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Who is the head of your household? I am talking about in the family, not Jesus over all. Who is the head of your household and does everyone submit to that headship? It has been my experience that when Dad is involved in the family, serving them for their best, his authority is rarely counteracted by any in the family when decisions are made that affect the family. His desire to give the best to his family and his service to them shines through so that all are open to his leadership and authority. He has proved himself by acting in love toward every member in his family, putting their needs ahead of his own and their best interests first and foremost in the decisions made.
When a husband and father acts like this his wife and family feel that he is always acting in their interests and will give him rule over the family as the place where the buck stops when a decision needs to be made. For those of you here who are in the leadership role of the family have you ever said to yourself, “I don’t have what it takes to lead this family. I don’t have the means to care for them like I desire to nor the wisdom needed most of the time. How can I do this?” All you can do is the best you can with what God has given and strive to learn how to serve them better and better. If you do that no one can condemn you.
Have you ever asked yourself; “What can I do to serve God because I don’t have the talents that others have or the opportunities either? And if this is so does it mean I will not have opportunity to serve Him greater in heaven for eternity?”
Thankfully in this Parable of the Talents, Jesus helps us understand what we might be doing in heaven for Him because of what we did here with what we were given to work with. This Parable follows the same pattern of that of the Minas. The difference though is that the stewards are given different amounts to manage, according to their ability. Vs15. Again we see 2 of the stewards double what they were entrusted with. 1 Cor. 4:2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. They proved faithful. The master commends the 2 stewards for their faithfulness, doing the best they could with what they were given, according to their ability. They had worked within their potential for the Lord, not giving up, and were commended for it. They both were rewarded based on the results of their potential. Vs 21; 23.
Do you know it will be the same for us; Jesus will reward us based on what we did with what we were given. We are not all called to do the same things in the kingdom here on earth. But we are called to do the best, to be faithful to Him, with what we are given.
Maybe you think, “I can’t preach or teach what can I do for God that will benefit the kingdom and allow me to serve God in greater ways in heaven? I can only do menial work with my hands.”
Let’s say you are a seamstress, can what you do make a difference to the Lord? Yes it can. Acts 9:36-41 Every piece of clothing she made for the widows were jewels in her crown in heaven, so much so that God saw fit to bring her back to life to continue her work for Him.
Maybe you are a mom with a parcel of kids at home to take care of and have asked; “What can I do to serve God better here when I have my hands full with these children?” One of the women who is taking the TEE program has determined to take what she is learning and teach it to her children so they too can walk closer to the Lord and then is encouraging other mom’s to do the same thing. Her reward will be great for this in heaven because she is taking what she has and is multiplying it for the Lord into her children’s lives and the lives of other mom’s.
No matter who we are or what we do, we all have the same opportunity to serve God now to the best of our ability and earn the reward He desires to give us and the opportunity to serve Him in a greater way in eternity.
We need to be careful not to believe that the best way we can serve God in by not sinning a lot or by just going about business as usual or even not just giving up on it all. These seem like right things to do but acting like this resembles the 3rd steward who does nothing with what he was given, just keeps it safe. God sees potential in us and we must strive for ways to live up to that potential and reach out for Christ in love doing the little things and the big things for Him.
If we strive for excellence in what we are given to serve the Lord with, we will know His peace and strength and desire to do even more for Him here and then in heaven. David Wilkinson says; “Doing is a servant’s language of devotion.” If we love the Lord and are devoted to Him we will look for better and better ways to serve Him here and in eternity.
We will find that in eternity we will, through our loving service, have great rewards there and greater opportunity to serve Him there.
Thinking about our lives lived here for the Lord, how much opportunity will we be given in heaven to serve Him because we were faithful with what we had here? Last week we looked at the passage in Mark where we are told to serve on another in love, not lording our place over others. Mark 10:42-45 Because God looks at things opposite of what man does, in His kingdom the greatest word for serving will be ruling. If we serve well then we will rule well. Servant leadership in the family.
We can see this principle put into effect from the creation of the world, man was told that the way he would serve God would be by ruling over the earth and all on it. Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Man was made steward over what God had created and was to serve God by ruling over all. This was their way of service to God.
Jesus confirms that when we serve well here we will rule under Him in heaven. He tells the apostles; Matt. 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. So we see from what Jesus teaches here and what we find in the scriptures that when we get to heaven how well we have served here will determine how much we rule there for Him in eternity. Rev. 2:26–27 To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter; he will dash them to pieces like pottery’— just as I have received authority from my Father. 2 Tim. 2:11–13 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. We need to understand this though, the way we rule there will be nothing like it is done here now. There will be no corruption or manipulation like we see now. When the curse of sin is removed and we are restored to our true purpose, we will be free to rule for God to our fullest power while doing only the greatest good to others for the glory of God. Rev. 21:22-27 Ruling will be the reward for serving well, just as we have seen from the parables. The steward with the minas who took 5 and made it 10 was given rule over 10 cities as reward for his faithful service. In our parable in Matthew the master rewarded these faithful stewards with rule over many things; they were put in charge of many things. Matt. 25:21, 23.
To serve faithfully here means to rule perfectly there. So, will we miss the opportunity to see our potential, the potential God sees in us, wasted or will we seize the opportunities given us to serve and stop grumbling about what we don’t have? Should we continue to waste time doing less?
Jesus has given us a commission and the tools to do the work He called us to, according to our ability. Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. We have opportunity now to serve Him faithfully so that when we get to heaven we will be able to serve Him even more wonderfully.
When we get there will Jesus say; “Well done good and faithful servant. Or: Phew you made it.”? Will we just be invited in or will we be escorted in to enter into our Master’s happiness? It is up to us to make the most of what we were given or make excuses that we were not given what other’s were.
Benediction: Phil. 2:9–11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
