I wanted to read to us, just a quick touch, I'm not going to give a huge overview of parables, but I thought it was necessary to just shed some light and a quick touch on what are parables. And so, these are various definitions of parables that I should write on it. All parables are theological, so theological, propositional truth when properly explained. C.H. Dodd, a New Testament scholar, says that parables are the natural expression of a mind that sees truth in concrete pictures rather than conceives it in abstractions. And lastly, another New Testament scholar, application to tease it into active thought. So that being said, let me read to us aloud Matthew 25, 14 through 30. And I'm reading from the English Standard Version. For it would be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one, he gave five talents. To another, two. To another, one. to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went afterwards and traded them. And he made five talents more. So also he who had received the one talent went and hid his master's money. He who had received the five talents came forward with five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here, I have made five talents more. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful but were a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had the two talents, to me two talents. Here, I have made two talents more." His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful a great little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward, saying, master, I knew you to be a hard man, grieving where you did not sow. and gathering where you scattered no seed. And so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talents in the ground. Here, you have what is yours. But his master answered me, you wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I would reap where I had not sown, and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money in the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has its own talents. For to everyone who has will more be given than he will have from us. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. So I grew up on the southwest side of Topeka, Kansas in a neighborhood called Briarwood. And I joke that now I live in a neighborhood called West Burno, the central area of Topeka, Kansas. You guys are familiar with that area. I joked with my friends growing up that it was funny to me how people in my neighborhood of West Burno will explain to one another where they live and how different it is compared to how we would explain it to one another growing up and where I was from. You see, where I was from, if we wanted to know where somebody was from, we would say things like, oh, you know the house down around the corner, there's that truck, basketball bowl, the kids are always playing over there, that white house there. That's where I live. In Westboro, maybe we're a little bougie or something, or out of ourselves in the neighborhood. And there's two ways in my neighborhood that we speak of where we live. And it's the first way that I was totally accustomed to, and it was new to me, was by speaking about the style of home. So, oh, I'm Pam. I live in between that French eclectic and that Spanish colonial in that English cottage tutor? Well, that's how we talk about homes. We love to describe the style and specific era of the home. Or secondly, and I know you're thinking, it's, who was the former owner? And what was their last name? And when I bought this home, it's a quarter lot. It's a small, modest home, but it has a lot of space because it's a quarter lot. I remember being told, oh, that's the former judge's bowling zone. That was the bowling zone. That was the bowling zone. You live in the bowling zone. I remember hearing that all the time. And when we bought the home, I was very proud that I looked at this former judge's bowling zone. And it was a lot of property. And I remember being very proud. Until one day, I thought about it more. And as I looked, I'm homeless. Oh my gosh, this is so bad. I can't even throw a football to the other end of the yard. And then it occurred to me that as crazy as it was to own it, I never had to screw it. I thought, oh, yeah, that's great, but I have to run this long. I have to take care of the trees. That's a lot of trees. I have to do the, oh, I can't imagine the leaves that are going to pile up on this yard. So our stewarding of the things that God has given us, and the task that that is. But I want to invite us, first and foremost, to this truth. And I'm a three-point sermon guy. So I have three points. But the first point from this parable that we must not overlook is, before we speak about the concept of stewardship, we need to look at the principle of worship. And who is God as the owner? of all that is, right? And so I can't think of a more important question, often, in the world of business dealings, home acquisitions, the things that we possess, property that, who's the owner, right? Who is the owner? And this parable teaches us, who is the owner of the home that we see? has one of these things. Namely, all things, seen and unseen, that this property is not a small, meager, corner lot of a neighborhood bluff. But this property is all things. All things. And he has no land more. He's not renting. He has no mortgage. He's never been to Oakland. He owns all things. My wife and I, Sandy and Cooper drive here to Colorado, like I said, a few weeks ago. And I've always wanted to stop in this one area of my drive going west. It's a street or an exit called Deep Creek Road. I don't know if you've ever driven past that, but it's this valley in the middle of the flip coast. And there's this farm, and then there's all this cattle. And it just looks beautiful. Little Kansas, Flint Hills, Farmer. I just love it. But I've never stopped by, because it's always been, let's see, it's been powerful, right? So we had some time, but we stopped. And we exited, and we just drove through these hills, and it just went forever. And there were hills, and hills, and hills, and cattle everywhere. And almost no people. So it reminded me of the verse in the Psalms that speaks about God as creator, as he is the one who owns cattle on a thousand hills. And that is God asserting himself and bragging about all that he knows. Growing up, when we would go visit my uncle, who has a pretty legit cattle operation, my dad would always tell me, don't ask him how many cattle he has. Don't ask that question, right? Because that's like asking somebody what's in their bank So when he speaks of owning cattle of a thousand bills, is he saying, do you think it's cool that you have a bill of cattle? I've got thousands upon thousands. Go around and bid. And another bill. And another bill is mine. And that bill is mine. All that you see is mine. Every square inch of this universe belongs to God. There was a well-known writer who was a political theorist. Maybe you know his name. His name is Robert Lefebvre. And he wrote, I don't know if I'm saying his name right, but he wrote about the importance of the libertarian. And he wrote about the importance of private property, ownership, self-reliance, independent responsibility. He was well-known for founding Otarkin. And I don't know if I'm saying that right at all. the idea of the importance of self-reliance, personal freedom, individualism. And he says this about ownership of property. He wrote extensively on the topic of property. And he says this, and this is coming from one who has a complete and thorough secular mindset about the world. I thought this was very important, as we get into the character of God as a creator, While many will assert their antipathy to sharing anything, the facts speak to the contrary. While it is true that at an outset the desire to own property privately must result in an exclusive relationship in which the whole world is excluded from the property owned, there is within us a countervailing desire. acquire a property which is valuable to us, we wish to share it with others. So we may win their admiration in respect to what we have acquired. This is the drive that moves us toward becoming businessmen or hosts. If we produce a product that we believe to be beneficial or useful, we cannot wait to give it to others. We want to share what we have acquired. A man acquires a home. He admires the lavish, and he can hardly wait to invite his friends so they may see what he knows. He wants to feed them and to share with them the results of his efforts. He wants to display objects of art he has acquired, to share with them ideas he has thought through, and in many ways obtain the satisfactions that can come only through this process of sharing. So we have a mixture of evil in our Does it really share for others' sake or for our own desperate and insecure desire for vain approval and worship from others? Think about what Robert says. And in many ways, we desire to do this to obtain the satisfaction from others. And here is the otherness of God so clearly seen as comparative to the ways in which we engage in the stewardship of things. You see, God is spoken of here in this parable as a master of joy. He's master of joy. He's full of joy. This is a very important doctrine that we fancily call, I don't know if that's a word, we call the doctrine of God as saints. What that means is, that's a Latin word, a se. And what that means, a se, is from himself or of himself. That God, in and of himself, is fully satisfied. In and of himself, he's full of joy. Since before the foundation of the world, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have dwelt together in perfect unity and fellowship. And that they do not, have any insecurity or any need of others. That the creation of the world and what we see and what is unseen and all that we enjoy is not shared with us like we share things. And it's got to not share the world, not create the world out of need of our fellowship. He had no needs. He had no need to receive joy from sharing things, because his joy was complete. Rather, God, in his glory, desired to show off his glory to many creatures like us. God is joyful, but we are what's called Pav Aliya. upon another. We come from another. We are contingent in its means. God is not. The statement, enter the joy of your master, is theologically so rich. Enter the joy of the master is what, in this parable, the master tells the person successfully invested, taken risks, been courageous, and have multiplied and have manifold fruits in their lives. And at the end of the age, the Master says, enter the joy of it. This statement harkens back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are sent out from the presence of God because of their disobedience. But now, redeemed saints, we who are washed by the blood of Christ, given his righteousness, are represented here in the faithful service being received back into the master's joy. Enter into the joy of your master. It's saying that the joy that was forfeited by Adam and Mary in his disobedience to God was secured by Christ on the cross for us. The joy that was forfeited by Adam, the departure from the presence of God, is now secured and won for us by Christ on the cross, who filled the covenant of works on our behalf, so that we might enter into his joy, that joy that we lost. The psalm that I mentioned earlier says this. This is the same psalm in which God declares himself owner of all. He says, I will not accept a bull from your house, or a goat from your foals, or every beast of the forest of your mind, or a cow on a thousand hills. I know all the birds in the fields and all the animals in the fields of my eyes. If I were hungry, I would not take for the world and its fullness on mine. Like meat plus moles, I drink the blood of the ghost. See, God is not a creature of need. He has no need. He owns all. He shares out of joyous love, out of his desire to make his name known for us to then be independent of all care. And here's a very important point. Maturing, for us in the Christian life, is not growing out of dependency, but actually growing into dependency upon God. It's growing more dependent upon God, and less dependent upon ourselves. We have nothing but that which comes from another. God is the one who has life and joy in and of himself. Christian maturity is the recognition of that and the leaning into that, that we are contingent beings who depend upon God. Maturity is not growing out of dependency. but growing dependent more and more upon God and less dependent on ourselves. While painting a vivid picture of God's abundance, this parable also offers us a compelling vision on what we are to do with what God chooses to give us. in this life, in this divine province, what they're going to choose to entrust to us in this life. That is, of course, what this parable is about, stewardship. When we first went to ground level, the human got this as our creator. I mentioned Kyle Snodgrass before. He says this, the parables compel us crosshair. God meditating response. My second point is this. God is our master who demands faithful stewardship of all that he has given to us. And faithful stewardship begins first and foremost throughout America have spoken of their master as a master of grace. It says this, for it will be like a man going on a journey who called the sermons. His sermons did not sign up. His sermons did not put themselves out there, in a sense. But God, the master, calls by His grace. Then it says, The master entrusts to them. That's not to say that the servants earn, the servants take. It says that the master entrusts to what he gave. He gave to another to gain. And even the abilities that they had to carry out the stewardship got gained. It speaks about receiving the talents. And after a while, When the master returns to settle accounts, the faithful servants come forward and recognize their master as the one who's delivering to them the talis. It's the faithful servant, we talk about later, who doesn't begin grounding the things that he has in the grace a life of continual thanksgiving for the things that he has given us. All the worldly and temporal gifts that he's given us in the spiritual blessings of Christ. It's a whole thing that we must continually thank God for. It's not just a mere acknowledgement. That is of importance and knowledge. But we must also correct this thanksgiving as we come to God in prayer, knowing that any ish stewardship that we do faithfully is by his spirit. bring about fruitful stewardship of the places he was. When this parable says that these talents were given according to abilities, it is not a value statement necessarily about whether it's fair or unfair, that one or more has abilities to carry it. to see how he's going to wire me? What does he give me? Do I have the potential for this venture? So I want to bring to our attention a kind of tension that this parable brings into an attention that's inescapable for us, but one that is to be harmonious. And this parable introduces a tension or a double kind of expectation for us as new believers. The parable, like I said, harkens back to Genesis 128. It speaks about the command of God upon us and upon the world, really, to steward, to take dominion over what God has created. And we are made to do this. We are made to be culture makers. And we are made to fulfill the earth, to be fruitful, to multiply, to literally be born as subdued So we work. Work is good. Work is pre-fall. We work. We cultivate the earth. We advance in technology. We teach in schools. We're principals. We're everything. All that God has given into our hands is a cultural mandate. The stuff that we do, the stuff that we make, that's what theologians, that's what we refer to as the cultural mandate or the creation mandate. That everybody, whether you're in Christ or not, is called to that. And as I believe Christians are called to excel in that, it's really glorifying God. And we're going to want to have that for the books of not just doing these things in vanity, but doing these things in hopes that the way in which we work with excellence will bring glory to Christ and actually have an avenue in which to speak about Christ. the double expectation upon Christians of the Great Commission. And these two are not to be played against each other, though we often do it. There is upon a believer a double expectation of fruitfulness, if you will, a double expectation of studentship that not only are we tasked with the cultural thing, that work is good, but that we are also tasked with the Great Commission. That we're to work with our hands, we're to create things. That the famous story of Martin Luther, when he's approached by someone who's on fire for Jesus and says, Martin, Martin, how do I share the gospel with you? How do I evangelize? And this man who's asking Luther this question is a shoemaker. And Luther's famous retort back to his shoemaker is, make good shoes. Because the guy, the shoemaker, is so zealous He wants to write John 3.16 on every pair of shoes. And Mark Luther would go, hey, hey, just make good shoes, OK? So it's important to just do quality work for the glory of God. But there is a calling upon us of the Great Commission to go to the ends of the earth and spread the name of Christ, teaching them all that God has commanded, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. Sing the gospel and go forth to nations that don't have it. Languages that don't have it. People here, people there, that don't have the gospel. Missions. Soul-winning work. This is assumed here. Nancy Peercy writes this in her book, Total Truth. A calling is not just to go to heaven, but to close-day the earth. Not just to save souls, but also to serve God through our work. For God himself is engaged not only in the work of salvation, but also in the work of preserving and developing his creation. When we obey the cultural mandate, we participate in the work of God himself. If we ask ourselves, what is the mission of God's people? Well, our mission is one that is twofold. Like I said, we have to follow the expectations. We are all called to the cultural mandate. But assumed in this paradigm, it's not just that. Well, let's assume in this parable, it's total and holistic increase of the Church. Total and holistic increase of the Church. That there's a fruitfulness of more souls coming into the Kingdom of God. Yes, we steward our families. Yes, we steward the things God has given us. But the question is also, how are we stewarding the message of the gospel? A tale of two stories. John Piper, a famous theologian, author, pastor, has a story where he talks about two people. One, a missionary who goes overseas to share the gospel. A sort of female missionary who, in her 90s, decided to go overseas to some third world country to do mission work. And in this lady, years into the war, ends up falling as she's driving through the village, going on a trip to Pasadena. And then Piper famously gets up there and talks about a couple who retires, snowbirds move to Florida, and are collecting seashells every now and then. And then he asks the reporter to the congregation, which one is the treasure? Which one is the treasure? Which one is the treasure? He says, the tragedy is not this woman gave all that she had, knowing she can't lose what she really has, which is Christ. That's not the tragedy. The tragedy is that these people are wasting their life. And they're going to stay in the world and leave God, and say, look, I collected these subsistence. That's what we did. And the opposite story is that we And this is what his biographer says. This is what his biographer says about Tertulli. So Tertulli, taking the biographer's advice, He was doing a great mission work, all about the gospel, all about Jesus Christ. And he says, listen, the scope of Tozer's ministry militated against the wholesome family life. Speaking engagements meant that he was away more than he was home. He was actually in the house. He was in his bedroom studying. Beautiful, right? But his wife, who got the chance to remarry after Tozer died, says that then, So how do we get a kind of lifestyle that's not off balance, that sees the mandate as stewarding our family, stewarding the things that God has given us well, not by torture, but not just seeking out family leisure, like the collectors of seashells, but radically pursuing the stewardship of the gospel message, no matter the cost. That is the expectation. That is the call for our life as believers, that we are in some way and also destroying the rest of the gospel, whether we're goers or whether we are senders of those who go. Right? So the faint flaw of the wicked and slothful servant. So how do we get to that? One of the grounds is risk-taking courage that we need, like these faithful servants have. What is the grounds of our courage to live that way? Well, the fatal flaw of the wicked and slothful servant is the same as every armed worker. And it actually proves, as we read about the third servant's tragic flaw, we will rightly see what is our chief virtue. So understanding what is the chief ironically, reveal to us what is our almost superpower as Christians. What is our chief virtue? What is the ground that allows for us to be faithful servants? Master, I knew you to be a hard man, living where you take not so quick a gathering, where you scatter no seed. So I was afraid, and I relented, and gave you a telegram in the ground. Here came your first man, Pat, at that point of his deliverance. The tragic flaw of the wicked servant of him reveals to us Why? It's the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's domestic. Romans 1. It's Romans 1. It's this tragic character, this tragic hero, who's given a trust by the master, who's ruined it, who's wasted it. It's not because he didn't have a release. It's not because he didn't know the call. It's because he did recognize the identity of Jesus Christ. He believed the lie of the serpent. Can we harken back to Genesis? What did the serpent say to Adam? What did the serpent say to Eve to cast doubt about the promise of God? Did God really say that? Or is God really good? Is he really worthy of your obedience? Satan, the chorus of hell, sings and casts doubt upon the goodness of God, and causes the wicked, the non-believer, to see God as evil, or as oppressive, or here, as some sort of corrupt tyrant. The flaw, the tragic flaw, is that of Romans 1 where Mankind knows God innately, but does not give Him thanks, but are without excuse still nonetheless. Because God has revealed His goodness in creation. God has revealed it. And further, God has revealed His goodness more specially in the message of the gospel. That is our superpower. That's the Christian's true virtue that provides us with the grounds of faithful, of a life of faithful stewardship. Executing a life of faithful stewardship depends upon us rehearsing the message of the Gospel and seeing the beauty of our Master in the face of Jesus Christ. See, this tragic character fell long with the character assassination of the goodness of God. He did not believe God was real. I remember being told a long time ago about a guy who was being hired or trying to be hired at a job. And the person hiring him knew somebody who knew this person. And before they ever began the hiring process, in charge of ultimately hiring, had already heard a lot of things about this person. Not good things, right? From somebody that they knew before. This one's two sides of the story. And as this person begins his metaphors in the hiring process, he says these words to him. He says, you're not being good for training. You're actually not being good for training. Sharing the gospel, believing the gospel is like this. It's saying to the world, it's saying to our hearts, God is not who he's been portrayed to be. God is not who Satan has portrayed to be. He is not a master who has not reaped or has reaped what he has not sown or gathered what he has not sown. So we must press into our hearts daily the recursive gospel of Jesus Christ. Milton Vincent, who wrote a book called Gospel Founders, says this, Every time I deliberately disobey a command of God, it is because I am in the moment doubtful as to God's true intentions in giving me that command. Does He really have my best interest at heart, or is He withholding something from me that I will need better off? such questions whether consciously or not lie underneath every act of disobedience. However, the Gospel changes my belief in God's commandments, and that it helps me to see the heart of the person from whose those commandments come. This parable of stewardship, the command to steward, comes from the person of Christ. When I began my train of thought with the Gospel, I realized that if God loved me enough to sacrifice his Son's life for me, And here's what's so laughable about this here servant's response to the message. That this parable is about God. The God of time is the age that we're in right now. OK? We are in it right now. And this very sort of representative of the world comes from God. And the king is the character of God, thinking that God is not good enough. He's asked for something that he himself wouldn't do. Far, far from what is the gospel truth. I want you, parables, within reason, are imitations to imagine. I want us to imagine this, that this master that we have, this master of a jewel, who has secured for us benefits and come to our redemption by his blood, has secured for us the joy that Abba forfeited for us by his rules of miracle. And this master, in this miracle, who comes suspected of fruit, anticipating the fruit from his servants, and opens his hands to receive this fruit that he has righteously deserved, that he worked by the powers of his spirit, receives faith increases. from these faithful servants who have trusted in him. And yet this wicked servant says, oh, your heart is scared, wrathful, harsh. You reap what you sow. You gather what you scatter to seed. And yet this master has holes in his hands, showing the wounds of his cross. expected and hopeful and anticipated of the fruit being made. He's become a holy man who has not scattered. Jesus faithfully stewarded what his father gave him, which was So this faithful master, this master of joy, as he holds out his hands, expecting to go for a fruit, he does so bearing the wounds of the cross, saying, I'm not a hard man. I'm a gentle and lovely. I made myself a sheep. I made myself a lamb and a swan. And here are the wounds. And further, because of the resurrection, And because of the ascension, we know that our faithful stewardship doesn't depend upon us, but depends upon the power of the Holy Spirit that God pours out generously so that we can fulfill our calling, that we can fulfill and steward the things that God has given us. And so what is our hope? What is the grounds for our assurance of being a faithful anything that our master has not done to an infinite degree. He is not callous. He is not a harsh man asking for things that he wouldn't do himself. He went lower than we will ever be asked to go. His level is the crucifixion. And God, we want to be faithful students. We want to be those who hear those words, well done, faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master. Jesus, you have secured that entry into your joy. You, Jesus, by your love, have secured for us redemption. And now, God, would you work out that salvation within us and within our lives? When we steward our calling, when we be those who go out and do our jobs well and then cultivate the earth, but when we also be those who go out, as you say, that you will be with us to the end of the age. Therefore, we'll make disciples. Jesus said we would be a part also of stewarding the most important possession, which is you, which is the gospel message. So would you give us what we need Would you give us what we need to steward the things that you've given us? Forgive us, O Lord, for the many times that we have faithlessly stewarded things, that we have not carried out what you have called us to do. And please cleanse us of them. Please give us new ones. Please help us, enable us by the power of your Holy Spirit, to steward the faithful, the talents that you've entrusted us with.