disciplehip is not a spectator sport and God does not give prizes to spectators.
40:18 God only gives prizes to participants. William Wilberforce
40:25 uh I mentioned earlier he was well on the way to wasting his life but then he
40:31 became a Christian. He mourned. He repented of all the
40:36 privileges that he has wasted, all the time, the talent, the opportunities that he's wasted. And he decided to do
40:42 something with his life. At first he seriously considered whether he should become a church minister. Then later uh
40:48 he decided to stay in politics because that's where he was convinced God would use him the most. And he went on to take
40:54 on slave trade in the UK at that time which was like a mission impossible
40:59 because it was just the norm at that time. And he worked tirelessly. He put
41:05 bill after bill after bill up in parliament. He gave countless speeches and things and so on and faced many
41:11 defeats over many years until 20 years later when he was an old man the
41:17 parliament finally passed a law abolishing slavery. See, this is a man
41:22 who did not waste his life. So, brothers and sisters, don't waste
41:27 your life. Don't bury your talents that God has given to you because it will be
41:33 devastating to hear God say, "Cast this worthless servant into the outer
41:38 darkness." But we want to be able to say with the Apostle Paul these words
41:44 instead, this is Paul at the end of his life, just before he had to die. I have
41:49 fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the
41:56 crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also
42:04 to all who have loved his appearing. Let's come to God in prayer.
42:12 Our heavenly father, we thank you so much for your gracious gift of salvation,
42:20 for showering us with talents, with opportunities and resources and and
42:26 responsibilities in your service. Lord, please forgive us that so often we have
42:32 squandered your good gifts. We have wasted our lives in so much meaningless activity and we've buried our talents in
42:39 the ground. Please help us to use all that you have given to us to serve you with all our
42:47 heart and soul and mind and strength. And help us to bear gospel fruit in our
42:53 lives to bring others to Christ and show your glory in how we serve you in
42:58 church, in our work, and at home. Please use us and spend us in your service and
43:05 keep us faithful to you so that one day we can hear those joyous words. Well
43:11 done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will
43:16 set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Help us Lord we pray in Jesus name.
43:23 Amen.
