For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions.“For it is like a man going into another country, who called his own servants and entrusted his goods to them.For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.For it is as when a man, going into another country, called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
8 sermons cite this verse
culture of this world, kingdom of God. Everything that I have, God owns. Verse 14. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them whose property? His property. Before he gave it to the servants, it belonged to the master. When it was in the servant's hands, who did it belong to? The master. Everything we have belongs to God. He created us to be generous with what is his. But if you claim Jesus, but live according to the value principles of this world, your life is a tug of war and it doesn't make any sense. and I believe this is one of the reasons many of us are spiritually stuck. It is very hard to let go of what you think you own, because if you let go of it, how will you know if there's any more where that came from? But how easy is it to live open-handed with what never belonged to you in the first place? …
… And if you're in here, I want you to go back and study. But in Matthew 25, verse 14 through 30, this whole story was about three different people who who the grace of God gave one of them five, one of them, two and one of them, one. And he didn't matter. It didn't matter about the amounts. He just wanted them to do something with what they had been given. So in this series, this whole thing about us being the blessed people that God wants us to be. I really started to look at this scripture because verse 29 really struck me. And I want to go there real quick as we end last week's service today. And I'm going to start a new message today, too. But I want you to see this real quick. Matthew 25, verse 29. It says, those who use well. Everybody say use well. Those who use well what they are given Even more will be given And I said man god what if we could have nobody have an excuse? …
… And today, I'm going to allow you to be able to assess that through God's word. I want us to go right now to Matthew 25, verse 14. Are your ducks in a row? The truth is, some of our ducks is just floating. Some of our ducks is just floating away. some of our ducks, we only have enough of them. Some of y'all like pastor, I don't have enough ducks to put in a row. You hear what I'm saying? I ain't got no money. I don't have any resource. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about time. How are you prioritizing what God has placed in your hand? I'm talking about your giftings. Cause some of us have giftings that we have not done anything with. And God says, are your ducks in a row? Some of y'all trying to figure out what the duck is going on. I had to use it. Anyway, the church people over here, they're like, oh my God. So we're going to see how we can get our ducks in a row through a parable that Jesus is telling. This is Jesus telling. And you may have heard this before, but we're going to take it from a whole different, we're going to represent this scripture. It's the story of the men with the talons. Let's look at it in verse 14 of Matthew 25. It says, and again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. The man right here represents …
… Millions of drivers have already used Insurify to stop overpaying, and there's no reason you shouldn't too. I want us to go right now to Matthew 25, verse 14. are your ducks in a row? The truth is some of our ducks is just floating. Some of our ducks is just floating away. Some of our ducks, we only have enough of them. Some of y'all like, pastor, I don't have enough ducks to put in a row. You hear what I'm saying? I ain't got no money. I don't have any resource. And I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking about time. How are you prioritizing what God has placed in your hand? I'm talking about your giftings because some of us have giftings that we have not done anything with. And God says, are your ducks in a row? Some of y'all trying to figure out what the duck is going on. I had to use it. Anyway, the church people over here, they're like, oh, my God. …
… They're on your outline. In Matthew 25, verse 14, we see the beginning of the story. And it says this. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus said, will be like a man going on a journey, this businessman. And he called his three servants together and he entrusted his property to them. Now, if you're taking notes, I want you to circle the word his there on that verse. It says he called his three servants together and entrusted his property to them. So when we're talking about money here, whose money are we talking about? The money owned by the master or the money owned by the servants? Yeah, the master. It's not the servant's money. It's the master's money, but he's giving it to them to take care of. This, by the way, is called stewardship. You've heard this word before, a steward or stewardship. that's the old English word for manager. Any of you who are managers or involved in management in a business are actually stewards. A steward is a manager and stewardship simply means management. …
… every single word is going to have a meaning today and so i need y'all to flow with me i'm reading from the niv version and it starts right here at verse 14 again it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them to one who he gave uh-oh, I like y'all already, to another two bags and to another one bag, each according to whose? Then he went on his journey. Then the man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also the man with two bags of gold gained two more. worry about that one. But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. After a long time, the masters of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received five bags of gold brought out other five. …
… listen in and hear what the Savior can teach us about the shape of ambition in his kingdom. Matthew chapter 25, verses 14 through 30. Jesus said, 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 at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the 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 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. …
… Oh, the kingdom of heaven, he says, the kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. It's like, all right. And this is a parable that preachers do preach. I've preached this because there seems to be some personal application, but the personal application we make is not the application that Jesus was making to his first century audience. He says it's like a man who went on a journey and he trusted his wealth and he gave one guy five bags of gold and another one a little bit less gold and he gave another guy one bag of gold and he said, go invest this on behalf of me because it's my money I'm entrusting you with. And he says in the parable that he gave it to them based on their abilities, based on what he knew they could do with it, based on what he knew about them. He said this is what the kingdom of heaven's like. …