Lessons Learned From The One Talent Servant

Introduction

Matthew twenty five, starting in verse fourteen. The Bible says this. For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who had received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.

The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, Master, you entrust to me five talents. See, I have gained five more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Also the one who would receive the two talents came up and said, Master, you entrusted two talents to me, see I have gained two more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. You are faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. And to one who had also received the one talent, came up and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, and I was afraid, and I went away and hid your talent in the ground.

See, you have what is yours. But his master answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow, and I gather where I’ve scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore, take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten talents. For to every one who has more shall be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away, throw taken away, throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The one talent man. What are we going to do with this guy? I mean, on paper, the parable of the talents looks pretty simple. His job isn’t very hard, it’s pretty straightforward. Five talent guy gets five more, two talent guy gets two more. So what’s one talent guy supposed to get? Just one more talent. Do what everybody else does. A devil what he gave you, and you’ll be good. And the five-talent guy is easily able to gain some more, and the two-talent guy is easily able to gain some more, but the one talent guy falls short. What happened to him? What caused him to fail? What kept him from the joy of his Lord? Why couldn’t he go out and be like the other slaves? Why couldn’t he go out and just get one more talent?

Have you ever asked yourself that question? This parable is a fictional tale. But it serves as a cautionary tale for the Christian. It helps us understand some things about who I am and what my job is. As a Christian, I don’t I don’t just come to a church building and fill a pew and get fed stuff. I don’t just come here and get the blessing of all these saints. I’m supposed to come here and I’m supposed to do some work. This parable helps me understand that. Helps me understand that Christ expects me to work in his kingdom. And I think the one talent guide helps us understand. It serves as a warning to us that when we enter the kingdom of the Lord, we’re expected to work.

And it shows us, shows us how wrong it is when I don’t come using my abilities for the Lord. It shows us exactly how Jesus feels when we don’t use our abilities in the Lord’s kingdom. What word do you think of when you think of the one talent man? What word comes to your mind? He’s a picture of wasted talent. Wasted ability.

1. One Talent Too Many to Say I've Been Given Nothing

How terrifying for my master to use that same word about me. If you allow me, I’d like to show you from this story three ways that the one talent man tries to justify wasting his ability, not working in the Lord’s kingdom. And I’d like to study that so we can understand that sometimes we try to use those same justifications for not doing what I need to be doing in the Lord’s kingdom. And I want to show you more than anything else how Jesus feels when we try to justify wasting our abilities in his kingdom. I want us to remember this. We all have at least one talent too many to justify laziness and waste in the kingdom of the Lord. Sometimes we try to justify our wasting our ability by claiming that we haven’t been given anything to use.

Sometimes we try to justify it by saying, I have nothing. I have nothing to give. I don’t have any abilities. I don’t have any means to do anything great or work in the Lord’s kingdom. So I’m not going to do anything because I got nothing to give. I want us to appreciate, first of all, that not even the one talent guy even stoops to that level to say, I’ve been given nothing. Did you see that? He doesn’t even stoop to that level. I think sometimes we try to give him that attitude, don’t we? You ever heard? You ever heard, ever felt like this guy got his feelings hurt, or he got offended. He didn’t work because he was offended. He didn’t get as many talents as the other guys.

And so he went away because his feelings were hurt. He didn’t do anything because he felt like he should have gotten more. He didn’t do anything because he thought, what can I do with one measly talent? You ever felt that way? I think sometimes we try to give him that attitude. Sometimes we even feel sorry for him. He got one talent, the other guy’s got five. I don’t think that’s accurate. You know, the Bible never says that he was offended by his given amount. He was given less, but it never says how he felt about it. It never even says, consider this. It never says that he even knew he got less than the other servants. What we do know is that biblically or historically, a talent is not a measly amount of money.

Look at and look in Matthew 18, just a few chapters back, to another parable. And I think this parable kind of helps us understand that one talent, not a measly amount of money. In Matthew eighteen and verse twenty-four, we’re reading about the parable of the unjust, the unmerciful servant. And it says this in verse twenty four When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his Lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children and all that he had in repayment to be made. And often when we read that parable, and when we teach about that parable, we look at that figure, ten thousand talents, and what’s that symbolize for us?

We always say it. It symbolizes an impossible amount, an amount that could never be repaid, ever. And so we understand this guy wasn’t given 10,000 talents, was he? But we understand that a talent is not a measly sum of money. We’re not talking about pennies here. It’s a pretty considerable sum of money. The servant knew he had something of value. This isn’t the widow with the two mites. He had something of value. Some would say that one talent was somewhere around $90,000 chunk change. I got that in my back pocket. Y’all are supposed to laugh at that. Whatever. Other people would say that it was as high as fifteen years’ wages for a regular day laborer. That’s not a measly amount.

Think about this too. I think this is so interesting. He knew he had something of value, and if nothing else points that out to you, think about the fact that when he got this and when he finally decided I’m not going to do anything with it, he felt the need to go hide it in the dirt. He felt the need to go hide it, and he remembered where it was. He didn’t go home, throw the talent on his on his kitchen counter like we would do if we had a couple of pennies, right? He said, This is something valuable. This is not only something that’s considerable, this is something I’m scared to lose. I’ve got to hide it in the dirt. And when the master returns, he doesn’t begin with, What was I supposed to do with a couple of pennies?

Nor does he point to the other slaves and complain that they received more or rationalize that he could have done more if he’d been given more. He doesn’t do any of those things. Because the one talent man knows something that sometimes we don’t even know about ourselves. He knows that he’s been given something valuable, something considerable. Something that he can use. He had one talent too many to say he’d been given nothing. And I want us to appreciate that the same thing is true for us. When it comes to my ability and my means and my ability to work in the kingdom of the Lord, I have at least one talent too many to say that I’ve been given nothing. God has given me ability. He has given me something valuable to offer this local church and the kingdom of the Lord as a whole throughout the entire world.

I have something valuable to give to the Lord. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, if you will. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And I love what the Apostle Paul writes here. I love what the Apostle Paul writes because there are some among us, and I understand this isn’t a personality trait that’s innate in everybody, but there are some among us who look at ourselves and say, Listen, I really don’t have that much to give.

I’m the zero talent guy. I really don’t have anything to give. I’m worse than the one talent guy. I really, I really can’t do anything. But we learn in the Bible that’s that’s just categorically false.

In 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 14, Paul wrote this, for the body is not one member but many. If the foot says, because I’m not a hand, I’m not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, because I’m not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now, God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired. I want us to pick up on two things that he says there.

Did you see what he said in the beginning? Just because I say I have nothing doesn’t mean I have nothing. He says, just because, just because a hand says, or what did he say? Just because the foot says I’m not a hand, and I’m not a part of the body, doesn’t mean it’s not a part of the body. Just because you say you don’t have anything doesn’t make it right. He says in verse 18, this is the other important thing. God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired. Think about that. God has placed me. God has placed every single one of us in the body just as he desired. That means every single one of us has been placed here.

Every single one of us has a use. Every single one of us has an ability. Every single one of us has a means to accomplish something for the Lord.

God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as he desired. That means I have at least one talent, too many to say I’ve been given nothing. And at times we try to justify our laziness by saying we don’t have anything to give. We say, I’m not a preacher. I’m not an elder. I’m not a deacon. I can’t sing. My hands shake, so I can’t fill the cups for the communion prep. I’m too young to help. I’m too old to help. I don’t know enough to help. I just don’t have the ability. But we’d all be wrong. Every single one of us would be wrong because what the Bible tells me is that God has placed me in the body just as he desires, which means I have at least one talent too many to say.

2. One Talent Too Many to Be Paralyzed by Fear

I’ve been given nothing. But there are other ways to justify our wasted ability. Here’s how the one talent man tried. He never tried to say he’d been given nothing because he knew he had been given something valuable. But this is what, this is what he did try to say. If you’ll look back in Matthew in verses 24 through 25, this is how he did try to justify wasting his ability. Verse 24 of Matthew 25, it says, and the one who had received the one talent came up and said, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid.

Is paralyzed by fear. He’s scared that in using his talent, something’s going to go horribly wrong. He’s scared to disappoint his master. Did you hear that? I was afraid and went away and hid your talent in the ground. I can tell you, I sympathize with that, don’t you? I sympathize with him being scared, being fearful of his master. Listen to how it describes him. It describes his master as a hard man. He’s rough and tough and stern even. He’s strong-willed. And not only that, he’s an excellent businessman. Not only does he gather profit from his own work, but from the work of others. He gathers where he scatters no seed. In essence, the one talent man tells us that not only is his master excellent in business, but he expects a lot from his servants.

He expects the people who are working under him, the people who are in his charge to do good, to not fall short, to not disappoint. And he’s scared that he’s going to disappoint his master. And he should have been.

Look at what the master says in verses 26 and 27. Look at what he says about himself. But his master answered and said to him, You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Notice that the master does not come back and defend himself and say, Ah, you shouldn’t be scared of me. I wouldn’t expect that much out of you anyway. He doesn’t say that. He doesn’t say, Oh, I’m really a big softie. There’s nothing to be worried about. He actually confirms his fears. He says, I am a hard man.

You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. You knew that I expected something out of you. You know that I expected a lot out of you. He confirms his fears, but he makes a relevant point about the fear of the slave, doesn’t he?

That fear should not lead him to do nothing. Fear should not be something that paralyzes us. Fear should motivate us to act. The slave is not punished for the fact that he feared his master, but he’s punished for the fact that in his fear he did nothing. And the master despises that waste of ability. And I would say the same is true of us, brothers and sisters. We have one talent too many, at least one talent too many. To allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear. We have been given a sobering responsibility, and we can’t afford to let fear keep us from using our ability. We have at least one talent too many to let that happen. And that’s not to say that our fear, our fear is unfounded.

Has anybody ever felt a little bit of fear when they’re working for the Lord? When you have to do something. Maybe it’s serve in a public way or go talk to somebody about the gospel. Well, so that’s a sobering responsibility. And our Lord, he’s not a mean guy, but he is a man who expects something from us. He is a God who expects something from us. He expects hard work and he expects good work. And a part of us should approach working for God with a little bit of fear. I mean, let’s just be honest. Every time I get up and preach, there are pangs of fear. When I’m sitting in my office on Friday, and it’s 3 45, and I’m getting ready to wrap everything up, and I’m thinking to myself, I’m going to close that door.

I’m going to turn off the light before I close the door. I’m going to turn off the light. I’m going to close the door. I’m going to leave my computer running because I always forget to turn that off. And then I’m not coming back here. I’m going to take my sermon with me. There’s a little bit of fear, thinking I gotta address the people of the Lord concerning what the Lord has said on Sunday. There’s a pang of fear when I leave the office. And then on Saturday, when I’m running through my sermon, I feel that pang of fear again. Ooh, I can’t get that wrong. Because I’m about to preach to the people tomorrow. And then during the song before the lesson, I feel that pang of fear again right down there in the pit of your stomach.

I’m about to get up and speak from the word of God. And that fear comes because of the enormous effects of this activity. We are doing something important. This is something regarding my eternal soul and your eternal soul. This is not something we take lightly. This is not something that we can afford to be casual about or to get wrong.

And if working for the Lord does not inspire some kind of fear in your heart, I’d say something’s a little bit wrong with me. But that fear must not paralyze us like it paralyzed the one talent servant. It’s right to have a level of fear, but it’s wrong to let it let it stop us. We’ve felt that fear before when we’re doing something. When it comes to, when it comes to teaching a Bible class, you ever felt a little bit of fear about getting something wrong, about addressing a verse that’s that’s really complicated? I got a I got a good story about fear that I didn’t think about until I saw Caleb Emerson. I worked for two summers with Caleb’s brother Chris. My first Wednesday, my first Wednesday working as a summer trainee.

Chris’s wife was pregnant, and she was she was about to have her baby, her due date was up, and I get a call on Wednesday morning that Chris needs me to teach his adult Bible class at a church I’ve never been to, when I never taught an adult Bible class before. I’ve never even attended an adult Bible class, and I’ve got to teach his adult Bible class. There’s a little fear there. We’ve all felt that. You ever felt fear when it comes to public worship? Maybe you’re praying a prayer or leading a song. You ever felt fear teaching someone the gospel? How they’re gonna react, whether or not I’m gonna say the right thing. You ever felt fear when you’re calling to console somebody about something terrible that’s going on in their life?

And you sit back and you’re really terrified because they’re going through a really hard time. And I need to call, I need to encourage them. I know this is work that I need to be doing. This is something I can use my ability to help them out and help them through, but I am I am absolutely petrified that I’m gonna say the wrong thing. That’s me every single week. And sometimes we refuse to serve. We shy away, we let someone else do it. Because we convince ourselves that it’s better to bury my talent than to make a mistake. Without realizing that burying my talent is the greatest mistake I can make. A level of fear makes sense because these tasks that we do carry eternal significance.

But the key is not to remove fear. Turn me to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 2. The key is not to remove fear, the key is to let fear motivate us to work to the best of our ability. In 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 2, Paul is instructing the young preacher, and listen to what Paul says. Listen to what Paul says. I’m sorry, 2 Timothy chapter 2. Listen to what Paul says about Timothy’s work as a preacher. He says this be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. He doesn’t tell him that he has nothing to fear but fear itself. He doesn’t tell him, lay off, it’s okay, nothing to be scared about here.

No reason to have any fear when you’re working as a preacher. No, he reminds him that God is considering his labor. He wants Timothy to have a little bit of godly fear in his heart. Because he knows that fear will push him to be diligent. He knows that if he fears God now, he’s not going to fear God in the judgment. Brethren, we all have at least one talent too many. To let fear paralyze us and keep us from doing what we must be doing. We all have a talent. And having a talent means having a responsibility to use that talent to God Almighty. And we serve a great and we serve an awesome God, but we also serve a God who expects something of me.

3. See, You Have What Is Yours

And I ought to work. I ought to remember who he is and how great he is and everything that he’s done for me. I have to remember what he expects from me and the standard that he’s set in his son. And maybe that’s going to make me a little bit fearful about what I’m doing, but I should use that fear to motivate me to do it to the best of my ability. To not shy away, but to push forward. To be a diligent workman who does not need to be ashamed. I have at least one talent too many. To be paralyzed by fear. In his fear, he hid his talent. But then he reaches for one further justification. One further justification from this slave.

We’ll read this one more time. He said, and I was afraid and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See? You have what is yours. Listen to that phrase. See? You have what is yours. It’s as if he’s saying, Yes, I was scared and did nothing. But you have all your money back, so no harm, no foul. He justifies his inaction by telling his master that he’s getting back what belongs to him. And the truth is, the master is getting back his whole talent, right? He didn’t skim off the top. He’s not giving him back 95% of the talent. No, he’s giving his master back a whole 100% of the talent. He didn’t lose anything. He might have lost something if I tried to work with it.

If I tried to, you know, do a little business with your talent, I might have lost it. But instead, I’m giving you back the whole thing, Master, so we’re all even. We’re all square. You see how he’s trying to say that? See? You have what’s yours. You got it all back. All things are equal. And that seems about right to us. When someone puts a thing in our care for a period of time, they usually expect to get it back in the same condition that they gave it to us, right? Lee and I house sat for some people a few months back. We stayed at their house for like four days while they were gone on some amazing vacation that we wish we could have, you know, gone with them on.

And when they came back, you know what they didn’t expect? They didn’t expect new hardwood floors. Didn’t expect that at all. And if they had, we would have thought they were crazy. You would have thought they were crazy too. They expected to come back to a house that didn’t have holes in the wall and didn’t have any upgrades. No upgrades, no downgrades. They wanted the same house that they left. And that’s usually how it works. When we leave something in someone’s care, we expect to get it back in the same condition that we got it. When you loan someone your car, you expect them to upgrade the engine? Put new tires on it? Get an oil change? You don’t even expect them to get an oil change, do you?

No, you expect to get it exactly as you left it. Isn’t the isn’t the one talent man doing the same thing, though? What did he do wrong if he gave back the full talent? Why is the master so upset with him? He got his money back. He got what was his.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Because he didn’t get back what was his. He didn’t have what belonged to him. The one talent man says, see, you have what is yours. But he’s wrong about that. He’s just wrong about that. Sure, he received the full talent back, but doesn’t he also own the servant? By doing nothing, the one talent man robbed his master, because not only did the master own the talent, the master owned the servant, which means he owned the energy and the effort and the focus and the work and the sweat of the servant, too. He did not have what was his.

And the same applies to us. All of us have been given at least one talent too many to do nothing, and then claim that God has what is his. That’s not how it works. I think that’s the bargain we make sometimes. I think that’s the danger of being a member of a really vibrant and great church. This is a really vibrant and great church. You know, people all the way down in Pasadena hear about how this church is growing. We hear about how you guys need more parking spaces. This is a really great church, and it’s easy when you go to a church like this that’s growing, that has great men who lead singing, that has a great man who preaches. It’s easy to come to services and sit back in my pew and watch everything go so smoothly, watch the prayers get prayed, and the Lord’s Supper get taken care of.

It’s easy to watch the ladies take care of people, and it’s easy to watch the preacher preach a great sermon and someone fill in a Bible class and do a great job. And it’s easy to sit back in my pew, having done nothing and look at everything get taken care of and say, see, God has what’s his.

And even when I’ve done nothing, I look back and I say, see, God has what’s his. But that’s not true, is it? That’s just not true. Because what the parable of the talents teaches me is that God doesn’t have what’s his until I’ve given what’s mine. God doesn’t have what’s his until I’ve used what he’s given me in his service. Look at Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. There’s such an important message there that Paul writes. Galatians 2 and verse 20.

Galatians 2 and 20, where the apostle Paul wrote this. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. This isn’t my life. It’s not my life anymore. Ever since I made the bargain that I would be baptized and have my sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, that’s the bargain I make. I’ll have my sins washed away. I can go to heaven when I die, but it’s not my life anymore. I’m his servant. That’s why Ephesians tells us that when Jesus ascended, he led captive a host of captives.

When I’m freed from sin, I am enslaved to Christ. I am his. As 1 Corinthians would say. You are not your own. And that teaches us something that God doesn’t have what’s his until I use what is mine in his service. Anything less robs our master. When I stand and use my ability for the church for the Lord, when I use the talents I have and the ability that I have in order to serve God in the place that he’s put me, just as he’s desired, then I may confidently say, Lord, you have what is yours. But until I do that, I have no right to say that. Until I do that, I rob my master. The body of the Lord is a place to work.

Conclusion

And that’s something that’s been really important for me to understand in my own life. I hope that’s something that we all understand. It’s a place to work. It’s a place to put my hands to the labor, to sweat for the Lord, to put effort into the Lord. I don’t know all the different ways that you can serve, but I know that God’s put you in the body just as he desired. God’s put me in the body just as he desired. And that means I have an ability to use. An ability that he will be disappointed with if it goes to waste. If I don’t find a way to use it. We are in this church and we all serve a great master. He’s given us talent and he’s gone away for a time.

But the Bible tells us that he will return. And when he comes back, he’s going to ask me and he’s going to ask you, what have you done with what I gave you? I hope he will not find us with wasted ability covered in soil. But honestly able to say, truly able to say, see, you have what is yours. Because I worked with what is mine. Let’s all make sure we do our best to work to the Lord. Maybe you’re not the Lord’s. If you aren’t the Lord’s, then you aren’t his slave, and you don’t have to work for him. But that also means that your sins haven’t been washed away. And you don’t get to go to heaven when you die. If you want to commit your life to Christ, if you want to have those sins washed away, you can do that right now.

If you’re willing and able, if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you are willing to confess your sins before men, if you’re willing to repent of those sins and turn away from that life, then you can be baptized. You can be washed in water. Have those sins washed away and be ready. Be prepared for service to your Lord. If we can help you with that or with any other need, we invite you to come to the front while we stand, while we sing.