It’s Hard to be a Believer.
01/01/06
One of the most interesting things about being a Christian is how easy it is to become one yet how hard it is to be a believer. When you make the decision to follow Christ, you soon find out that being a believer is tough. God shows you all the sin in your life that He begins to pull you away from. Then you start losing friends because you are no longer like them. Your family may even become distant because you are now a Jesus freak, who is no longer welcome home.
That is just a few examples of the changes brought on with your decision to follow Jesus. There are many challenges you may have to face as a believer.
Today the discussion will focus on probably the biggest challenge that has ever faced the church, especially today. Attitude.
Matt 25:14-30
Exegesis
The parable of the talents; this is a story shared by Jesus Christ to teach a spiritual truth. There are several different applications that can be made from this particular parable, and today’s discussion will be how this teaching relates to the investment of grace that God has made in you, the believer.
Have you ever pondered that before? God has made an investment in you, the redeemed, and He expects that investment He has made in you to pay some dividends!
Illustration
Katie Fisher, 17, entered the Madison County Ohio Junior Livestock Sale hoping the lamb she had for sale would get a good price. For months Katie had been battling cancer. She had endured hospital stays and been through chemotherapy a number of times. Before the lamb went on the block, the auctioneer told the audience about Katie’s condition, hoping his introduction would push the price-per-pound above the average of two dollars. It did-and then some. The lamb sold for $11.50 per pound. Then the buyer gave it back, and suggested the auctioneer sell it again. That started a chain reaction. Families bought it and gave it back; businesses bought it and gave it back. Katie’s mother said, "The first sale is the only one I remember. After that, I was crying too hard." They ended up selling the lamb thirty-six times that day, raising more than $16,000 in the process.
Now, if that little lamb had never been put on the auction block, how much money would have been raised for that little girl? You guessed it…not a penny!
God has made an investment of grace in you.
I. God has entrusted His property to you. Vs14-15
Exposition
The symbolism here is that God is the man who is going on a journey, and the servants are the people who have received Jesus as their savior. The man has entrusted his property, (talents, a form of money used at this time), to his servants, each according to his ability to do something positive with it, and according to his ability to handle the pressures that come with having the master’s possessions.
Application
When you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, He imparts to you His Holy Spirit, who is with you for the rest of your earthly life. The Holy Spirit who is God in the spirit will act as your guide, your conscience, your friend, and He is also the person within you who can draw other lost souls to the cross of Jesus Christ.
John 14: 15-17, 26 John 16:7-9
He is the talent the master has given you to invest for Him, and God has given each and every one who believes in Jesus as Savior just what they can manage of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and presence.
In a manner of speaking, you have the power and wisdom of God with you 24/7 when you become a Christian!
That’s, pretty good news!!
Yet in light of God’s promises of guidance in the power of His Holy Spirit, we don’t always recognize what the Holy Spirit is doing and how He is working in our lives until He’s done His work and we’ve potentially missed the opportunity.
Illustration
An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was backbreaking work, and his son, Bubba, who used to help him, was in prison.
The old man mentioned it in a letter he sent to his son by saying, “I’m not sure exactly what to do. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. It looks like I won’t be able to plant that garden this year after all.”
A few days later, he received a short letter from his son, “Dad, for heaven’s sake, don’t dig up that garden that’s where I buried the bodies!”
At 4 a.m. the next morning, a crew of police officers, and the FBI arrived to find the bodies. After digging for hours, they gave up and apologized to the old man and left.
That same day the old man received another letter from his son, Bubba.
“Dear Dad, under these circumstances, that’s the best I can do, go ahead and plant your potatoes now.”
Sometimes we are like the stubborn earth that stands in the way of experiencing a completely transformed life in Jesus Christ. Instead of being willing to trust, to take direction, and to accept the rewards Christ offers. We remain a potential garden…a potential garden in need of resurrection…a potential garden that needs to find the way, the truth, and the life…a potential garden just waiting to accept the victory that’s found in Jesus Christ.
You don’t always see the Holy Spirit doing His thing; just the same way as the servants in our story today didn’t recognize the masters’ work through them.
Two of the three only sought to please their master because of his trust in them, while the third sought only to protect himself.
II. Attitude makes the difference to the Master… vs 19-27
Exposition
Neither of the servants in this parable knew what their masters’ plan was when he gave them the money, but the men who made more money with the money that was given to them approached the investment with the right attitude, while the man who buried his money did not. The two wanted to please their master because they considered his happiness before theirs, while the third considered the masters happiness only as a way to keep himself from falling under his masters reproach.
Application
Which category are you in concerning your relationship to Christ? Do you seek to please Him just because He loved you first, as the first two servants did? Or do you approach the investment God has made in you out of selfishness and improper fear of the Master?
Attitude makes all the difference in your relationship with the Master, and in your approach to life.
Illustration
Michael is the kind of guy you love to be around. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Curious, one day a co-worker went up to Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”
Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Mike, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it.
I choose to learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.” “Yeah, right, it isn’t that easy, “the co-worker protested. “Yes, it is,” Michael said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line is: It’s your choice how you live life.”
Several years later, Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. About 6 months after the accident. When asked how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?” “
You know,” he said. “As I was falling, the first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon to be born daughter, then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”
Michael continued, “When they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”
Michael continued…
“Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me”. She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of the doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. Every day you have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
Conclusion
I want you to go away from here with the proper attitude fresh on your mind and heart, so look at verse 23.
God so desperately wants you to share in His happiness, because He loves you. When you love someone you want them to be happy. Yes He harvests where He has not sown and gathers where He has not scattered seed but that is not your concern; He will concern Himself with sowing and reaping.
Being a Christian is hard enough without you making it even more difficult by approaching God’s investment in you the wrong way.
Illustration
Charles Francis Adams, 19th century political figure and diplomat, kept a diary. One day he entered: "Went fishing with my son today--a day wasted." His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: "Went fishing with my father--the most wonderful day of my life!" The father thought he was wasting his time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time. The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one’s ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly.
God has made an investment of grace in you.
Come and share your Master’s happiness
