Back In The Black- Part 4
MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION:
Well, how are we doing? All right. So good to see all of you here today. And today, as Becky just said, we are wrapping up the series we started about a month ago called Back in the Black. And when we started this series, the first thing we did was we took a look at one of Jesus’s parables that he told in Matthew chapter 25. And I kind of want to end today where we started that all right with you. And I want us to look at this story. It’s a parable. So a parable simply means it’s an earthly story. It’s made up. So Jesus made up all kinds of stories. So he made up the story, but it has a spiritual point to it. And the title of my talk today is What Happens Now Matters then. What happens now matters then. So in, the story that Jesus tells it’s about a very wealthy man. He owns a business, and he decides to go away on a trip. And so he goes to three of his employees. They call them servants, but it’s really his employees. And he gives each of them a sum of money, and he expects them to invest it wisely, to manage it well, to bring honor to him, the company, the business. And when he returns, he’s going to, you know, kind of, you know, settle the record and see how they did. And so here’s how Jesus begins the story. He says this.
Matthew 25:14-15
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.
So we don’t know where this business owner is going. We don’t know how long he’s going to be there. We don’t even know when he’s going to come back. But I think the key, as we looked at this in the first week of the series, was when he gave his money to his employee. The key was it was his wealth. Whose wealth was it? It was his. It belonged to him and he entrusted it to his servants. Now, I think it’s just really important for us to understand this was not like chump change. A bag of gold and, you know, equivalent in our economy today would be worth $400,000. Everybody say, Wow, I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot of money to me, $400,000. This is not like, you know, here’s ten bucks. Go put it all on black at the casino. No, this is $400,000 thing. He did this, and he gave each of them, according to their ability, a different amount to one. He gave 5, one he gave two. And the one he gave to one He gave one. And his expectation was that you know, they’d put it to work. And when he came back, he’d see how they did and. The point, I believe, that Jesus is trying to make. When it comes to your money. Your talent, your gifts. Your skills, your ability to earn is it’s not your money. His money. Now, you don’t have to believe that. But Jesus does. And the day that you die. You are going to have to stand before the master. And give an account of how well that you lived your life and how good of a steward a manager. You were here on earth with the money that was entrusted to you. See this particular story? It’s embedded in the sequence of other stories that Jesus tells about this in the inevitable day of judgment that we will have to stand before our master and give an account. To how well we did. Living our life, the quality of our obedience to the master. So today. As your pastor, I want to make sure that every single one of you in the room watching online is prepared for this conversation that you’re going to have with your master, with Jesus. I really want you. To do well in this conversation. I want you to ace this test. Remember when you were in school? You’re just sitting there. You’re. If you’re like me, you’re daydreaming. You’re staring out the window. You know, I remember doing this, right? You know, just staring out the window, completely oblivious to whatever the teacher was there. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. All right. You’re just out there in Never Neverland.
And then all of a sudden, that one kid, they usually sat in the front of the class. They asked that one question of the teacher that changes everything. Remember the question. Will this be on the test? Remember that, and if the teacher said yes, all of a sudden, boom, you snap out of it. You’re like, Whoa! You wake up, you lean back in, and you’re listening. You’re taking, like, copious notes, and you might even ask a question or two because, hey, this is going to be on the test. And what Jesus is saying here is he’s giving us the story because he’s trying to prepare us, and I’m trying to prepare you. Gang. What we’re talking about today, this will be on the test, and I want you to ace it with flying colors. Isn’t it nice to have a pastor who wants you to, like, pass the test that cares enough about you? So this is on the test. So let’s look at what the servants did with the masters’ wealth.
Mathew 25:16-17
16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more.
You see what’s going on here. He goes on, and he tells us what happened to the guy who had one back.
Matthew 25:18-19
18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.
So the master distributes a certain amount of money. In all three cases, it was a different amount to each of his three employees. And he leaves expecting them to honor him by managing and investing what he’s entrusted to them to do. He wanted them to do well, and then he returns to settle accounts with them. And here’s the point. One day Jesus will return. To settle his account. With you, that’s the point. That’s what Jesus is trying to convey. So, friends. This will be on the test. Now, there’s three basic groups of people here represented in Jesuses story. There’s the guy with five bags of gold. There’s the one with two bags. And then there’s one with one bag. And what I believe that Jesus is trying to say is that what matters? What happens now matters then. So let’s apply that to each of these groups of people. Let’s start with the five-bag people. What five-bag people do now matters then. Go back with me to verse 16. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once. He went. It went. Once he didn’t go to coffee. He didn’t sit around it at my house. This is a lot of money. He didn’t know. He went at once, and he put his money to work, and he gained five bags more. You know, I love the fact that the one that Jesus gave the most money, the one that the master gave the most money to, was the most proactive. It was the one that was that he went at once. Jesus says. He didn’t, you know. Mess around. He wasn’t going to mess around with his master’s money. And it says.
Matthew 25:20
20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
I was so he was excited that the master had returned. You know why he was excited? Because he was ready. He was ready for this conversation. He was excited because he said, Look, look, see what you gave me? Five, and I turned it into five more. The master, he replied to him. Here’s what he says.
Matthew 25:21
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
I love this. The master was happy. He’s like, Man, you are serious about honoring me. You were serious about investing and managing what? I trusted you to do it well, to do to the best of your ability. And because of that, I’m going to give you more. Let me say something to you five bag people in the crowd because there’s some of you here. There are some five baggers here. You’re all about more. You love more. More pressure. More opportunity. More influence. Right. More growth, more up and to the right, more scrutiny. And also. More temptation. And this parable should be a real encouragement to you if you’re a five-bag person. Should really encourage you because of the hero of this story. Was the one who had more. It was the wealthiest one of all. Usually, in the stories that Jesus tells, it’s really the poor person that’s usually the hero. But not in this one, in this. In this story. It was the wealthy. It was the rich person that was the hero. And he says to them, Well done, you good. And you faithful servant. Listen, if you’re a five-bag person, I want you to know this God has entrusted you. More. Then he’s entrusted to others. And here’s why. Because he can trust you with it. You were faithful with a little. And now I’ll put you in charge of much. So this should be an encouragement to you. If you were a five-bag person. But I also want to issue to you a word of warning. The more God that entrusts to you, the more temptation there will be to misuse it. Can I just get really real with you? Let’s say you make $50,000 a year. You’re tied on. That’s about 96 bucks a week. That’s what the Bible teaches. And for you. 96 bucks a week. You’re like, Yeah, that’s like a night out. My wife or my friends. It’s dinner. It’s a movie. I can honor God with that. But then he gives you more. Let’s say you make $150,000 a year. You’re tied on that like 1250 a month. And the temptation is, Chief. I could lease a brand-new BMW with that. Right. Can we just be honest? I mean, I know we’re a church. And the temptation for those of you that are five bag people in the room. It is to misuse the more that God has entrusted to you. You know, I love the story about the guy who walks up to his pastor one day. He’s like, pastor, would you please pray for me? He’s like, Yeah, what’s going on? He said, Well, I used to tithe, and I know I should tithe, you know, but the business that I run has just taken off, and my 10% is now like $1,000 and tithe week. And I just can’t bring myself to tithe. Pastor, would you please pray for me? And the pastor was like, Sure, I’d love to pray with you. The pastor says, Lord. Please reduce this man’s income. Ha ha ha ha. So that he feels comfortable enough to honor you with the whole time. He’s like, No, no, no, no. Don’t pray that, pastor. Right. And that’s the temptation for five-bag people. And Jesus. He affirms this over and over and over again. It’s about trust and obedience. This man could be trusted. This man obeyed the master. And what did the master do? He blessed him with more. I’m just telling you. Five bag people. What we do now. Matters then.
But the story goes on to teach that a lesson to two bag people. So what do bag people do now? It matters, then. And I know I’m talking to a lot of two-bag people in the room. You would consider yourself wealthy, but you would say, Hey, look, God’s been good to me. He wouldn’t say like, I’m rich, but you would say, Hey, man, you know what? God has blessed me and you’ve done your dead-level best to this point, pursuing God to live a fully surrendered life. For him to trust him stepped into generosity. Maybe you’ve even been increasing as the months and years have gone by. Maybe you went through Financial Peace University, or are you going to go through it again, and you’re going to be like even one of our coaches to help others that will be in the class as well. And what’s very interesting when we look at the story is that the master didn’t pick any favorites. Even though the five-bag person earned twice as much as the two-bag person. The master treated them the same because they both doubled what they received. And so the master, as he says to the five, that person says to the two back person, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Now come and enjoy your master’s happiness. So listen to two-bag people if you work. Let’s get really practical. If you work for 40 years. Think about this. For 40 years. Four decades. And you make, on average, $50,000 a year. And many of you two-bag people make a lot more than that. But if you work for 40 years at $50,000 a year on average, you will earn. $2 million. In your lifetime. That’s a lot of money. And I believe what Jesus is saying to you. Manage it well. Honor me. Put me first. I’m entrusting this to you. And if you manage it well, if I can trust you, I will also bless you with more. Now, listen, the Bible is very clear. That when it comes to honoring God, what that really looks like in Malachi chapter three, it lays that out for us in the Old Testament. And some people would say, Well, you know, I just don’t believe in the tide because the tithes in the Old Testament, and now I’m in the New Testament, I’m no longer under the Old Testament covenant of law. I’m under the New Testament covenant of grace. I’ve heard that argument from a lot of people. I’ve even heard it preached from pulpits. The problem with that argument is that the tithe. Started hundreds of years before the law was ever even introduced. Hundreds of years before Moses ever went up on top of Mount Sinai. We see the tithe introduced with the. The king that Melchizedek. We actually see that even further back than that. We see it with the sons of our first parents, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. We see them bringing a tithe of the first fruits. One was a rancher. One was a farmer. And when. Abel brings his tithe to the Lord because it was the first. The firstborn. God blesses him. But when his brother Cain brings his tithe. It wasn’t a real tithe because it wasn’t his first. It was just some. It wasn’t the best. It was just some. And the Bible says that God blessed Abel but cursed Cain, and Cain became enraged with anger. And that anger turned into violence, and he killed his brother. So the tithe is an Old Testament covenant. And by the way, if we are, which I am under New Testament Grace. Since when does God’s grace ever lower his standard of holiness in our lives?
Jesus got up in the Sermon on the Mount, and he made six antithetical statements. It sounded like this. You have heard it said he’s talking about the law and the Old Testament and the Old covenant. You have heard it been said, But I tell you. You have heard it and said law. But I tell you, grace. He said things like you’ve heard it been said that a man should not commit adultery with another man’s wife. LAW. But I tell you, if a man even looks lustily at another woman, he’s already committed adultery in his own heart. So, grace lower the standard or the grace. Raise the standard, friend. Listen to me. God’s grace always raises the standard. And when Jesus came along, he introduced a whole new concept of the tithe. When he was asked in Matthew 23, 23, Hey, should we tithe? He said, Of course, you should. Yes, you should tithe. But don’t forget all these other things. Take care of the poor. Help those that are in need. Be generous above what the minimum standard is. Here’s what Jesus says. I want your whole life. I don’t want just a piece of your heart. I want your whole heart that, in fact, if you’re going to follow me. I want you to. Every day on the daily, take up your cross. And follow me. I want you to live a life of sacrifice, understanding that you have been bought with the price, the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that you are not your own. You belong to the God of Heaven, all mighty. And I want you to live your life the way that I live mine. Not my will, but yours. Be done for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. He gave everything for you. For your salvation. For you to be made right in the standing with your Heavenly Father. And he expects nothing less than those of us that follow Him. That would have been a good place for an amen. But that’s all right. I mean, I know good preaching when I hear it, but that’s alright, that just tells me, you know, that just tells me you’re really listening, and the Holy Spirit is moving in this place. Yeah. So what does it say in the Old Testament? Says this.
Malachi 3:8-9
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’“In tithes and offerings.9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me.
Another translation says Return it. Why doesn’t it say give? Here’s why. Because you can’t give something to somebody else that didn’t belong to you in the first place. Be like if you said, Hey, Hey, partner, can I borrow your truck? I’m sure. And I give you the keys, and maybe you have to go move something. And, you know, a couple days later, you come back and say, Hey, Pastor, you’re not going to believe this, but I have something for you. I’m like, What do you got for me? Look out here. Come on outside. I’m giving you this truck. I’m like, Wait a minute. That looks exactly like my truck. Is that my truck? Oh, yeah. Well, how can you? I gave it to you first. And that’s what we look like before our Heavenly Father. So we bring to him what belongs to him in the first place. Amen. And we live our life on this 10, 1080 plan. We bring the. The whole tithe. Not a portion. I just The command is to bring the whole tithe. There’s this is a conditional promise that if you meet the condition, God will bring the promise. He’ll bring the blessing. He says, bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and that, by the way, as your local church played out now in the New Testament, where you receive, you’re being spiritually fed and cared for. Bring it into the local church, the storehouse that there might be food at my house, that the mission of God in this community, or wherever your local church is. Can be moved forward by the power of God, and then he says, that’s the only place in scripture. Test me on this. Like, come on, let’s throw down. Like in The Nutty Professor. Come on, Cletus. Come on. Come on, Cletus. That’s what I always think of when I read this. I just see Eddie Murphy as God; come on, Cletus.
Malachi 3:10
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
You meet the condition. God will make it rain. You meet God to pour out a blessing on you that you cannot contain. And for some of you, I know you’re a Where’s my blessing? I’ll tell you exactly where your blessing is. Your blessing is on the other side of your obedience. It’s on the other side. And gang, I’m trying to. I’m trying to prepare you. This is on the test. This has nothing to do with the amount. Everything to do with your heart and your trustworthiness. So this applies to us all. So my challenge to you two-bag people in the room, a lot of you. You’ve stepped into generosity. You’re trusting God. It might not be a whole tithe. You know what I would say to you? That’s okay. Start small. Grow from there. Just keep growing in your faith. Just keep giving God a little bit more of your heart. And as you do that, your heart will grow. For the things that God’s heart cares about. Your heart’s going to care about. The causes that you care about are going to be oftentimes the same causes that God cares about. And as you continue just to increase your level of trustworthiness, I love the story. Thank Fred and Bonnie for that one; that’s great. I mean, what not a great story there. Sitting right over there was show me the love. I mean, that’s such a great story to take. I told everybody, like, well, the thought of a tie was like when they first got saved, like, we could never do that. And so they were challenged. Okay, just start small, and they start giving 1%, and they give themselves a ten-month runway. And by the end of month 10, they were giving a full tithe that they’ve never looked back, and they’ve been debt free ever since. God’s word works.
Let’s go to the last group of people. The one bag, what one bag people need to know about. What happens now will matter, that what happens now will matter. Then it says this.
Matthew 25:24
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So what’s he doing? This guy. He’s playing the victim. He starts leveling false accusations about the master. The master was not a hard man. The master was not, you know that didn’t lack integrity with his business dealings. This was him playing the victim like, you know. Times are hard. It’s not my fault. This is on you. Oh, and he goes on. It’s great. Watch what he says next.
Mathew 25:25
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
So he admits he’s operating out of fear, and he gives all these excuses, and he starts. Saying things about the master that aren’t true. And finally, the master has had enough. And this is what he says.
Mathew 25:26
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
And he banished him. He condemned him. To utter darkness. And I think we all know what Jesus was trying to say. He stood there, condemned, and he failed the test. Master said You know what? This is not about me. This is about you. And you’re lazy. You didn’t even give a rip about what I entrusted to you. You didn’t even want to be bothered. And he stood there. Condemned. It’s one of the most heartbreaking verses and all of the scripture. He’s like, Man, you didn’t even have. You could have used a little bit more imagination. The master, he goes on, he says, You could have taken what I’ve given to you, and you could have at least put it, you know, into the bank. You could have earned some interest on it.
Matthew 25:27
27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
You could have done that, at least. Instead, you come up with all these lame excuses. And now you’re condemned. Here’s what I think Jesus is trying to say to all of us because this applies to all of us. What happens now? Matters that. And now. What happens now matters then, The day that you stand before the master. It’s going to matter again. But it also matters now. It matters now for you and for your life. And this applies to all of us, whether you’re young and single and just starting out, trying to get through college, or you’re young, married, and you’re trying to put money away for your kids to go to college or save for retirement, or you’re elderly on a fixed income, this has nothing to do with the amount that you have, or you don’t have. This has everything to do with the trustworthiness of your heart. And your master wants you to know. I expect you to honor me with your wealth manage it well. I want to be able to trust you because if I can trust you with a little, I will give you more. So let me just wrap it up just with a few suggestions, and then we’ll go. Number one, here’s what I would say to all of us.
Attend Financial Peace University.
I’ve done my best over the last four weeks to share with you some very practical but kind of just higher-level lessons on managing what God has entrusted to you. But when you come tonight to Financial Peace University, and by the way, it’s all free. It’s a gift from us to you and to anybody else you want to share it with. I’ve been sharing it with everybody. It’s not just for our church. It’s for our whole community. So you give it to anybody you want. Whether they show up or not at the class, they can activate their free membership. They can have access to all of this information. And Dave Ramsey, he’s a lot of fun, and he’s hilarious. You’re going to love him. And so, I would encourage if you didn’t sign up, sign up before you leave. All right. So you can get into the real nitty-gritty of this. We’ll get to the weeds. We’re going to have coaches for you to help you learn at an even deeper level. You know how to get out of debt, how to save for an emergency fund, and how to save for your retirement so that when that day comes, you can enjoy it. You can have experience of financial freedom and peace. And lots of other, you know, financial decisions that you have to make. They’re all going to be covered. And by the way, they’re going to do your taxes for you for free this year. So all you need to do is activate that membership, show up at this class tonight, get in some community so you’d realize you’re not alone in this. We’re all in this together. All right. So that would be my first piece of advice to you. Here’s the second one.
Give a first-time gift.
If you’ve never given to God before. Start today. If you’ve never trusted God, if you’ve never taken the step, take your first step today. Can I just tell you this is not about the church? This is about you. We do not need your money. God does not need your money. What God wants more than anything else has nothing to do with your money and everything to do with your heart. It’s about your heart. And if you trust me with little, I can trust you with a lot. So if you’ve never given a round here before and here’s the deal. You don’t just give to community church. You give through community church. And this church is changing lives by the thousands around here. The partners that we have not only ministry partners, not only here in the Poconos, but literally around the world. So give for the first time. Take that step of faith. Here’s another one. If you have been giving around here, I would encourage you to.
Become a percentage giver.
Just pick one. I don’t care. I know what the standard is. The standard is 10%. That’s what a tithe means. A full tithe, 10%. So people ask me all the time, pastor, should I give off the gross or should I give off the net? It’s really simple. Do you want a gross blessing from God, or do you want a net blessing from God? It’s up to you. You decide. You get your paycheck. What do the taxes come off that right? Health insurance comes off that right. Your retirement comes off of that. Where does that put God? Fourth. You want God fourth? Where do you want him? First. It’s up to you. You decide. But this will be on the test. Because of what we do now. Matters then. And now, so become a percentage giver. Here’s how you do that schedule you’re giving. Just open up the app on your app on your phone. We’ll do that here in just a minute. Pick a percentage you’d like for. Start with 1%. If you’re already given one, you know, then maybe increase your faith that too. I don’t know. This is about you. This is about you and your Heavenly Father. You’re not going to have to stand before me one day. You’re going to have to stand before him. And I want that conversation to go well. So schedule you’re giving Becca and I, and we set up our online giving. We give on the first and the 15th because that’s when we get paid. And the first thing that goes out of our bank account is our ties right here to this check, right here to this church. Quite honestly, I don’t even see it. I don’t have it. I don’t touch it. I went out soon again because it’s not mine. It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to him. So be a percentage giver. Schedule your giving, and let me just encourage you if you’re already giving. Here’s what happens. And I’ve been, you know, guilty of this. When we set things up on autopay, it almost becomes like autopilot. And then we forget to go back and say, okay, oh man, I forgot I got a bump in my pay, or I got that new, unexpected thing. But I just let the auto pay just keep going. And I never went back. And so I’ve had there’s been times where I’m like, oh, pay back. Remember that? Yeah. Let’s give extra. Let’s increase. We increased last year. We increased again this year. So don’t let it go because it’s on auto-pay to become autopilot. And lastly, I would say.
Become a sacrificial giver.
Become a sacrificial giver. Give sacrificially. Some of you that have been blessed so much. Here’s what I want to say to somebody. Five bag people. You have been such a huge blessing for the Kingdom of God. Not only here in the Poconos, but. Also, the causes that are near and dear to your heart. I would just keep leaning. You’re way beyond the level of obedience. You’re into the atmosphere of sacrifice. Over and above. Keep leaning into that because here’s what God’s going to do. He’s going to just give you more. He’s going to give you more. So, last of all.
Become a legacy builder.
A legacy builder who is somebody who just says, You know what, I want my life to count. I want my life to live on even after I’m gone. I want to make a difference with my life. And so for you today. If you step in, give for the first time, if you’re giving what you increase, where you give a sacrificial gift over and above, that makes you a legacy builder around here. Again, it’s not about the new campus in Lehigh Valley. It’s not about, you know, more buildings, and it’s not about more programs. It’s about you and your heart. Amen. Be a legacy builder. Make your life count. Because listen, what happens now? Matters then. And I want you to hear. Well done. Thou good? And faithful servant. Enter into your reward. Come enjoy the happiness of your master.