In My Servanthood to God

Introduction

Being a Wednesday night, I’m gonna stand down here and talk to us folks tonight. I don’t know if you’ll call this preaching or talking with, but we’re gonna have a lesson that pertains to all of us. So when I talk tonight, I’m actually talking to myself as well as every member here and every person here. I started off talking about the biblical heart, how it’s made up of the intellect, the wills and emotion. Also started this meeting off with talking about what it costs to be a child of God. I want to read a passage of scripture in Matthew the tenth chapter. The cost of being a child of God is great. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth, Jesus says. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

For I’ve come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And if a man’s enemies will be those of his household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and fall after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. There’s quite a cost to being a child of God, and it is that we love him more than anything else. Love God, keep his commandments. That’s the first commandment we have. But we need to think about those things as we go through.

Tonight we’ll think about the parables. Think about the parables of Jesus, how wonderful they are, how uplifting they can be, how insightful they are, and sometimes we kind of look at it and say, Do we understand those parables? If you look in Matthew, there’s like 22 parables listed in Matthew. About 10 in Mark and about 10 or so in Luke, give or take. And I think about that and think, you know, when you think about parables, maybe we all have our favorite parable. I don’t know. I think of this and say, maybe the most famous parable is that of the prodigal son. We know that case, don’t we? The son gets his, wants his inheritance, goes off and squanders it. He finds himself with the pigs, and he goes back to his father’s house.

The father’s waiting on him, but the older son doesn’t like him coming back. And it’s a lesson for all of us in the fact that we it may sometimes be walling with pigs, we need to get up and get back to God. Or it may be the fact that there’s one of our members that has gone walling with pigs that comes back, and we need to receive them. We don’t need to shun them. Or maybe the most touching parable is the good shepherd and the lost sheep. If I was the lost sheep, wouldn’t you want the good shepherd to come and find you? I sure would. I’d want to be found by that by that shepherd. And I in when we were in Greece, or Turkey, excuse me, we found shepherds, and there was one in the front and one in the back.

And Pharaoh Jenkins never will forget. I said, Pharaoh, now what’s going on here? He said, the one in the front is leading, the one in the back is making sure nobody gets lost. And I think, isn’t that wonderful? I kind of look at it this way. Jesus is leading us. We’re in a congregation where there’s elders, they’re making sure we don’t get lost. They don’t make the laws, they uphold this gospel. When the preachers preach it, they make sure it’s true. Now think about that. But the most touching parable may be that one. Maybe the most comforting story for the helpless, and one that’s used a lot is Lazarus and the rich men. And the best part of that in my book, Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.

1. The Parable of the Talents

The rich man died and lifted his eyes in torment. I want to die with the angels carrying me to Abraham’s bosom. I want to do that. And whatever it takes is what I need to do to do that. But maybe the most practical parable is the parable of the talents. Now I’ve got my reader ready to go, right? All right. Do you want to go ahead and read the parable of the talents for us in Matthew 25, 14 through 30?

I have gained five more talents besides them. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two times. Look, I have gained two more talents besides that. 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. 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.

And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours. But his Lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I read where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my own coming I have, I would have received back my own interest. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. 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. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be reaping and ashing of teeth.

Okay, thank you.

And you got it too. But when we think about the parable of the talent, and by the way, I love to have a reader. I love to involve folks in the worship service that way, as far as the me and at Greenwood, I would walk down the aisle and I might punch a guy and say, Read this for me. The wives made sure their husbands were awake. Let me shall tell you that. But I want you to think about this.

We don’t know if these are his only servants or not. We have any no idea. It doesn’t say he only had three servants. But he calls these three in because he trusted those three servants. We also see that he’s going on a long journey. So he’s going to trust them to carry on what he’s doing to improve what he has. We see he entrusts them with his wealth. That’s really important. But also we see his assignments. And sometimes we might think about well, each one received what they were capable of handling, or was it a mistake? Why were they not all treated alike? Why didn’t the guy with one talent get two? Why didn’t the guy with two talents get five? Why did the five-gallon talent guy only get or get five and not two?

How was all that worked out? It’s an amazing thing, you see, what would have happened is if the five-talent man is given one talent, it would be a good use of his abilities. He would be, as we say, he would be bored in that position. He would have too much talent just to deal with one talent. Or the two would be the same. He had two talents, he would be overburdened with five, and he would not have been used fully if he had two, or if he had one. But the one man talent had been given five or two, he would have been overwhelmed with that. That would have been too much burden on him. We could stop right here and say, we can look in the congregation and say, I don’t have those talents.

But do you know what talents you do have? That’s going to be the challenge for us tonight. Do you know what talents you do have? And so we look at this, and obviously what we do is we go to scene two, and we see the fact that the master returns and he wants an accounting of his servants. That makes sense. He’s coming back home. He wants the counting of what went on. The five-talent man, he made five more talents. And he was blessed for doing that and thanks for doing that. The two-talent man did the same. But the one talent man is very interesting because what happens there is he didn’t lose the talent. He had the same talent it was when the master came back.

2. Why Was He So Unprofitable?

But what happened was he didn’t go out and try to gain that talent. He didn’t even use it and deposit to make interest. Now it’s interesting to me what the master says about that. Take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For it 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. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Well, why was he so unprofitable? He didn’t lose the talent, which is the same talent the master had given him. He didn’t, the master got what he gave him. It was got back, gotten back.

Well, there’s no indication he was some of these things. He wasn’t wasteful, it doesn’t look like in Luke 15, verse 13. He wasn’t wasteful with his talent. He didn’t like to go out and squandered the talent or anything. He wasn’t dishonest. He was very honest about this. Is what I did with his talent, Master. I knew you to be a hard man. He wasn’t lustful. It wasn’t like he went out and spit it on a prostitute or a temporal prostitute or anything like that. He didn’t do that at all. He wasn’t a drunkard. We’d have no idea that he was spending on drunk drinking. Doesn’t say that. He buried that talent. He wasn’t immoral, according to Galatians 5. He wasn’t immoral at all. He didn’t go to the works of the flesh.

He just buried that talent. Well, so why was he so unprofitable? This is interesting to me. Fear of failure. Look at Matthew 25, verse 25. Matthew 25, 25. And I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours. I was afraid. I just heard a sister need to ride for Friday morning. Who’s afraid to take her? By the end of this lesson, if there’s not several of you signing up for that, I haven’t done my job. It’s servanthood. It’s servanthood. I was afraid and hid my talent. You don’t have a talent to drive a car. You don’t have a talent to call someone. Little story. We had some friends that lived in Texas. It was a little drive to services.

They started out going Sunday morning services when they moved there, Sunday evening services and Wednesday night services. Then it got to be they thought just a little far. So they thought one Sunday evening we’ll just stay home. They stayed home at about 9 o’clock that night they got a call from one of the older members. The older member says, Where were you? I missed you being at services. It’s so uplifting to see knowing you have to come this distance. Where were you? Well, we we just didn’t feel like we should drive that tonight. The next Sunday, they did the same thing. Went to Sunday morning worship, didn’t come back Sunday night. Nine o’clock, they got a call from this. This went on for about four weeks.

Finally they said to each other, We’re going to worship service on Sunday night. I’m tired of her calling. We might have think an older member doesn’t have any talent. That talent was there to call that one and say, I missed you. Fear of failure. Sure, there’s times of failure. There’s times that you look at it and you say, I’m going to fail, but I’m at least going to try. Inactive, Matthew 25 and verse 18. All I did was go bury it. I just went and buried. When the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with him. I was inactive for all that time. Because he buried that talent. How long do you think it took him to bury the talent? Probably not long at all.

I don’t know. Don’t know where he buried it, but he went out and buried it. Then I think about, he’s called wicked and lazy in verse 26. You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Wicked and lazy servant. I don’t think I want to meet the Lord being that way, do you? Where he says, you are a wicked and lazy servant. And he’s talking to those that he entrusts with his work. Then we see this. He did not try in Matthew the 30th chapter, or Matthew 25, 30. Cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He didn’t try, therefore he was unprofitable. I didn’t try.

3. Why Were the Five and Two So Profitable?

Wasn’t really to try. I said, You’ve been a member of the church 15 years, and you can’t teach fifth and sixth graders. We’ll give you help, it’s team teaching. I don’t think I can do that. And I said to myself after that, that is exactly what the master was saying to this one talent man. You’ve got the ability, you’ve got the talents, but you buried them. He buried them. So why was they so profitable? The five and two. Now, normally in the heading to your Bible, before you get to Matthew 25 verses 14 on, there’s going to be a heading there. How many of those headings say parable of the unprofitable servant or parable of the talents? Parable of the talents, does some say parable of the unprofitable servant?

Most of the time, us gospel preachers like to dwell on that negative, unprofitable servant. You’re not going to get that tonight. We’ve talked about the unprofitable servant. I look out here and see an audience that wants to be profitable. Am I right? You want to be profitable for the Lord. Well, let’s pay attention to what makes us profitable. Number one, did the five and two talent men not fear the master like the one talent man? Sure they did. They knew he was a hard man. Look at verses 24 and 25. Lord, I know you to be a hard man. If the one talent man could recognize he was a hard man, you don’t think the five and two talent men could have recognized he was a hard man?

He was a hard man. He was a master. You ever worked for some bosses that were tough? Some of the toughest people I worked for were hard bosses, but they were fair bosses. They were fair. But they expected to have a reward for what you did. And I look at this and say, did they not fear the master? Sure they feared the master. Did they not fear failure just like this? Did they not fear that if they went out, they may not get that five talents back or that two talents? I’m sure that was in the back of their mind, but they went anyway because they had the talents to try to make more talents. What about the fact that they know the master was a hard man?

4. Unlikely Profitable Servants

Well, sure they did. What about this? They were both profitable because they tried. They tried. Sometimes we have to try. Sometimes we talk ourselves out of trying. I can’t do this. What do you mean you can’t do this? Did you ever try? Well, no, I’ve never tried that. You can do this. It’s not that hard. We block ourselves out because of our self will say, I cannot do that. Profitable servants. Turn over to Luke the eighth chapter. I picked out some unlikely profitable servants for us to think about. Because in the scriptures, we could see we could go to Paul and to Peter, and we could talk about them. But sometimes I think when we talk about Paul and Peter, we understand their apostles, and we say they were chosen, they’re special.

But if you look at Luke the eighth chapter, you’re going to see the most unlikeliest profitable servant that I think of in the scriptures. And it’s the four poor guy that was the demonic. And I think about this and think, you know, in all the Bible, I don’t know of a man like this, and what happens in the turnaround. Luke 8, and let’s look at verses 26 through 39. Luke 8, verses 26. Then they sailed to the country of Gadarines, which is opposite Galilee. When he stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from a city who had demons for a long time. He wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him.

With a loud voice said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him and said, What is your name? He said, Legion, because he had many demons, had entered him. They begged him that he would not command them to go out of the into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged him that he would permit them to enter them. And he permitted them.

Then the demons went out of the man, entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. One lesson here is be careful what you asked for. Careful what you asked for. When those who had fed him, fed them, saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what had happened and came to Jesus and found the man with whom the demon had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. They also had seen it told, had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadderenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear, and he got into the boat and returned.

Now notice the next two verses. Now the man with from whom the demons had departed begged him that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away. He begged him, How would you like to have been that demon-possessed man and wanted to get out of these people away from this country that knew you as a demon-possessed man? I would have wanted to get out and go with Jesus, the one that healed me. I definitely want to do that. But notice what Jesus said. Jesus said, Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. Now tell me, I want you to just read that again. Where was he supposed to go to tell the stories? Where was he supposed to go to tell the story?

Dave, where were he supposed to go? His own house? His own house. Read further, tell me what he did. What did he do? He went into all the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. His house wasn’t big enough to tell what Jesus had done. He went into the whole city to do that. If Christ had healed demons in you, would you not go on to go tell the whole city about it? Well, brother, let me tell you, he’s done that. He’s washed away your sins. You are a servant of his. You’re to be profitable. I’m to be profitable. And I need to tell the whole city what Christ has done with me. I need to be profitable to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I need to make sure people know why I obeyed the gospel and what he can do for us. That is what made the demon-possessed man profitable. But also, in Acts the fourth chapter, one of my favorite passages about encouragement, we’re going to see a man named Joseph. We call him Barnabas because that’s what he was called by the apostles. But it’s kind of interesting. In verse 32, this is a time of persecution, times going on. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart, and one soul.

Elders, you had this congregation as one heart and one soul. What would stop you from just going out in this world and making a big difference? One heart, one soul. If I’m going to be profitable, I’m going to relieve the job of the elders by being of one heart, one soul, and working myself to be profitable and taking and let them work on more spiritual things of how they go out and carry the gospel to the creatures. That would be great, wouldn’t it, J.R. Get out there. One soul, one heart. Now notice this. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own. They had all things in common. With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked, for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them. Brought the proceeds of the things that were sold. Laid them at the apostles’ feet, and they distributed to each as anyone had need. And Joseph, who was named Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated, son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus. Having land, sowed it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Well, so did others. But what made this special about this guy named Barnabas? What made him so special? Evidently, it might have been his attitude. It might have been his encouraging way that he did it. I’m not sure, but we see Barnabas later on in the scriptures being the one that took Paul to the church of Jerusalem and explained that he’s okay.

But I do know this. What I read in that Acts fourth chapter, we’ve never been challenged with.

See early on, they had a major, major flood, major flood, wiped out many, many, many houses of the brethren. They don’t have clean water anyway, but their whole water system was polluted. They didn’t have anything to help out. Rice they didn’t have, water they didn’t have. Brethren in the United States, we collected funds, sent it over when I went over, give to the brethren there to do what they needed to do. We come home and they’re working on their plan. They sent us the pictures. They had the side of the building, little building, front of the little building, side of this building over here, the water and the rice. Here’s how they did that. We went over here to Sean and said, Got two kids. How many kids?

One’s oh, you keep back here somewhere. Oh, yeah. They said, Sean, there’s three people in your family. We figure up for a month if it take this much rice for you and this much water for you, hit that. Then he comes back here and he might go to Ralph, and Ralph might say, I’ll just want to make it up, Ralph you might say, I got ten kids. They picked out that much rice, that much water. He might go, and they went around and they distributed it. Each one had a need. There was no bickering, no squabble. It was all fair. I look at that and say, when they called and said they did that, I said, Why did you do that? They said, Because you and Brother Jimmy Lee said that’s the fair way to do it.

They got that from Acts the fourth chapter. I look at that and say, we have not been challenged that way. But sometimes we’re pretty tight with our own funds, when there’s a brother or sister in need. We can be that way. Or when the gospel needs to preach elsewhere. But what about Dorcas in Acts the ninth chapter? Sometimes I think ladies do not know how important they are to the work of the Lord. You have a whole different insight than us guys. I can tell you that right now. Being married to one of them for 56 years, they have a whole different look on things. And if I just listen, sometimes I realize she’s right. Now I don’t want to build her head up too much, Sean, because it’s bad.

TG would get a big head too on this, I’m sure. But you look at this. At Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. The woman was full of good works, charitable deeds, which she did. But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. When they had washed her, they laid her up in an upper room. And since Lydia was near Joppa, and the disciples heard her that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Peter arose and went with him, and when he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with him.

Peter put them all out, knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, said, Tabitha, arise. She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. Then he gave her his gave her his hand, lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon at Tanner. Notice something that the women did. They took and they brought out everything she had made, the tunics and the garments. And what did Peter do? He laid them out. So people could see. What a servant she was. Maybe I’ll never be able to travel overseas. Maybe I won’t even be a preacher.

But I might be able to teach a class. But ladies, there’s one thing you can do. You can cook. You might be able to make a blanket for somebody. You might be able to send cards. There’s plenty you can do to be that profitable servantess that you need to be for the Lord. Then we look at Acts the 17th chapter. In Acts the 17th chapter, this is where Jason gets involved. And you gotta love the comments that are made in Acts of the 17th chapter by those that are against Jason and against those that were standing for God. But in this passage, verses 5 through 9 is all we’ll deal with. There had been a lot of things happening. They were preaching at Thessalonica. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathered in a mob, a mob.

They all set the city an uproar and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. What did Jason do? But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the rulers of the city, crying, These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. And Jason has harbored them. And these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, There is another king, Jesus. They troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. What Jason did? His talent was giving them a place to stay. Giving them a place to stay. Maybe you can give someone a place to stay sometime.

If that’s my pro what I can be to be profitable, if that’s my talent, let me use that talent to do that. Then I think about Phoebe and the others in Romans the 16th chapter. Turn over to Romans 16. We won’t read all that. If I was going to read all those names, I’d definitely have Jonah do it instead of me. I can tell you that right now. But if you look at Romans the 16th chapter, what a passage of scripture. I know we call Hebrews 11 the hall of fame of faith. But I mean when Paul starts out in verse 1, I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Centuria, that you remain her, Lord and the Lord in a manner worthy of the business of the saints and the sister in whatever business she has in either of you.

For indeed she has been a helper of many and myself also. And then he starts through, and this is the only time many of these people are mentioned in the scriptures. You know what they’re mentioned as? Profitable servants.

Some of these names I can’t even address. I don’t even know the names of them. I can’t pronounce them. But Paul knew them. And by the way, Paul knew them and had never been to Rome. An amazing thing. Now he had run across Aquilla and Priscilla and some others, but he knew them. And what’s amazing about it, he remembered why. Chosen in the Lord and his mother and mine, he looked down the brethren who are with them, and the saints who are with them. He talks about who are the household of Aristobus at Bellas, our fellow worker in Christ. And he goes through all of these, and I think to myself, what a memory Paul had of these faithful servants that were profitable to the Lord, but we don’t read of them ever again in the Bible.

And I think Paul wanted to make sure we knew who they were. They were profitable servants of the Lord. And then over in Philemon first chapter. In a situation of where it’s hard to understand for me, how you have a slave that runs away, then he is going to be brought back, but he’s having to come back by himself. And what happens is that Paul says, I know you’re going to grieve. Verse 8, chapter 1, verse 8. Well, the only one chapter, but therefore, though I might be bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake, I rather notice, I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged and now a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who I have begotten while in my change, who was once unprofitable to you, but now it’s profitable to you and me.

Time out. What are you saying, Paul? Onisimus was once unprofitable. Maybe in the audience today, some of us would say we were unprofitable at one time. Maybe we’re unprofitable now. But what Paul says, who is now profitable to me and to you. Brethren, if you’re unprofitable now and you’re hiding your talents, you got time, if you got breath to get that straight and be profitable to the service of the Lord. And you need to think about that. You may say, hey, I’m here on a Wednesday night. What is he talking to me for? Because just checking off the list of being here on Wednesday night doesn’t make you profitable at all. It’s a great step to that. But it’s not just about coming to worship service, it’s about being a 24-hour day, seven-day a week, New Testament Christian, serving the Lord, who served others, and let me serve others too.

Let me wash feet. Let me do what I can do, help my brothers and sisters get to heaven. Let me be an encouragement. Now, some of us, we love encouragement, but we want it all to be for us. You encourage me all the time, Steve, and maybe somewhere down the way I might encourage you. It doesn’t work that way, folks. You need to be encouraging. We have a brother at Danville who lives in the county home, kind of a tough situation. He has to take medicine. In fact, he got a hold of me today, saying, Pray for him. His insurance hadn’t come through. He’s got some mental issues. But let me tell you how encouraging he is. No matter what time it is, no matter what service it is, no matter what day it is, he’s got a list of those he texts.

How are you doing today, brother? I’m praying for you. Would you pray for me? I look forward to those texts. Now he can get going and give you eight or ten in a row, and you think, okay, I don’t know how many prayers I can say in this short period of time, but I want to tell you it’s encouraging to that. And he has nothing. He gets $50 a month to live on. I tried to help him and he said, Oh, brother Steve, I don’t need any help. I have $38 in the bank account. I need no help. If I need help, I’ll let you know. Most of us would go, What? But he says, How can I help you? You know what he did? I love iced tea.

He brought me some Arizona iced tea. Then I went and started filling him up with iced tea, and he came back and said, Now, Brother Steve, I didn’t expect this. I don’t need any more iced tea. You’ve got me stocked up. Fact of the matter, I’m thinking about returning something. Bill, don’t return it to you. Keep it. I look at that and say, that man right there understands serving her. Knows what a profitable servant is, even though he has very stuff. Then I look at Mark over in 2 Timothy 4.11. Mark’s interesting character because you might remember there was a discussion between Barnabas and Paul about Mark, and Mark was unprofitable to the Paul, it seemed like on the one missionary journey, because he left them.

5. What Does It Take to Be Profitable?

If you do foreign work and you’re with another man, Brother Steve would know this, doing that, you rely on that other man to carry his weight. And what happened was Mark left him and left Paul and Barnabas, and Paul didn’t like it. So there was a discussion, and Paul just felt like Mark wasn’t profitable enough to take. But here it is in verse 11. Only Luca’s with me. Get Mark and bring him with you. Notice what he says. For he is useful to me for the ministry. Something had changed with Mark. Something had changed with Paul. Folks, if you’re here, you may think I don’t have the talent to do this. I don’t. You can change what talents do you have? Well, what does it take to be profitable?

Let’s think about this. What does it take? Well, Matthew 6 33, seek ye first the kingdom. What does that mean? I’m going to put God first. What does that mean? My wife and family is going to come second. I’m putting God first. What does it mean? It means what we talked about the other night. If I’m in an unscription marriage, God comes first. I’ve got to get out of that unscriptable marriage. What does it mean if my children are taking me away from services because I’m letting them do things during service time and it’s making me weaker? I’ve got to tell the children I’m serving God and you’re going to serve God too. I cannot, in fact of the matter, I talked to one individual that was going to move to a place, and I said, Where’s the local congregation at?

He said, There isn’t one for a hundred miles. I said, What are you thinking? What are you thinking? You know, that’s a good point. What am I thinking? We have to seek first the kingdom of God. Second Timothy says we have to rightly divide the word of truth. Rightly divide the word of truth looks like me putting my self will aside and my willpower aside and giving myself over to God and yielding to God. That makes me profitable. 2 Peter 1 talks about adding to your faith virtue, virtue, knowledge, knowledge, temperance, temperance, brother kindness, brotherly kindness, love. Adding an abounding, adding an abounding. We’ve gone over that. I want to hit these points because, brethren, we all need to be profitable. And the question is, if I was to ask, how many at least invited one person to come to the meeting this whole week?

This whole week, I keep asking every night. How many each night? And obviously, some of you shaking your hand. That’s great. He were profitable. If they didn’t come, it’s on them. But you invited. That’s all we can do is invite. Fruitful growth in the faith. How do you measure spiritual growth? How do you figure yourself? You studied that book, if I’m not mistaken. How do you measure that growth? You measure that growth, but how much you can look at yourself grown and being profitable in the service of the Lord. Hebrews 10, 19 through 25, which we talked about, drawing near, holding fast, considering stirring up, not forsaking, exhorting. Hebrews 10, 19 through 25. I don’t know, Steve. He just got back, but I admire him for what he’s done.

But they ought to be hugs on that man’s neck for going overseas and teaching the gospel. That’s not the best thing to do in the world. I don’t know how old you are, but at your age, it’s kind of tough. As I said, it’s my age, it’s tough. And I look at that and say, God bless this congregation that can have a man do that, have two men in the pulpit have an eldership like this. God’s looking down and smiling, and you know what he’s looking for? More profitable servants in the work of the Lord in this congregation. That’s what he’s looking for. Ones worshiping in spirit and in truth. We’ve talked about some of that, but how about loving indeed and truth? Do you love indeed and truth?

Are you full of love for your brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you hug them? Do you see what they need? Do you know what they need? Do you know when they’re suffering? Do you know when they’re down? Do you know that? That’s what loving is. That’s what it takes to be profitable. And there’s nothing like a congregation that’s on fire being profitable. When you’re part of that congregation, and it takes a while to build it, when you’re part of that congregation, hold on because what’s going to happen? They’re going to move ahead, and if you don’t move with them, you’re going to get left behind. Well, I would encourage you, Sean and J.R. and the elders here, you get this congregation like it’s like I’m seeing.

It’s starting to go. And I don’t know it, I’m just looking at it as an old preacher that reads a congregation. Get ready. It’s going to go. South Bumbee will grow spiritually and then it’ll grow numerically. Get ready for that. And if you’re not with it, you’re going to be left behind. And if you’re left behind, you’re going to get very frustrated and discouraged. There’s a lot of good things that can happen right here among profitable servants. But what else does it take? Visiting orphans and widows. I once, well, just a week and a half ago, I had a young man ask me, you say you go visit the older people? What do you say to them? I said, hello. Then after that, they will take over.

You don’t have to worry. We go see my sister in the long-term care facility. Connie and I say, Hi Cinder, how are you doing? We’re gone. Hours have gone by, and she’s talked. And we’re just sitting there. But you know what she says every time we leave? Thank you for coming. Thank you for coming. You got those that can’t get out that are shut in? Parents, take some of your younger people over there and teach them how to say hello to an older person, a long-term care facility. To do good. Not grow weary and do good, but do good. What can you do to do good? Can you hold the door for a person? Can you just ask a person? Can I tell you what Jesus has done for me?

Just ask them. Seems like a strange world we live in when we get afraid to say, Jesus has done so much for me. Can I share some of that with you? Well, that’s like a testimony. Brother, I want to tell you, it’s about time we told people what Jesus did for us. Are we ashamed of it? To maintain good works. Titus has told this over and over again in Crete. Maintain good works. Maintain those works. Tell our people to maintain those works. You know what that means? You best be doing good works and maintain those good works. Don’t let them drop. Don’t let them drop at all. But in Ephesians the fourth chapter, it says he gave some apostles, he gave some prophets, he gave some teachers, he gave some pastors.

And we know we don’t have apostles anymore. We don’t have prophets anymore. We got teachers, we got elders. But you know what it is? Find your niche in this congregation and use those talents crazy in your niche. If your niche is teaching a class, teach the class. Your niche is leaving singing, lead singing. If your niche is cooking for families, cook for families. If your niche is making a blanket for a baby, make that blanket. Whatever your niche is, you find that niche and get in it and get in it quick. That’s a takes many talents to make up a congregation. Don’t lose track of those talents that you’ve got. Don’t think that they can just slide by because somebody else has got that talent. Oh, they’re better at that than me.

No. Your talent makes you special and unique to the Lord. Their talents make them special and unique to the Lord. I cannot sing. But unfortunately, I’ve had to go to congregations where I’ve had to lead singing. Now, it might have not been near as good as what we’re having at this congregate at this gospel meeting, but we sung. My dad taught me that. Son, you might have to step out of your comfort zone. How many of us like to step out of our comforts? You got a comfort zone? We all have a comfort zone. You know where we like to retreat to? Back to the comfort zone. Back to the comfort zone. Find your niche and get in it. And do all things with love. Don’t be the clanging symbol.

Do it with love. And walk worthy of your calling. You’ve been called. You’ve accepted the call. You’re the one that said to Jesus, I will follow you. I make that vow to you. I’ll meet you in the water grave of baptism. I will serve you the rest of my life. Have you forgotten that vow you made when you met him in the water grave of baptism? I’ll be your servant. He came to serve us. I’ll serve you and I’ll serve my brothers and sisters. Walk worthy of your calling. Well, what does it take to be profitable? Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord so that you know that your labor is not in vain. I got to keep moving.

6. The Last Part of Matthew 25

I got to be steadfast. I can’t drop off. I’ve got to keep going. Meditate on the right things, Philippians 4.8. Meditate on these things. You’ll not be meditating on worldly things. Meditate on those things. No, you have eternal life. I’ve hit this several times in this meeting. Know that. But to have that eternal life, so you’ve got to be profitable for the Lord. You’ve got to use your talents for Him. Be faithful unto death. Even if you have to die for the Lord. Be faithful unto death. What happens is we forget the last part of Matthew 25. And if you look at Matthew 25, where’s my reader, Jonah? Ready? Listen to Matthew 25, 31 through 46. Listen to you. When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.

I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you as stranger and take you in? Or naked and clothed you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer them and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me. If you will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you curse into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in. Naked, and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Then they will also answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to you? And you will answer them saying, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will all go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Thank you, Lord. Look what he’s saying.

The end result would be if you’re profitable, you would go to everlasting or the righteous and eternal life. But if you’re unprofitable, you go to everlasting punishment. I’m sure if we knew it was the Lord, if he’s talking about, we knew it was for the Lord, we would do it. But what about the least of the brethren? Would you do that? What about the least of the brethren? The ones we have this picture. Years ago, I went through this study with some preachers and some elders. We asked just simply, write down what you think makes the ideal member of your congregation.

What would make the ideal member of the congregation here at South Bumble?

It was amazing what was written down by preachers and elders.

Conclusion

Good job, good giver, at every service. Some of us who had been overseas wrote down this the least of the kingdom, and we can see grow spiritually to help those who are stuck being unprofitable to become profitable. Think about that. Do we look at the least of the kingdom? They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They need our assistance. We need to feed them. We need to give them something to drink. We need to visit them. We need to help them. We need not to look down on them. What we need to understand, what talents are in my talent box. You know? The question really is are you willing to open that box and find out? Are you willing to take a chance and push yourself out of your comfort zone?

Are you willing to step out and say, I’ve hidden my talents? I’ve got more talents than this. I could be more profitable of this. Are you willing to do that? It’s a hard thing to do, but I’m telling you, if you’re going to be a congregation of the Lord’s people, be a congregation of the Lord’s people that are profitable to his service. See that don’t just be coming in and attending worship service. Now, I don’t know how many we have here tonight. Have no idea. A Sunday morning you had some visitors, but I’m going to guess this congregation is about 150 or 60, John. Is that about right? We got maybe 75 or 80 here tonight. Boy, there’s work to be done. Now, some may be working, some maybe there’s work to be done.

You signing up for it. You’ll be profitable to the Lord. There’s a community out here that I’m telling you right now, the last thing I want to tell you, with the world situation like it is in our country, there are more people that are looking for truth right now, that are finding it in the wrong places, and we’ve got the right place to find it. Don’t let this opportunity slide by to teach them where truth is really found. Here’s our last slide. Am I using them? There’s the power of the plan of salvation. I talked about. I’ll have some closing comments before John does after this about the meeting. But I’ve shown that slide every night, every service. It’s the plan of salvation. It’s what I can do to become a child of God.

Or it’s what I can do to maintain by being faithful unto death. I hope that you’ve been challenged to look at your talents, be profitable to the Lord. I pray that you take an inventory of your heart, 2 Corinthians 13, examine yourself, see whether you’re in this faith or not, test yourself. Brethren, the world needs us to tell them what Jesus has done for us. A congregation needs us to be profitable, good servants, to do the work the Lord wants us to do. Thank you for your attention, but we encourage you to consider yourself while we stand and while we say.