"The Parable of the 10 Talents" - with Pastor Doug Batchelor

dear loving lord thank you so much for your blessings for the opportunity to come together and study your word tonight we pray for the presence of your spirit and that you'll just be with us on our time together now that your word will come alive our minds will be quickened by the Holy Spirit and we pray all of this in Jesus name Amen attending but we are going to talk about the ten talents that Jesus shares in both Matthew chapter 24 and also he shares the same parable in Luke 19 little variation here so if actually of Matthew 25 I'm sorry Matthew 25 and we'll go to verse 14 the parable of the talents if you go to Luke it's called the parable of the Minna's they're both money but why don't it go through first and I'll read the one you find here in Matthew chapter 25 verse 14 now this is one of the longer parables that Jesus shares and it's a very important one also I want you to notice that he shares this parable in connection with the second coming he's just got done how many of you have a red-letter Edition Bible you notice Matthew 24 is all read he's giving the signs of his coming now when you get to Matthew 25 you notice there's no black no introduction no commentary of anything else it's still a continuation of Matthew 24 so Matthew 25 he talks about the parable of the foolish virgins dealing with a second coming when the bridegroom comes so it's related to the second coming and then Matthew 25 is also in the context of this is an important parable to think of in relation to the Lord's return for the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered to them his goods and the one he gave five talents to another two and to another one each one according to his own ability and immediately he went on a journey then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents likewise he who had received two gained two more also but he who had received one went and dug in the ground in the hid his Lords money after a long time the Lord of those servants don't miss that after a long time longer than they expected evidently the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them so he who had received the five talents came and brought five other talents saying Lord you delivered to me five talents look I've gained five more talents besides them his Lord said well done good and faithful servant you were faithful over a few things and I'll make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of your Lord he also who had received the two talents came and said Lord you delivered to me two talents look I've gained two talents more besides them the Lord said to him well done good and faithful servant says the same thing you've been faithful over a few things and I'll make you ruler over many things enter into the joy of your Lord then he who received the one talent came and said lord I knew you to be a hard man right or you already know says he gave to each one according to his ability this fella wasn't going to end well says Lord I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed and I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground look there you have what is yours but the Lord answered and said to him you wicked and lazy servant you knew that I reaped where I have not sown and gathered where I have not scattered so you ought to at least the posited my money with the bankers so at my coming I could have got my own back with some interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents for two everyone who has more will be given and he will have an abundance but from him who does not have what he has will be taken away and cast that unprofitable servant into outer darkness and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now if it's okay with you just jump with me over to Luke 19 and I think it's helpful to read this and someone's going to ask why is there a difference between the two and I'll I'll do my best to answer that Luke 19 and you can go to verse 11 now as they heard these things he spoke another parable because he was near Jerusalem well Matthew 24 is the Mount of Olives and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately so he's giving this parable because some thought that he would come right away so he's giving the parable to correct that misunderstanding okay a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return that's added so he called ten of his servants and delivered to them ten minutes now here he's got ten serve in the set of three and they all get the same thing and he said do business until I come some of you have King James it says occupy right till I come but his citizens hated him and they sent a delegation after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us and so it was when he returned having received the kingdom he then commanded these servants he's come back with authority and they can't house him he commanded these servants who he'd given the money to to be called to him that he might know how much every man had gained by trading then the first came and said master your Mina has earned ten minutes he said well done good servant because you are faithful and very little little you having authority you'll have authority over ten cities and the second came and said master your Mina has earned five minutes likewise he said to him you will be over five cities then another came and said master here is your minute which I've kept put away in the handkerchief evidently he wrapped it in a handkerchief and buried it which is what they would sometimes do for I feared you because you're an austere man you collect what you did not deposit and reap where you did not sow and he said to him out of your own mouth I'll judge you you wicked servant you knew I was an austere man collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow why then did you not at least put my money in the bank where at my coming I might have collected it was interest and he said to those who stood by it take them in uh from him and give it to him who has ten minutes but they said master he has ten minutes for I say to you that everyone who has to him will be given and from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away from him but bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me okay there you've got the parable so we're really looking at two parables very similar we're going to try and do that together tonight parable of the talents really is a summary of there's a day of reckoning and God has given to everybody something according to their ability and he expects us to use the gifts that he's given us faithfully because someday we will give an account for what we've done he does this in connection with the second coming because he wants us to know I want you to stay busy and to be productive to use your your talents and your influence till I return and I think most of us know Minna's talents that represents money you read in Luke he says I could have received my money he uses the word money so there's no question a talent is technically a weight and there's variations in the talent whether it was an Egyptian talent or a Hebrew talent and they had a battle owning talent but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 56 to 70 pounds and so when someone gives you a talent of silver that was a lot I mean it's 30 pieces of silver Christ was sold for his only a fraction of that and so everyone has given some resources to trade tells us in Matthew he gives it to us according to our ability you don't give the keys to a brand-new car to a 15 year old you know they especially sports car well some people do but you have to give people my dad our first car both my brother and I it was a Volkswagen bug because they didn't go too fast it was really simple and you had to learn mechanics and I spent a lot of time working on Volkswagens and and then you work your and there you you get them a used car you don't get them a new car isn't that right yes so you give it to them according to their ability help people grow into something and so the Lord gives everyone gifts but you notice that there are more gifts given as they are faith with what they have now before I get much further I should probably say why is there a difference in the parable that you find in Luke there's some striking differences from Matthew does that mean the Bible is not accurate did Luke get it wrong didn't Matthew get it wrong are there other places where you find the teachings of Jesus one gospel seems slightly different than the other to me that actually validates the truth of the Bible keep in mind as Jesus went from town to town and he talked do you think he had brand new sermons in every town when I go from town to town I do evangelistic meetings I've got about 30 meetings I usually have not time to do them all but there are Vangelis t'k meetings that I do on the various doctrines and people who have to endure going to more than one of my meetings are gonna hear many of the same illustrations because they're good ones every now and then you find a better one and you trade him out but Jesus says he went from town to town and village to village and city to city don't you think he repeated at times some of the teachings now sometimes I look out there and I hear Karen and I think poor Karen she's had to hear this sermon 50 times and so for her benefit I'll mix it up a little bit and I'll add some new things and I'll put a little different twist on it and so as he went from place to place Jesus would look at his audience he would know what the different needs were and where he needed a different emphasis and he made an interesting and he'd changed things I'm sure he'd told this parable or one like it many times Luke got his rendition maybe from Peter and Matthew maybe heard his firsthand and he's writing the one that he heard there on the Mount of Olives Luke is writing the one that Jesus told in a village near Jerusalem and so he went from town to town he shared a lot of the same parables so when you say why is it different here from there it's because he shared many of the same sermons in different villages and cities yeah a parable is usually fiction that is illustrating principles you know if I talk about the Aesop's fable of The Tortoise and the hare it's a parable that talks about slow and steady wins the race you've heard that expression before well it's a truth that is taught through a fictitious an allegory a story when Jesus talks about the lost sheep well that's he's comparing that lost sheep to a person that is lost then he at the end he ties it together and he said you know there's more joining the Angels over one sinner that is repentant than ninety-nine just people that don't need repentance so you realize at the end he's not talking about sheep he's talking about people so in this parable he is talking about servants of a king who is the king in the parable Jesus he's gone to receive a kingdom he's coming back again what are the talents maybe I'm getting ahead of myself first of all nothing sadder than a wasted gift you know one of the ways that companies make a lot of money as they sell gift cards you know why they make so much money on gift cards who knows any of you ever get a gift card and you find years later I've got a friend you bought me a free meal at this really nice restaurant in downtown Sacramento well I never went downtown very often I kept thinking one of these days one of these head into the pocket of my car finally I thought I'm gonna call and find out what their hours are well they'd closed so they got just you know whatever was 20 bucks free from him that they never had to give anything for it's a piece of paper people get these plastic gift cards all the time they misplace em where they lose them I've heard the average family has $300 worth of gift cards and coupons in their house not my house but some people question haha she said speaking of talents in your sermon she's only seeing me do the backflip once well I hope you enjoyed it cuz that's all you're gonna see if what if I were you I'd record it and play it backwards again oh you know when I just went to Sedona Arizona they've got a place there I don't know if a pastor is supposed to go to Devil's Bridge but we took the family hiking to a place called Devil's Bridge I don't have you ever heard of it it's one of these arches it's a big arch very high it's a very thin walkway over the arch it looks like it's only held up with a little rubble and you can walk out there and someone on the other side of the hill can take a picture of you out on this arch where it looks like it's actually pretty substantial when you're standing there and our son Nathan went out there he said watch this get your camera's out and they took a picture he did a backflip on that thing where you can fall off either side of it so they did catch it on camera anyway I don't know who taught him that that's it anyway I don't have that talent anymore so um got you know we don't want to waste the gifts that God gives us now what are some of the talents you know God is God telling us I'm going to come back and I'm gonna judge you based on how much money you made you're supposed to trade and invest and make a lot of money and whoever makes the most money and gets the best place in my kingdom is that what he's saying what does that talent represent it could be anything that you have a natural ability or an influence or you could do good with it by using it and so some people have talents it might be a musical talent there might be their mental faculties some have the ability to administrate and some people speech matter of fact one of the most important talents is speech that a person can invest because words are very powerful you know a hot dry day like this I could talk about lemons and you start to salivate and pucker and there's no lemon in the room just hearing about it can can have an influence jesus said we'll give an account for every idol we speak words are a very powerful gift and if a person has any element of eloquence using words in a positive influence it's a talent musics a talent some people have many talents you can read in the Bible several lists you look for instance in Romans 12 verse 3 for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith God gives everybody face someone says I don't have anything for as we have many members in one body but all the members do not have the same function so we being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another we're all connected like a body having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us let us use them now if you do have some talents Bible says God gives it to you according to your ability you might be thinking oh I don't have any gifts oh you know all I can do is a little bit of this and a little bit of that and I'm not gonna use my gift I'm just gonna bury it but what does God promise if you're faithful with what you have what did he do for those who are faithful with their talents he gave him more yeah if we're faithful with what we do have he gives you more if you have a little gift of music and you practice and you were fine it you know God can strengthen any particular gift now to say this but you know when I gave my heart to the Lord I I was pretty useless if you had asked me what my gifts were I thought I was a big zero I really did I I I didn't know I had any musical gifts I'm still not sure I do I mean but I learned to play several instruments and I thought well I guess I I didn't know you know my mother was always playing I never really did and I didn't know I could speak publicly I mean I moved to a cave because I had trouble communicating and I didn't know I could write I met my mother always wanted to write a book I've written several books now and I can't wait to tell her someday but I hated writing as a kid in school I loved it if I had an essay I had no idea I could do any of those things but once I came to the Lord I started doing a little bit of those things I started really he has given me something who would have thunk you know just so whenever you consecrate yourself to the Lord the Holy Spirit gives you gifts you ever go to a wedding you bring a gift when you're baptized it's like a wedding soon the Bible says that repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so with the Holy Spirit different gifts come that you may get gifts that you didn't even know you had after you've committed yourself to the Lord and we give you a verse on that first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all four to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healing some have just natural ability to heal to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another different kinds of tongues some of a gift of languages you know I remember talking to a girl at Central Church a couple years ago and we were visiting she told me where she was from and and she spoke very good English I said well you speak very good English but you said you're also from Switzerland and I said you probably because I've been to Switzerland you speak some French she said yeah I said how many languages you speak she said seven how about a man you ever heard that story if a person speaks two languages they're bilingual if they speak three languages they're trilingual if they speak one language they're American that's what they say in Europe because so many people in Europe speak several languages that I talked to lady tonight from I could tell she was from India and I asked her where in Indian she said she's from Punjab I said okay you speak at least Hindi and Punjabi right she said yes but there's some people we've met in India this before five languages because they have 16 languages in the country and so some people have a gift of tongues I know some people think that that means that you're babbling incoherently but that's not what the Bible teaches some people have gifts of cooking like Martha and Karen I went over to the Brahmins house the other night Brahmins are very good cook as a gift and different people have gifts of what am I forgetting here well finance you know money is a gift I remember reading you know John rockefeller when he was a young man he told his wife he says you know I'm a little frightened because I know that I have a gift to make money and he said I I suspect I'm gonna be able to make as much money as I'm ever gonna need and he was right he ended up being you know multi billionaire he owned control of 85 percent of the world's oil at his pinnacle before they broke up the monopolies it's just an incredible gift to make money Andrew Carnegie and so many others like him so some people do have those gifts and God wants us to be faithful in our business so but it's not just using your gifts in the world it's using your gifts consecrating your gifts for Christ it's kind of like you look at the story of the prodigal son what did the prodigal son want before he left home said divide the inheritance so what did he do with his father's money he took he wanted his father's gifts but he spent them all selfishly he did not plan on multiplying them for his father's good and so here in this story said look I'm going on a journey I'm the King I am going to give to you some gifts to invest I'll come back and there's a day of reckoning and everything belongs to God first Timothy 1:17 now to the king eternal immortal invisible to God who alone is wise be honored Lorre and forever does the Lord have a right to expect us to return to him something when we come when he comes back you know the poor servant I shouldn't say the poor one but the unfaithful servant when the master comes back and he said oh you were you're an austere man so that I knew you'd want you'd want it all back and you'd reap where you didn't sow and gather we do not straw he said well you know if that's your assessment of me first of all he's not that way but he said that's how you view me he says if you viewed me that way you should have at least had the energy to put my money in the bank and at my coming I'd at least get some interest but you were too lazy to even do the basics and so one thing we notice now as we go through this stories everybody gets something isn't that right all of us have gifts Ephesians 4:7 but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift therefore he says when he sends on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men so when he ascended he sent the holy spirit and with the Spirit comes varying gifts there are different kinds of gifts you can be born with certain natural abilities a new fella I I play racquetball a couple times a week and there's a gang of guys I have an opportunity sometimes a witness too and we get together and we play and a new fella showed up and he's a short guy but he is the most coordinated person I've ever seen you know some people just he does stuff with his body that I could never do and he just is always aware of where he is on the court and his coordination and sometimes he you yeah if you ever seen these people the ball comes like behind him they turn on they hit it between their legs and they get it I just see incredibly coordinated I was told him that is that you are the most coordinated person I've ever you know that's what you call like a natural ability some people are athletic and some people have these just these natural abilities then there's spiritual abilities that God gives you but whatever you have natural abilities inherited abilities cultivated abilities that all ought to be refined in God's service and then by doing that they they're expanded so he gives gifts to men you know as parable tells us that there's a place for everybody you might think well I don't have much like the boy who said I how can I feed all these people all I've got is five loaves and two fish well when you consecrate your gifts to the Lord what can he do he multiplies him Widow comes to Elisha he says what do you have in the house she says nothing chips a little bit of oil I mean no so many people have gotten mansions filled with all kinds of wonderful things all I've got is a little bit of oil but she consecrated that to God and what did he do filled her house with it yeah and so whatever you give sorry you consecrate him to God he can multiply that to each one grace is given you know one of the most important gifts that all of us is going to give an account for is our time few things will we be required to give a more careful reckoning of than our time was it Ben Franklin who said be careful how you use your time or when you waste your time you waste your life for time as the stuff that life is made of and you and I have all known people that fritter away their lives and if I could die now if there's any young people that are listening out there boy but if I could be young again it's so important you use your youth carefully especially because your ability to learn when you're young is ten times easier than when you get older and that's the time to just absorb all the knowledge you can someone said once you use the first third of your life learning to help you with the last two thirds and so I used to think what a waste of time you know going to college and going to school I know what I'm doing I'm sixteen years old no I'm just gonna drop out and you get a little older anything that was really dumb you you want to spend those years to just fortify your mind all you can if you're gonna memorize scripture especially start doing it when you're young most of the verses I've memory I memorized all right I remember now are the ones I memorize a long time ago it's a little harder for me now to memorize big passages than it was when I was younger so everybody gets something according to their ability we've all got different talents that were to invest if we're faithful in that which is at least we will be faithful also in much and then the Bible says to every one to whom much is given of him much will be required and to him who more has been given I'm sorry and to whom much has been given them him will they ask the more that might sound backwards but have you ever heard the expression if you want something done what's the rest of that get a busy person to do it you know the Lord realizes that as we're faithful in what we do have he prepares us through our early faithfulness to bear heavier weights and you know if you lift weights when you young you can lift a little more when you're in your maturity and so he prepares us for these things first Peter 4:10 as each one has received a gift Minister it to one another as a good stewards of the manifold grace of God so he's compared the gifts to the grace of God he's compared it to faith it's compared to different abilities now something you'll notice about the the first two people that come back to the king for one thing there is a day of reckoning in all the parables there's a day when the King comes back and he brings them before him you remember we studied a few weeks ago Matthew 18 where the king was doing an accounting he found one servant that had lost ten thousand talents there's a day of reckoning I'm gonna preach on that again one of these days there's a Judgment Day coming you don't hear too many sermons about that but there's a there's a great chapter on that subject in the book great controversy it's great it's also very convicting but I think sometimes we forget that everything we think and everything we do and how we've used our time and our influence and in our lives well sometime we're gonna stand before the Almighty and give an account for that and I think all of us are gonna have some repenting to do before that day but you want to be faithful in being faithful because there there's a day of reckoning that's something that's clear the first two that come back they both have a hundred percent increase was the Lord any happier with the one who had taken his two talents and turned them into four the one who had taken his five talents and turned them into ten he says the same thing well done good and faithful servant you took what you had and you doubled it says enter into the joy of the Lord well done God is not expecting you to do what Billy Graham did you know what I mean if your preacher he doesn't expect everybody to do the same as everybody else he just wants you to be faithful in your corner of the vineyard with what he's given you to do some people look around say all they've got so many gifts I could never do what they're doing I'm just gonna bury my gift because I can't I don't have very much so I won't do anything that is the wrong attitude no matter what you have be faithful I've met yeah point alright let me repeat that for the folks listening so if the King takes an account of everybody but he says to the unfaithful servant you could have at least given it to the bankers so that I could have had my own with some usury that was like the minimal that somebody could do I mean it's such an easy thing to say alright I'm open an account just you multiply it you're gonna get your fixed interest but this man didn't even take the least effort he stuck it in the ground now if the parable had been the parable of the seed it would have been good to stick it in the ground but this is not a parable of seed it's a parable of money and have you buried your money it doesn't do any good matter of fact what happens to your money if you bury it if how many of you know someone that hides like cash in their mattress because they don't trust the banks I know people like that I've got a friend and they told me I've hit some money if anything happens to me here's where it's buried and I thought that's a lot of money to bury in a hole I said you thought about a bank don't trust the banks well what happens with inflation to that money does it stay the same does it grow or does it diminish it diminishes someone said that Pablo Escobar probably still has millions of dollars that are rotting somewhere in the jungle and they said he he had so much cash from America hidden in the warehouses in Colombia that they figured they'd have about 5% loss to mold and rats but it didn't matter they had so much coming in they could do that you would like to have had some of that money that molded right before before it went bad anyway it's a waste and so you know when he said you could have at least given it to the bankers I'm not sure what the spiritual analogy of what the banker is and if you have an idea oh yeah what's the what's the banker well I think he's just saying even banks are very old the Bible talks about even back in the days of Moses he talks about if you're gonna charge usury you can charge usury of a foreigner but don't charge interest if your brother borrows from you so they had people who charge interest on their money way back in Moses day it's a very old practice and so he could have at least found some reputable place to get basic interest but he didn't trade with it at all that would have been the lazy way out to just put it in the bank but don't don't treat with it so some people just come to church and they sit well at least they're in the bank maybe something will happen but people some people have talents and just sit at home they don't even go and any of you have any ideas on what the bank would represent my idea okay okay I don't want to be dogmatic about that in the book Christ's object lessons 3:29 it says the development of all of our powers is the first duty we owe God and to our fellow men no one who is not growing daily in capability and usefulness is fulfilling the purpose of life every day we want to be learning something last night Karen came in the office and she caught me I was looking at the YouTube learning new chords on my guitar now you might be thinking that if you're you're 61 years old now it's downhill from here on why are you trying to learn new chords and the guitar but you know you still can learn things as long as there are brain cells that can still be trained in new things do you know whatever you learn in this life you take with you to eternity in the resurrection assuming you're saved in the resurrection do you come out of the grave as a baby or do you come out of the grave with a certain amount of bility and knowledge and experience and reward based on this life you take the advancement that you begin in this life with you into eternity so when in this life would you ever want to stop learning when would you ever want to stop growing when would you ever want to stop soul winning I've talked to some old Saints and they've they've mourned and I know I'd probably feel the same way they say pastor dag I feel so useless I sit at home like am too old now I can't go to and they could perhaps they can and they say you know I the Lord should just take me what can I do now I can't do anything I'll say brother sister can you pray well yeah I can still pray I said well that's a gift I said become a prayer warrior that's can you pick up a phone yeah should be part of our prayer chain can you call these people and encourage them well yeah I said well you're a little discouraged be encouraged someone else see what happens to you and so everybody can try and do something as long as you've got even if you can lay in your bed and pray do something for others something else you'll notice is that he not only calls this servant wicked he calls the evil servant lazy a lot of people are lost not because a love for sin per se as a hatred of work they just don't want to do anything the Bible talks about slothfulness and God wants us to be industrious that means we must discipline ourselves to sometimes do things we don't want to do you need to discipline yourself to do them when you don't want to do them and that's part of life and as you do that there's happiness you ever found yourself saying how I really don't feel like doing this or that and then you do it you're glad you did that could apply to a lot of things haven't you ever sat back after you've done a job well and even though it was tiring there's some satisfaction that you did it two nights ago care and I we're tired because we just got back from our trip but we knew that the neighborhood garbage was going through I've been trying to prune in the backyard and we've got this green barrel you filled with green waste and they pick it up part of the neighborhood package and I thought boy you know if I don't do it now they're gonna pick it up in the morning to come at 5:00 in the morning I'm not gonna do it in the morning last thing I wanted to do is go out in the yard and start pruning bushes but I thought you know it's something needs to be done on pain to put that have that picked up I may as well put something in it so I got out there and started working on it Karen saw me she came out and helped me pretty soon we had it full and if there's a sense of satisfaction when you do something god gives you when you've accomplished something and I think he designed people to work isn't that right and you look back on the job well done and there's a sense of fulfillment so every day God has created us people were Seventh day Adventist Christian and we talked so much about resting on the seventh day and many people forget that the first part of that commandment is just as important as the last part and it says six days thou shalt work that's a commandment isn't it so God wants us to be busy six days now for those of you in retirement that's probably very disturbing now but he wants us to be productive every day we should be doing something to try and be useful like I said even if it's praying for others or whatever your responsibilities are but we want to stay busy and then not only is there a judgement there's a reward everyone is rewarded some are rewarded by getting more the one who he turned the ten talents on five talents into ten talents and the King says and take that one servants talent that was all wrapped up give it to him and he'll invest it he said oh but Lord he's already got ten whoever has two more will be given why does he say that whoever has to him more will be given doesn't Jesus say if you've got faith even as a mustard seed if you invest that faith it grows and if you're faithful in that which is least you'll be faithful also and much he'll give you more everyone's rewarded some get a good reward some get a bad reward the Lord answered and said you wicked lazy servant you knew I reaped where I've not sown and you get I gathered where I'm not scattered seed you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers and at my coming I would have received back my own with interests so take the one talent from him and give it to him who has ten for to whom to him who has more will be given and they'll have an abundance but from him who does not have even when he has will be taken away if if we say well I don't have anything well you do have it you don't know it'll be taken away and it says and there will be and cast that unprofitable servant I want to pause there what kind of servants are we supposed to be profitable I know an old pastor and he last I heard he was still preaching and he said if you make yourself useful you give God a good reason to keep you around and so I think that's pretty good advice my dad actually owned a hotel in Miami it was called the runway in right by Miami Airport and when he bought the hotel there was an african-american gentleman who worked there and I think his name was Caesar and he was 80 years old and my dad I got in trouble he made me work at the hotel and actually got kicked out of the house because I was such a I was so rude to my stepmother I had to live at the hotel for a while but while I was there I was amazed that this guy was 80 years old and still working and I said Caesar why are you still working he said if I stop working I'll die he says you got to have a purpose in life and I think every day God gives you breath he wants you to use your gifts and your talents whatever they are whatever you have a left to use it for good and if we're faithful in what is least we'll be faithful and much and in the kingdom those people are reached they'll reap the greatest rewards in heaven amen any closing thoughts or questions on this parable before we wrap it up with our friends watching yes Clarence yeah yeah let me repeat what you're saying here yeah everybody in Christ hoppers your lessons talks about health time influence strength and matter of fact everyone will have influence good or bad everyone is influencing somebody every day did I see another again yes yeah if and if a person values that relationship it it increases all right yes yeah oh yeah wolf was saying that the three divisions of life the first part is learning then it's earning then it's yearning usually yearning to be young again my father said the youth is wasted on the young how many of you have heard of Albert Schweitzer if you ever read about it dr. Albert Schweitzer is an interesting life he was a very gifted musician he could have been a professional organist then he decided you know when he's like 25 or so he said I'm gonna study medicine I'd live very much for myself I've got all this praise for my organ plane I'm gonna study medicine I'm gonna give the rest of my life to God so he spent the first 30 years of his life for himself and then he saw I'm gonna spend the end of my life and he worked two-thirds of his life people said you know back then you didn't live that long average life was 45 years he ended up living to 90 and he did mission work in Africa and and he just was faithful right to the very end and it's just a great example for all of us to be faithful alright well thank you very much we appreciate your joining us for this Bible study and I hope it's been beneficial and let your friends know they can tune in and join us each week for our studies online

Channel: Aaron

Views: 7,024

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Id: A3YukxdrxPo

Length: 43min 13sec (2593 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 31 2018