Gifted with Talents

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Great. So anyways, we're in Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 and following. And hopefully, if you don't have a Bible with you or a Bible app, we do have Bibles here. Anybody need one right now as we go through this teaching of Jesus? Okay, Matthew 25. For it will 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 out at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more talents 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 over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, Master, you delivered 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 over a 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 reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was mine own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the utter darkness in the place where there is will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Wow. Maybe this is a familiar a parable to you. I am amazed at different times when I've read it before. And one thing that I think we have to realize right away from this parable, along with the other teachings in Matthew 25 and at the end of just before Jesus enters into Jerusalem is this, that life is not a merry-go-round. They just keep going around and around and around. But the way God has set it up is it's a straight path. There has been a beginning. There is a middle. And there is an end goal. And that's what's being assumed here by Jesus is saying, OK, you've been begun with me. You're journeying with me. And now there is going to be an end goal. I'm headed toward Jerusalem. But after I leave, after I depart this world, after I'm risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, now the question is, what do you do with your life before the end, the glorious end when he returns again in glory? What are you supposed to do? How are you supposed to live in response to the gospel? It's kind of like, now what? Now what do we do? OK? And so in Matthew 25, these parables, this is one of them, speak to that in-between time between Christ when he came, when he conquered sin and death, when he died, when he rose from the dead, and when he'll come again. How do we live in this in-between time? Now I know some Christians, I've even said it myself, you know, when things aren't going so well or whatever in life, I say, well, it's all going to burn anyway. Have you ever heard anybody say something like that? It's kind of like basically saying, well, it doesn't really matter. Whatever happens here doesn't matter. I don't think that's a real Christian understanding of the gospel. Jesus says it does matter. What you do here matters. How your life is lived matters. You make a difference. And it affects even eternity. And this parable speaks to that today. Your life matters. So we have this parable of the talents. Sure, life's messy. Life's tough. Life's difficult. Life seems like it doesn't go anywhere at times. But there is a point to it all. There is a purpose to your life. And there is a direction. And, boy, that gives me great hope. And I hope it will to you today too. So you're gifted with talents. Now, when you hear that, you think right away about, you know, maybe your special abilities, right? Hidden talents like me muting my own mic when I didn't know it. But what is a talent in the Bible? Because did you notice in this text a talent is something different than what you think maybe. The talent in the Bible is a wei...