It's Not What You Have But How You Use It | Tim Dilena

the next time i stand behind a pulpit and preach to you will not be in front of a camera but before the congregation in the sanctuary of times square church 18 months behind a camera is coming to a close and my heart is so excited that we are just one week away from september 12th when we are reopening for our in-person service and we are rejoicing with that i also want to say that if you feel the need to exercise caution we we want to ask you join with us still online it is going to be just as powerful as we begin to join together i left my family and got on a plane and landed in laguardia airport all by myself on may 5th 2020. i came into the times square church office there was maybe two of us or three of us that were there on that wednesday may 6th not knowing what we were going to face as a church even in the coming days i left my family down south and cindy and i committed to a long season of commuting back and forth and we thought that those eight months of communing that would become our hurdle little did we realize that what was ahead for our city our country and really the planet we are now in september 2021 18 months later the future for our world is even still uncertain i know difficult times are ahead not just pandemics and variants um from a virus but i believe even a persecution that is coming to bible believing churches and bible uh but just bible believers is coming to this country pastor carter charged me at the very beginning of this and spoke to me and said you god spoke to him that i was to that cindy and i were to come and lead tsc through some difficult times and i believe that there are more ahead but i also want to say what we see ahead we also see revival and a great harvest ahead i believe that there is hope in the future and i want i want you to hear me very clearly on these next few things if we opened up september 12 2021 as the same church that closed its doors in april of 2020 i want you to hear me then i am an unfaithful man and unfit leader pastor carter entrusted to sidney and i times square church on may 5th not to preserve simply an old tradition but to propel it into new waters for a huge harvest times square church is a gift that is to multiply listen not a museum to be admired times square church is a gift not only to the city into this country but to the world and let me say this everything that god entrusts to us has the ability to grow and multiply for his glory we are not i am not a good steward of god's gifts if we do nothing with the gift that god gives to us jesus speaks to this principle in the sobering parable in matthew 25 about the danger of being given a stewardship over god's gifts and doing nothing but leaving them intact doing nothing with them not even harming them but doing nothing with them always remember church we're not a museum we are the body of christ we are not a museum we are an army for god and matthew 25 is a parable a story about three men who are given different talents and told to do something with them matthew 25 is a last day's challenge about accountability with what god has given us andrew murray the great writer on prayer said these words the world asks what does the man own christ asks how does he use it one day jesus will ask me what did you do with what i entrusted to you because it's not what you have it's how you use it let's pray father let the holy spirit guide us in these next few moments i'm so thankful father for what you have done how you've prepared us for this season and god as we come to a conclusion just on this chapter god i believe the next chapter to open up next week in that sanctuary is going to see even a great our greater harvest and greater things that that really we we could not even imagine we believe amazing things are ahead let us be faithful with the gifts that you have given to us in jesus name amen i believe that this is the right last sermon before we meet in person someone once said that god's people can be divided into three categories the flint the sponge and the honeycomb this is what they said they said some people are like flint to get anything out of them you have to hammer at it and sometimes the only thing you're going to get are chips and sparks since then there are those that are like a sponge to get anything out of them you have to squeeze really hard and then he says there are those that are like a honeycomb he says which just overflows with sweetness overflows with with blessing matthew 25 is a parable about really two honeycombs and one flint i i believe the words of billy graham the evangelist who said god has given us two hands one to receive with and the other to give with we're not cisterns made for hoarding we are channels made for giving ah that's why i believe okay get get this no church ever has a gift problem it's only a faithfulness problem what do you mean pastor tim i believe everything you as a leader a pastor everything you need for your church is there in the house it's here in times square church i believe it's there but every gift that's given to people needs a good and faithful servant behind it in order to multiply it that's the parable that's the challenge that jesus gives us before he's about to go to the cross listen to his words for it's just like a man verse 14 he says for the kingdom of heaven is just like a man that is about to go on a journey who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them to when he gives five talents to another two and to another one there's your three men there's going to be your honeycomb and your and and really it's going to be your flint each according to his own ability and he went on his journey and immediately the one that received five talents went and traded and gained five more in the same manner the one who received two talents gained two more but he received the one talent went away dug a hole in the ground in fact luke's version says he kind of wrapped it up in a linen napkin and hid his master's money and not now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them the talent in this parable the talent in the new testament doesn't mean much to us today but in the first century they would have known exactly what jesus was talking about listen a talent was equivalent one talent was equivalent to 20 years wages so when five talents are given two talents are given one talent to each of these three servants you know what was taking place the master was putting them in charge of about 160 years worth of wages i stumbled on an interesting story about a church in ohio whose pastor was preaching on this very parable the pastor wanted his congregation to get it to realize that what we we are stewards of god's gifts and what was interesting was a man gave the church 40 000 true story for missions the pastor asked the man he says would you allow us to see if we have the ability to multiply that gift from missions around the world to which the man gave us permission at the end of the sermon as he preached this he gave to adults fifty dollars and even to children ten dollars each all amounting to forty thousand dollars and then said you have seven weeks to multiply the gift that i've just given to you and then they would collect the money and they would send the forty thousand and whatever came in beyond that into missions the church came up with extremely creative ideas pilots were giving um trips uh to kids teenagers were making fleece blankets nine-year-olds were making origami uh projects and selling them on a street corner at the end of seven weeks you ready for this the church collected 38 195 above the 40 000 that was given which means when it came time to give to missions they gave almost doubled almost 80 000 it was a parable that was being played out right before him okay let's let's forget origami and plane rides how about those that would invest their entire life i recently watched the movie harriet about the amazing story about the woman that began the the the underground railroad that was rescuing slaves harriet tubman was given a gift freedom from slavery after a hundred mile death-defying trek as she got to her lib got found freedom this is a woman who can neither read nor write but had a passion to rescue people's lives but it didn't stop her she made 19 trips into into places that were hunting her down and 300 including her family members 300 slaves were rescued by this woman she took her gift her talent her freedom her life and turned it ready for this into 300 more lives the church in ohio doubled it this woman think about this took one life and turned it into 300 lives see that word talent we see it and can easily mistaken it for uh the talent of what or giftedness and it's not it's not talent or giftedness it's literally a fortune a sum of money the master said to these three men to do something was given but i think the talent represents something else that talent represents i believe for us all you have and i have from god if i can give the simplest definition of a talent it's the stuff that god has given to all of us that stuff and the expectation was to reach that that was supposed to come that god was gonna trust these men with all that stuff and what was amazing was these three men were given though they were given three different amounts the three men were given the same assignment with this expectation to return something better than what they were initially given and that the master of the house was not just going to give them talents get this wasn't just going to give them talents and an assignment he was also going to give them time to make this happen that's what matthew 25 19 says after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them it was the subtle accounts five comes back as ten two comes back with four and one comes back with one and this is where our story hits home to us personally to us as a church and if you're watching from different parts of the world even to us as church leaders i i i believe that the church not only the church here but church around the world is given as a gift and if if if we begin to simply try to open up the same church that closed not just us anybody on that day after that when the pandemic started i'm not sure that we're multiplying what god has given to us even the one talent man was asked did you at least try to get interest did you at least try to do one thing did you try to do even the easiest thing and and my challenge is to even to ask churches and pastors say in the midst of close closing down maybe god was saying at least earn interest start a prayer meeting do something get get going there and i believe it's the challenge not just for us individually for us as a church see the person in this story that becomes the focus is the one talent man because stewardship what he was telling us is stewardship is not protecting what you are given stewardship is multiplying what you're given or financially speaking listen to the founder of kraft food company james craft this is what he said the only investment i ever made which has paid consist consistently increasing dividend dividends is the money i've given to the lord that's the founder of that huge food company his talent was business and finances and a and a gift that god gave to him and he knew how to multiply it what did the one talent man do with the stuff of life the most dangerous thing to do is nothing and to think that's acceptable stewardship i want to just say a few things about this first god's people are not just gift receivers they are stewards of gifts they're not just gift receivers they are stewards of gifts see stewardship means that we have a job listen to james 1 17 because this is where the gifts come from every good gift every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights in whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning see your gifts are from god my gifts are from god and our job is not simply to receive from god but to return back to the master those gifts in better condition than eve we even receive them let me let me explain your salvation being born again the the the salvation you ready for this is a gift it's a gift from god ephesians 2 8 says that for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves here it comes it is the gift of god we have a responsibility that when god changes us from the inside out that we just don't give back to him that the moment that we have set a born again prayer and then that's it god goes that's a gift i want that to multiply i want that to grow we have a responsibility for growth here's another one your children my children christian anna loren and grace are a gift from the lord that's what psalms 127 3 says behold children are a gift of the lord that's that's that's i have a responsibility to pour into them to invest in them to grow them in all different places here's another one your spouse my wife cindy is a gift from god listen to proverbs 18 22 a man's greatest treasure is his wife she is a gift from the lord and the challenge is this if you and i do nothing to grow our christianity ephesians 2 8 to grow our parenting psalm 127 3 to to grow in our in our marriage some proverbs 18 22. and what we do is we're we're we're dangerously living with a one talent mentality we have a gift salvation our spouse our children and we don't want to stop multiplying it or or presenting back to god something that gift in the same condition that we received it in see times square church is a gift times square church was made battle ready for this season by pastor carter and pastor david wilkerson and the worst thing i could do that cindy and i could do for for their legacy is is do nothing don't touch anything leave it alone that's why we believe what we're seeing take place with connect groups that are multiplying all over the world salvation born-again opportunities at the end of every online service we're watching people get saved around the city around the country and around the world you've heard the stories even what you're going to see on september 12th at the new stage that's not just for looks that's so we can begin to broadcast globally and touch people even around the world we're wanting to multiply what god has given to us what happens to the one talent man that did nothing you ready for this jesus uses the toughest language against this man that he has used against anybody in all the gospels he calls them he calls him wicked and lazy listen to the words verse 25 verse 26 in matthew 25 but his master answered and said to him when the man came back and said here's the thing that you gave to me in the exact way you gave it to me no growth no multiplication not any better than what you gave to me after a long time since you wicked lazy slave think think of those words think how incredible that that is in fact the part that literally challenged me was how the message paraphrases this it says this in verse 26 the master was furious and said that's a terrible way to live and here's these words it's criminal to live cautiously like that if you knew i was after the best why did you do less than even the least listen to those words it's criminal to live cautiously i want to say them again it's criminal to live cautiously if god's given us a gift that gift is to get bigger and better i wonder if from from seeing marriages or children go astray or marriages begin to to start to erode is it because we didn't take those gifts seriously talk about multiplying and seeing those gifts no matter what we have to present to god i was reading the story of the man that literally began the miracle the harvest and what's happening in china today hudson taylor hudson taylor tells the story talk about using a gift to multiply hudson teller was speaking in glasgow scotland and at the conclusion of a service a man came hobbling up with a wooden leg and a crutch and introduced himself to hudson taylor and said god has called me to china and hudson taylor glanced down at the wooden leg and at the crutch and said why you can't go to china in that condition the crippled man seemed so discouraged shook his head and just walked away sometime later hudson taylor met the man again as he was back in scotland and he came up to him again and said mr taylor god has called me to go to china with you and finally hudson taylor said well tell me what did god say and he said it was isaiah 33 23 and it says the prophet says the lame can take the prey and to which hudson taylor smiled and said you're lame and there's plenty of prey in china so you can go ahead and go john stott got on a boat went hobbling with his wooden leg and a crutch and while he was on that ship in china someone asked him why are you going to china as as as a missionary look at your condition and to which stock replied i don't see many two-legged people going so i thought i'd go with one leg and here's my favorite when he gets there the people were so afraid to let him in the city they described him as a funny looking creature with three legs he started going door to door john stott started going toward a door telling people about jesus in china and it said that when they would try to slam the door on john stott he would take that wooden leg and stick it in the door and they couldn't slam the door and he was telling him about jesus that man was using that gift of a wooden leg to tell the gospel of jesus that's incredible he he began to realize that that gift was going to multiply lives are going to come to christ and to see what's happening in china today as a result of the people that we're going let me just say the second thing the greatest way to multiply god's gifts is investing in people in acts 6 the apostles take a risk and decide they can't do everything in the church and they were called to put ministry in the hands of others if they wanted to see multiplication take place remember what was taking place is that widows were being overlooked in the food ministry here's what it says in acts 6 1. now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number a complaint arose on the part of the hellenistic jews because the native hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of the food it seemed like the job was outgrowing them i i want to pause here and say that the greatest enemy of the church's future is for the person who sits in that seat and comes to church is to be a consumer and not a multiplier to sit and receive but never like billy graham talked about the beginning if you use both your hands to receive you'll be become a consumer but we get gifts from god whether it's our marriage our church our children our salvation and then we are to give with the other hand we're not to be consumers those men began to give away ministry give away opportunity give away responsibility instead of hoarding it and doing everything those 12 apostles gave it away it turned into seven deacons that would that would be chosen and here's what the bible says would happen it's amazing you ready for this we read what took place acts 6 1 they choose seven deacons between two and verse six and then listen to verse 7 what happens the word of god kept on spreading the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in jerusalem and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith did you just see what just placed in that verse three things word of god spread disciples increase just from giving responsibility giving a job giving giving leadership in ministry they said we're not going to be consumers and even here's what blew me away a great many priests got saved and i have to tell you something else happened also two new leaders rose up that i don't think would have risen if those disciples didn't do it was stephen and philip stephen who becomes the new preacher acts 7 preached the second longest sermon in the bible next to the sermon on the mount and then even philip the catalyst for the gospel going into the continent of africa the 12 apostles give up tables and did more without them holding on to their position their insecurity holding on to their authority let me ask you a question if the apostles don't step out of the way and take a risk to empower others do those four things happen man that's a huge question see i i want to challenge you today one of the greatest ways to invest in people is really what's happening what we're seeing take place around the city and all through our church as thousands of people are connecting through connect groups and i want to challenge you this as we're getting ready to launch we want you not just to join but even to lead a connect group that's the investment that's when the kingdom starts to multiply the word of god spreads disciples increase and even people that you never thought you'd get saved like those priests would all of a sudden start to get saved and new leaders the stevens and the phillips start to raise up let let me just say this about this one talent man as we close because that one talent man as he's as as he's given an assignment just like the others and given time time and an assignment has two excuses when he's held accountable he said it's my working conditions and he's afraid let me just let me just make mention of that excuse number one he says it's my it's my working conditions matthew 25 24 says master i knew you to be a hard man instead of owning it he said it's the work environment you made it difficult by the way you lead i didn't have the right environment starting with you to make multiplication happen i wanted to go hey duh did you see the other guys they did it they didn't seem to have that hurdle your environment doesn't determine whether god can take those gifts and multiply them i'm single i'm disabled i'm unemployed i'm living with my parents i'm in prison can god even use me how about joseph think about this joseph is in prison and still interpreting dreams in prison environment doesn't hold back god's gifts from exploding let me give you somebody's working condition talk about trying to write and to compose you're blind you know probably the songs more than you know the name christ the lord has risen today draw me nearer blessed assurance he hideth my soul past me not all gentle savior redeemed all these songs written by one lady fanny crosby and she was blind in fact not just a number of songs six thousand songs six thousand hymns written by this woman who is blinded at six weeks old by the malpractice of a doctor talk about bad working conditions how do you write when you're blind how do you compose how do you put notes what's amazing out of out of this phenomenal gift called fanny crosby who god gave a memory and learning much of the bible by heart came this this influx unequaled in christian history of hymns that are even sung today when fannie was writing about this in 1903 this is what she said she said the poor doctor who spoiled my eyes soon disappeared from the neighborhood said never heard by anyone ever again she said but i i've i've always always as this man expressed his regret i've always wanted to meet him and i would say to him thank you thank you i would say it to him over and over again she writes in her journal because it was through you and what you thought was meant for evil god brought good god brought all this music there is no environment that god's gift can't explode multiply and even become greater and then this man had another excuse he said i was afraid listen to matthew 25 25 i was afraid went away and hid your talent in the ground there there are so many fears that want to paralyze there's so many so many opportunities that god wants to open up but fear makes people consumers people make fear makes people sit there the the fearless in our country grows greater and greater every day it's not just fear of a pandemic and fear of catching a virus or a variant the fears just keep multiplying they get brand new ones keep coming in fact it becomes one of the biggest hurdles that i hear from people who want to whether it's a connect group or serve in a church they're afraid they're afraid to go and always remember this those excuses bad work environment i was afraid that one talent man eventually becomes the no talent man the one talent man because of fear and because of the excuse of a working environment becomes the no talent man because god takes his entrusted gifts seriously listen to what god that's what the story says therefore take away the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents that blows me away that when we don't take this seriously the gifts that god has given to us and even going through this pandemic i want to tell you you've been giving gifts you have been given time whether it's even free time that's a gift if you're if your job says you're to work at home that's a gift that god has given to you maybe the gift of spending more time with your family maybe the gift of solitude maybe the gift of getting in his word but and when you come out of this are we better is our church better is our lives better i know people that have given more time to simply searching researching covet and vaccine shots for them for free for all these months and i'm not saying that that's bad but i'm saying let's invest time in eternal things what is eternal that's the gift of god and to say what do you want me to do with my life what do you want me to do with my family what do you want me to do with this gift of salvation some years ago i heard the story of larry walters as we close a 33 year old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a different perspective he went down to a local army surplus store ready for this and bought 45 used weather balloons that afternoon he took all 45 balloons and he strapped them to his lawn chair and filled them up with helium took along some soda peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bb gun thinking that he would go to a certain height and then just shoot each balloon that would bring him down gently walters assumed the balloons would lift him up about a hundred feet in the air um but got caught off guard as those 45 balloons you ready for this took him 11 000 feet up in the sky right in the middle of air traffic control by the lax airport they literally had to shut down the airport he was too frightened to shoot any of the balloons and stayed airborne 11 000 feet for almost two hours forcing the airport to shut down runways for much of the afternoon long delays and finally the balloons began to lose their helium and he began to come down after two hours as soon as he got down the reporters asked them three questions they said were you scared absolutely would you do it again absolutely not and this is the one that got me why did you do it and this is what he said because you just can't sit there all your life you just can't sit there it larry walters did the wrong thing but man so did the man with one talent given a reward given a gift man i want to take my life i want my life to be used by god you can't just sit there to do something with our life life is a gift and it's not even our own listen to first corinthians 6 19 haven't you yet learned that your body your life is the home of the holy spirit that god gave to you and he lives within you your body your body this body doesn't belong to you how come god's bought you with a great price so use every part of your body this is the investment this is saying god i've i i have your investment in me i want to just give you back a physical body i want to give you a life back this is bringing glory to you so use every part of your body to give glory back to god why because he owns it if you have one talent if you're a one talent person and you just go the only thing i have is my life i'm breathing today then the best thing you can do is not just sit there but to say god take my life that's called i'm just telling you that's called being born again that's where life starts that's where it all starts boy if i can tell you don't just sit there choose life today pastor tim how do i do that you talk about being born again what does that actually mean because these are jesus's words when jesus speaks about being born again he's talking about a change that happens from the inside out what he was saying was was this just as you had a first birth you have to have a second birth just as you were born physically you need to be born spiritually first time maybe in a hospital but the second time it's born not in a hospital but it's born internally where god does the work this is what jesus said these are jesus's words john 3 3 no man can see the kingdom of heaven unless they're born again that's what jesus said he said not only is eternity banking on this he said but even you're right now because life begins right now it happens right now by making the right decision god's given everyone every one of us has one talent if we call that one talent life then we've got to do the right thing with it god bought us with a price and he wants a relationship with you today and that relationship is called being born again that not only changes you for now but it changes you for eternity pastor tim how does that happen how can i be born again listen listen to these words it's going to be as simple as a b c those three letters correspond to three action steps here it is a admitting that i'm a sinner getting honest with god that all of us starting even with myself have a condition it's called sin i can't fix it myself i can't fix it with a promise there's not a pastor that can fix it a priest there's not even a program that can fix it we need help to fix this i'm broken on the inside and the diagnosis is sin or as one pastor said we're not mistaken in need of correction we are sinners in need of a savior we don't need a second chance but we need a second birth well how does that happen pastor tim that's the believe word that's be believe believe it god sent his son to fix our sinful condition because i can't fix myself if we could fix ourselves then god putting his son through that suffering would be the ultimate case of child abuse i can't fix me you can't fix you so the greatest thing we can do with this one talent this re this gift we've been entrusted with called life is to give it over to god if if if god thought that by us being good and keeping pro our own promises is gonna get us to heaven then why would he have to send jesus but see jesus became our sin bearer he died of death we were supposed to die lived a life that we couldn't even imagine to live and gave us a reward heaven and forgiveness that we didn't even deserve and finally it's confess see confess confessing him as lord saying jesus you're you're the boss that's a big word romans 10 9 and 10 says that we have to confess him as lord which means you're in charge of my life now you're not just asking for an hour or two on a sunday jesus coming into our life doesn't change our weekends it changes our life it changes our eternity see religion wants you to show up on the weekends jesus doesn't want your weekends jesus wants every day and when you say your boss you're going you're in charge now you have veto rights it's not my opinion what you think is right that's that's that's doing the right thing with this gift and today that can happen today i tell you don't just sit there let today be the most important decision you ever made and that's to be born again jesus's words today that can happen pastor tim what do you want me to do i want you just to take this next step i want you to pray with us today wherever you're at whether you're in a your house whether you're at a college campus in an airport on a train a bus whether you're driving in a car i want you to pray this prayer with us i want you to start this journey of of beginning to entrust talents to god saying god take everything the stuff that god has given us starting with breathing starting with life remember talent is the stuff that god has given us and the greatest gift he's given to us is not only life but his own son to change our life i want you to pray this prayer if you're able to maybe you prayed as a family maybe you prayed as a couple maybe you look at your wife husband and say you are a gift from god let's present our lives to him come on i want you to pray this with me let's let's pray this together dear lord jesus i believe you're the son of god i believe that on the cross you took my sin my shame and my guilt and you died for it you faced hell for me so i wouldn't have to go you rose from the dead to give me a place in heaven a purpose on earth and a relationship with your father today lord jesus i turn from my sin to be born again god is my father jesus is my savior the holy spirit is my helper and heaven is my home in jesus name amen you did the greatest thing you've ever done with that talent that that life that you have you've taken the talent that you have and god's greatest gift his son and all of a sudden life changes and and if you've prayed this prayer i want you to do just take one more step i want you to text the word connect you're going to see it on your screen to 51 5100 we're going to help you with next steps we're going to send you some videos some short simple videos that starts taking the gift of salvation and growing it not leaving it stagnant and the same that it was but starts to grow it because we're going to get present to him something greater than what we started off with and in fact we want to rejoice with you today on that incredible decision that you made by rejoicing with the times square church choir god bless you

Channel: Times Square Church

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Length: 39min 23sec (2363 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021