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Part 2 of 16
ENTRY & END TIMES (Week 20)
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We are living in the final days. Christ prophesied about the signs of the end times, and we are seeing these things unfold right now in our society. The alignment of nations, the rise of digital currency replacing cash, the spread of ideologies hostile to Christianity—all of this is happening. We might be the generation that sees the rapture, the tribulation, and the return of Christ in rapid succession.
But here is the critical question: Are you ready?
As we approach the end, Christ has given us a final trilogy of parables to teach us about His return. The first teaches faithfulness. The second teaches readiness. And the third—the parable of the talents—teaches us about stewardship and accountability.
Years ago, when I was leading an evangelistic ministry in Columbus, Ohio, I took a group of teenagers to a graveyard. I asked them what they saw. They answered: tombstones, memorials, grass, trees, flowers.
Then I said, "Let me tell you what I see. I see unfulfilled potential. I see ministries that were never started. I see books that were never written. I see marriages that were never formed, children that were never born, visions that were never realized. I see wasted potential."
I told them: "Out there in that graveyard lies the wealthiest place on earth. Because there are many people who carried with them to their grave things that God placed inside of them—things that were supposed to come out of them while they were in this life. For whatever reason—excuses, hard times, challenges, ignorance—they carried those things to the grave."
This is a tragedy of modern humanity. But it is an even greater tragedy in Christianity. There are Christians leaving this life every week carrying to their grave things that the Master intended for them to accomplish in this life. They became busy bodies in church instead of fruitful servants. They aborted the figurative babies—the callings and assignments—that God had placed inside them. And now they must give an account to the Messiah for that.
This is what we face in Matthew 25:14–30.
Matthew 25:14–15 — "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 talents, to another one talent, according to his ability. Then the master went away."
The kingdom of heaven is like this: A master entrusted his property to his servants. The key words are entrusted—not given as owners, but as stewards. Everything you have, everything you are, belongs to God. You are not an owner of anything. Everything under your fingertips has been given to you to steward.
Write these down. You are stewarding:
Your management of these things is a test in this life for what you will enjoy in the life to come.
Historically, a talent was a large sum of money—between 50 and 85 pounds of silver. One talent was equivalent to 10 to 20 years of wages. So whether you received five talents, two talents, or one talent, you received a substantial investment.
The master gave according to ability. This is the love of God. He will not give you something you cannot handle. He will not overwhelm you with assignments beyond your capacity, nor will He bore a five-talent person with a one-talent task. God knows your cognitive ability, your acumen, your work ethic. He assigns accordingly.
This means you must stop being jealous of other people's assignments. If Billy Graham was a five-talent minister and I am a two-talent minister, am I lesser? No. My responsibility is to be faithful on my level. I should not exalt five-talent people as gods, nor should I condemn one-talent people as trash. Each person has been given grace according to their measure.
All God asks is for you to be faithful on the level He has given you.
Money has no will of its own. It has no heart, no eyes, no soul. But when it lands in the hands of a human being, it takes on a personality. That same $20 can feed the hungry or fuel an addiction. Where your resources go reveals what is in your heart.
"Where the heart is, so your treasure will be also."
Money is not evil. But people are evil, and money reveals what is in people's hearts. If you want to know what is in someone's heart, give them resources. The stewardship of money is one of the most important tests of your life—because it is private. People see your preaching, your service, your ministry. But they do not see your bank account.
You may be praying to be a millionaire, but you cannot steward a few thousand dollars. You pray for God to bless your business, but you cannot steward a paycheck. You pray for God to increase your finances, but you cannot steward what you already have. This is backwards.
Matthew 25:16–17 — "He who had received the five talents went out at once and traded, and he made five talents more. And also the one who had two talents made two talents more."
Notice the words: at once. They did not wait. They recognized they had been given gifts. Immediately they put their lives on the altar and went out to serve God.
What does multiplying your talents look like? It means using the potential God has given you and maximizing it to do everything He has called you to do.
If you have been saved for 5 years or 20 years, you should be a better husband today than when God saved you. You should be a better father. A better steward. A better preacher. A better employee. If 20 years go by and you are still the same person, you are not multiplying your talents.
Multiplication looks like this: The Lord looks at you 20 years down the road and says, "I do not have to fight you anymore when I speak. When I talk, you obey right away. When I first found you, you reasoned for three months before you obeyed anything. But now when I speak, you move immediately. You do not even need all the answers—you just trust My voice."
If you are becoming more like Christ—more obedient, more faithful, more loving, more generous, more prayerful—then you are multiplying your talents. You are giving God back something He has deposited in you.
Matthew 25:18 — "But he who had received the one talent went out and dug in the ground and hid his master's money."
In the first century, burying money in the ground was a way to protect assets. But notice: it took effort to dig that hole. The brother was busy, but he was not fruitful. He had activity, but he was not obeying his master.
There are too many of us like this brother. We have all this activity in our lives, but we are not fruitful for the kingdom. We are running to conferences, building projects, saying yes to everyone—but are we doing what God has called us to do? Are we doing what God has purposed for us?
You can be busy and not fruitful. You can be full of activity and not fruitful.
You have time for everything except the Father's business. Too busy to pray. Too busy to read God's Word. Too busy to fast. Too busy to love your family. Too busy for your spouse. Too busy for your children. But you will find time for everything else.
I am trying to stop some of you from continuing to dig that hole. My prayer today is that you will lay down your shovel—that shovel you have been using to bury your talents. Leave it in this room. Leave it in the overflow. Ask yourself: Is what I am doing in line with what God has called me to do?
Matthew 25:19 — "Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them."
This is a picture of the second coming of Christ. Notice what He does first: He settles everyone's accounts. Nobody will escape Christ. The atheist will not escape Him. The Muslim will not escape Him. The unbeliever will not escape Him. The fake Christian will not escape Him.
When Christ returns, books will be opened. He will look at what everybody has done in this life. According to those books, people will either be judged or rewarded. You will have to give an account:
Nobody escapes this account.
Matthew 25:20–23 — "And he who had received the five talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five more talents.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'"
And the same to the one with two talents: "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little things; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."
These servants come with excitement. You can hear it in their voice: Master, look! You gave me five talents—I give you back ten. You gave me two—I give you back four. They are men who understand they have been given an assignment, a mission. They are living on purpose.
This is what I want for you. I want you to be men and women who live with a sense of purpose, a sense of assignment, a sense of mission. I want you to get up in the morning thinking: God has anointed me for the role He has given me—to be a mother, a father, a minister, a teacher, a student, an employee.
I want you to arrive in heaven and stand before the Lord and say: "Lord, You saved me from sin. Look at all the good that has come out of my life. I messed up a few times. I fell down a few times. I made mistakes. But look—there are souls in heaven because of my witness. Look—my children are disciples because of my discipleship. Look—people love You because of what You did through me."
The Lord wants to see return on your salvation. He does not want to regret that He saved you from sin. When you stand before Him, He wants to be able to say: "Man, that brother was difficult at first, but look how he cleaned up. Look how he started listening, started praying, started reading My Word, started taking his calling seriously."
I want to arrive in heaven with the Lord having no regrets.
Notice what He does not say to these faithful servants: He does not say, "Well done because you went to church." He does not say, "Well done because you believed." Well done, good and faithful servant is not an empty platitude. It is attached to good stewardship. And there will be many believers who might die and arrive in heaven and never hear those words. We say them at every funeral, but we often say them about people who never took their faith seriously.
Well done, good and faithful servant is for believers who are good stewards in this life.
"You were faithful over a little; I will set you over much."
Pay attention to the words "little" and "much." The Lord is saying everything you did in this life was little. The biggest ministry in this life, in the eyes of God—little. The biggest fortune in this life—little. Everything you are a ruler over in this life is small.
But He says: "Now I will make you a ruler over much."
We are not going to be floating on clouds playing harps all day, bored. Your service in this life will translate into greater service in the life to come. We will have rulership. We will have assignments. We will serve God at another capacity. We will serve Him with joy and be over things much greater than anything we can imagine here.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
Matthew 25:24–25 — "But he who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.'"
This is a tragedy. He appeals to the Master with two things: an insult and a felt need.
He says: "I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, gathering where you did not plant." He is accusing the Master of taking what does not belong to Him. This is bad theology. And there are many people with poor hermeneutics and bad theology who will arrive in glory before God and be unable to enter. In that moment, they will argue with God with bad theology.
This is why you should love biblical teaching. Read the scriptures for yourself so you do not die and come into a place of shock.
Then he makes an excuse: "I was afraid."
Too many of us are like this. We are paralyzed by fear. We do not do what God has called us to do because we are afraid.
I want to say this clearly: Some of you are waiting for everything to be perfect before you obey. It ain't coming. You have been dating for 25 years and said, "When we get enough money, we will marry." It ain't coming. God is calling you to start a ministry and you said, "When I feel ready." You will never feel ready. You need to obey and do it afraid.
You need to be faithful while afraid. You need to jump out on faith and let God catch you.
When I started this ministry, I was not ready. When I changed the name of the church, I was not ready. When I started traveling and preaching, I was not ready. Everything I am doing right now, I had to do it afraid. I still get up on Sunday mornings sometimes feeling afraid. I still battle insecurities. You will never feel perfectly ready.
What broken human being is going to feel perfectly ready? Do it afraid. Do it insecure. Do it anyway.
But this brother gives the Lord an excuse: "I was afraid. So I went and buried your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours."
The Lord does not want back the talent He gave you. He wants back more than what He gave you.
And there are too many of us like this brother. We come to church and listen to the preaching. But we do not go out and multiply our talents. We are not intentional about growing as a man, a woman, a disciple. We are not growing in character, in faithfulness, in obedience, in knowledge of God's Word, in prayer.
Where is the intentionality in those areas?
The Lord wants to be able to look at you when He calls you home and see that He got something out of your life. He gave you assignments and you carried them out. He whispered to your ear to be obedient in some area and you obeyed. He told you to be a better husband—and you took that seriously. He called you to be a better wife—and you took that seriously. He told you to be a better mother or father—and you took that seriously. He told you to be faithful at your local church—and you took that seriously. He told you to give some of your income to missions and gospel ministries—and you took that seriously.
The Lord made an investment in you. He put His Spirit in you. He wants something out of you. He does not want to look at you at the end and say, "I made a mistake in saving this person."
No. He wants to be able to say: "This woman I saved—look how much I got out of her. I got songs, albums, sermons. I got a better wife, a better mother. Look what I got out of her. And nobody else saw in her what I saw. But I put My Spirit in her and I pulled these things out of her."
Not like this brother who buried his talent. Not like this brother who is going to give the Lord wrong theological excuses.
Matthew 25:28–30 — "So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. As for this worthless servant, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
In the end, the Lord will strip every disingenuous servant, every fake Christian, everyone who arrives in glory with an excuse. He will strip them of all their assignments and give them to someone else.
I think this may even be happening right now. There may be people right now living out somebody else's assignment. Perhaps there was someone the Lord was trying to get to be obedient and they would not be obedient. So He stripped them of that assignment and gave it to you.
Maybe there was someone who was supposed to change your family. He stripped them of that assignment and gave it to you. Maybe you are the one to change the trajectory of your family. Maybe you are the one to change your generational line.
Your uncle could not do it—He gave it to you. Your father could not do it—He gave it to you. Your mother could not do it—He gave it to you.
People are going to be stripped of things they were supposed to do, and it will be given to someone else. And those of us who are faithful will have an abundance of God's blessing for our faithfulness.
But for those who are not faithful—who are poor stewards of money, opportunities, relationships, assignments—the Lord says: "Cast that worthless servant into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Hell is a place of conscious suffering for those who were not good stewards of what God entrusted to them.
If we are hearing the voice of our Savior seriously, we go to our houses tonight. We kneel down. We pray. We say: "Lord, I repent. I am sorry for every place I have been a mismanager of Your resources. Lord, help me to be a good steward over everything You have entrusted to me. Lord, You saved me. I want to give You a return on that investment."
Here is my cry for you: I want everybody in this room to die empty.
This is what I want as your pastor, your friend, your brother. I mean this with my whole heart. I am praying that everybody under the sound of my voice will die empty. Do not arrive in glory carrying anything that God intended for you to pour out in this life.
I want you to arrive before heaven and say: "Lord, I wrote the book. I made the songs. I did the album. I started the ministry. I did the podcast. I became a better man. I became a better husband. I became a better father. I became a better disciple. I gave You a return on Your investment."
I am looking at my wife Lena. She has put up with so much. She has sacrificed so much. I have hurt her. I am staring at her saying: "Lord, I want to be a better husband to this woman."
I am looking at my children and thinking: "Man, I missed time with them when I was young and trying to build a ministry. I want to be a better father to them. I want to be available to them."
I cut my sermon prep short yesterday to hang out with them. We went to Bart Taco. We went to Pon City Market. We were running the streets. I was supposed to be in the house on Saturday consecrating myself for Sunday. But I closed the computer and said, "I am going to spend some time with these kids." I texted my assistant: "I am coming upstairs. I will take y'all wherever you want to go. We will do whatever y'all want to do." My daughter said, "Father, we want to go to Bar Taco in the city. We want city vibes."
I said, "I will be up at 3:00. Be ready."
Why? Because I want to give God a better return on His investment. I do not want to arrive in heaven having neglected the people God put in my care.
I am back here before this gathering in the green room crying, saying: "Lord, I am a mess today. I am all over the place. I am heavy. I am frustrated from all the things that happened this week. I feel like my proclamation is off today. Lord, I need to do better. I am conscious of the fact that I am stewarding this. When I suck, I want to say I want to do better. I do not want to just suck and walk off."
I am struggling this week. Lena is out of town. I am doing daddy daycare. I want to go be with my kids. It has been a hard week. I am doing dishes last night. What are we going to eat for dinner? I am the one managing everything.
But I am back there at the 8 AM call saying: "Lord, I am struggling in my preaching. I am over time. I am a mess. Help me to do better."
That is how stewards talk. They want to be better managers of the things God has given them.
So I plead with you: Lay down your shovel. Stop being busy and not being fruitful. Start saying no to things that have nothing to do with your calling. Start being faithful to the things God has called you to do.
Look at your relationships and want to be a better steward. Look at your marriage and want to be a better steward. Look at your children and want to be a better steward. Look at your ministry and want to be a better steward. Look at your job and want to be better.
Say: "Lord, I want to give You more than what You gave me. Your salvation will not be a wasted investment in me. Your Spirit will not be squandered. The cross was too costly. You will get a return out of me."
Be a good steward over everything God has entrusted to you.
That is my prayer for you.
