Sermon Notes on Matthew 25:14-30

(The Sunday before Consecration Sunday)

What we do with the things God has placed in our care matters a great deal to our Master.

God’s timing is always amazing. Our text for today, which deals with financial stewardship, has been on the schedule for well over a year. Who knew that it would come up at such an important time. Oh, right. God knew.

And what a mess we have made of the blessings God has trusted to us! It’s tough to turn on the radio or the TV these days because everything is about the terrible state of our economy. Everyone is talking gloom and doom and darkness. I thought I was tired of the election, but this is excruciating. It is news. I guess we do need to know what is going on, but isn’t it just depressing? Doesn’t it make you tense just thinking about it?

And, although I’m not an economist, I think I know what is behind the whole thing. I think I know how everyone, from the financial industry to the auto industry to the mortgage industry to the regular old consumer, got in this mess in the first place. Do you want to know what put us in this mess, the one thing that has caused it all? Greed.

Yep, greed. That desire to have more and more and more. Nelson Rockefeller, a multi-billionaire, summed it up well when he was asked about how much money is enough. He said, “Just a little more than you have.”

Greed is what drove the financial giants to take imprudent risks. Greed is what drove banks and mortgage lenders to ignore sound principles and to loan money to people who really couldn’t afford to pay them back. Greed is what drove consumers to keep living beyond their means, accumulating more houses, cars, and stuff than they needed or could afford.

Greed convinced our whole culture to build houses of cards. Greed encouraged us to ignore those who were telling us we could not count on them. And now, when the houses of cards are all falling down, we are buried in the mess whether we helped to make it or not.

Today’s text has a lot to say about greed. Specifically, it’s on how we are supposed to manage what God has trusted us to manage.

And you notice I didn’t say, “…to manage what God has given us.” I said, “to manage what God has trusted us to manage”. Why? Because it is still God’s. All of it. Every moment, every dollar, every gift and talent that is a part of your life has been trusted to you by God so that you could manage it for God’s purposes.

I’d like to take a few minutes out from our world’s financial meltdown and see if this text can help us evaluate how we are doing.

One thing that’s important to know about our text for today is that each of  the slaves of the wealthy land owner knew exactly why he had trusted this money to them. They knew full well what he intended for them to do. They understood their master’s goals and two of them worked hard to see that the will of their master was done.

One of them didn’t care at all about his master’s goals. Even though his master had provided for him and had trusted him. The phrase he used in answering his master, “You have what is yours” in those days would have been taken to mean, “I am not responsible for this any further”. In other words, “Whatever. Take your blankety blank money.” It’s as if he resented having to act on his master’s behalf in the first place.

When I look around the worship space today, I see a similar situation. Most of us know what the will of our Master is, am I right? We pray that it will happen every Sunday in the Lord’s prayer when we ask that “God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

God longs for everyone to know that they are loved, forgiven, and precious. God longs for everyone to know of Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for them. The Holy Spirit yearns for every human being to know God, to worship and to walk with God. God desires earnestly that the hungry will be fed, the oppressed set free, the poor helped, the sick, lame, and mourning comforted and healed. God wants every heart to beat with the will of Jesus Christ and to know the joy and abundant life that this brings.

That’s what our Master’s will is. That’s what our Master wants to see accomplished in this world. And guess what, that’s why our Master has trusted such amazing wealth to us. God has blessed us with our money, our talents, and our time so that our lives and our world can become more and more like the kingdom.

Anyone who knows me knows that I really don’t like talking about money. In fact, if you were to add up the total number of sermons I have preached in my 15 years of ministry about money it would probably amount to about two each year. But at this time of financial turmoil I think it would be wrong of me to beat around the bush here.

The reason God’s will is not being done on earth nearly as much as it could be is because too many of us have taken the wealth that God has entrusted to us and we have spent it without a thought  of our Master’s wishes and will. We have spent it as if it was ours to spend. We have spent it on too many things we don’t need. We have spent it as if it doesn’t matter.

Here’s the deal; God has given this congregation every dollar that it needs to do God’s will in the world. God has given us the money we need to make a huge impact for Christ and to be a shining light in this community. The problem is, most of the money God has sent for this ministry is still in our wallets and purses. We are not trusting God enough to do what we have been called to do with God’s resources.

Next Sunday is Consecration Sunday. It is going to be a time when you and I will be asked to Consecrate ourselves, to set ourselves apart for God’s service, in the area of our finances. I’m not even going to call it “giving”. Giving implies that it is something that is ours. These dollars we have been given to manage are not yours and mine. They are God’s and we have been asked to manage them so that God’s will is done on earth.

Next Sunday Lori and I are going to write on a card the amount of money that we intend to set aside each week for the ministries that God is working through in this congregation. That amount may change if our circumstances change, but God knows that and that’s OK. We are going to write down what we intend to do.

It’s not going to be what’s left over after we have paid for our lifestyle. It’s going to be what we believe God wants us to invest in the ministry of this congregation. And frankly, if you don’t feel good about investing financially in the ministry of this congregation you should either volunteer to change things or find a congregation in which you can invest. Keeping God’s money for your own purposes is not a real option for a disciple of Jesus.

In these grim financial times, more than ever, we need to listen to the Holy Spirit. Let God take control of your priorities and your financial principles. If each of us is using God’s money so that the will of Christ is done on earth just as it is in heaven, that is going to be a huge, joyful step in the right direction for our lives and for the world. Pray about this. Next week, be prepared to make a commitment to Christ. Amen