Investing Your Talent for God’s Glory from Matthew 25:14-30
By Matthew Robert Payne PRIEST Matthew 25:14-30The Parable of the Talents 14 For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lords money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them. 21 His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them. 23 His lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord. 24 Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours. 26 But his lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. PRIEST I am not going to make this a long sermon but I want to stress some points in this story that many people do not know. A talent in this story is a measure of weight and in the times of Jesus, this was a measure of weight of between sixty and eighty pounds. If this was silver then five talents would make a person very rich. Today he would be more then a millionaire. Well everyone wants to be a millionaire. People say that it takes money to make money, so let say I gave you one talent. Lets say I gave you $200,000. How many of you couldnt make some money out of that? Don Its good to see you in church. Tell me, you used to be a fisherman. Would two hundred thousand dollars set you up in a good trawler? DON I could Captain one and manage another two with that sort of money.PRIEST Well Jesus is making a point here. How lazy would a person be if they had two hundred thousand dollars and put it under their bed and did nothing with it. If you have a talent, God wants you to use that talent and do good for Him and humanity. Dont push your talents aside and go after money and waste all that money keeping up with the Jones. You can never have a better car and a better house and a better looking garden then your neighbours. If your talent is knitting, a few dollars a month can have you knitting jumpers in front of the TV and missionaries in poor countries can do a lot of good with those jumpers. What is little money here in Australia is plenty of money in Africa and China. If you have been given a gift from God, dont squander your life coveting your neighbours possessions and working to have all the best of everything, take some time and money and invest in your talent and become so good at it that it brings in a great reward for God. If you are a good sower, sow things and let people who are poor be blessed. You never know how a poor person may come to love your God when its your jumper keeping them looking smart and warm during a cold winter. If your gift is singing. Dont worry about singing up on the lead microphone come and sing in the choir and sing as part of a team. Sing your heart out and get lessons and get better at singing. Who knows one day you might even record a few songs and people could be really blessed with what you do. If you are good at something, dont chase money and success with your life, invest some time and money into your talent and make it shine so that the God who gave it to you may get some credit for His wonderful gift He gave you. There are plenty of people who dont know God who make their talents shine without Him. Dont bury your talent, invest it like they have. I pray that all your readers are blessed by this passage out of a screenplay I am currently writing. I think the priest did a nice short but meaningful sermon on the talents. I pray that you would use your talents to Gods glory. Matthew shares his heart in these articles and can be found at http://www.online-prayer.net You can read more of his articles at his link below. If you want a copy of his upcoming book of articles which will have the first sixty of the articles on this web-site called “The Musings of a Mad Prophet” please contact Matthew via email so he can contact you around February 2007 to tell you of the progress of the book. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Robert_Payne http://EzineArticles.com/?Investing-Your-Talent-for-Gods-Glory-from-Matthew-25:14-30&id=293442 ambien order sites ambien swollen feet ambien generic online prescription ambien regenerate braincells
