To Those Who Use Well What they are Given, Even More will be Given

Luke 19:12-27 NLT 

  12 He said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return.13 Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’14 But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want him to be our king.’

   15  After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money. He wanted to find out what their profits were. 16 The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’

   17  ‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’

   18 The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount.’

   19 ‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five cities.’

   20 “But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe. 21 I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’

   22 ‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared. ‘Your own words condemn you. If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes what isn’t mine and harvests crops I didn’t plant, 23 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

   24 “Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’25 ‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’

   26  ‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 27 And as for these enemies of mine who didn’t want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in front of me.’

This message from Jesus speaks of the coming Kingdom age. Jesus is the one about to be crowned King over all the universe. There are those among God's creation who fight against God, who resist the Lordship of God over their lives and embrace self in His place. That is the essence of sin and they embrace that sin. They tell anyone who will listen that they do not want God as king in their existence. In spite of this sin, God sent Christ to redeem them and they still demean and resist Him.

Then there are those to whom God has entrusted great gifts. He expects us to use those gifts to bless others and draw them to Him. He plans for us to use these gifts-- that's why he gave them to us. God always gives us the abilities to do the things He calls us to do. Those are his gifts. Problem is we don't always step forward and begin to obey in those called activities. We hold back, sort of like the guy with the single bag of silver. We hide our talents int he ground like he did his bag of coins. We decline to invest our talents into the work of the Kingdom out of fear of failure-- just like the one bag servant. And that servant reaped what he invested-- nothing. He invested nothing so he reaped nothing.  Notice that the other two servants also reaped what they invested. You and I will reap what we invest into the Kingdom of God as well. However many talents God has given you, if you will but invest them, they will duplicate and you will receive more. You will receive infinitely more for as long as we continue to reinvest our talents into God's work.

Those who resist the Lordship of Christ, in the end will pay a price (v 27). But among us who are His children, to whom He has given gifts for service, when we fail to invest our gifts into the service He calls us toward, there will also be a price to pay. We will lose our gifts. We will loose much more (v 26b). And there is no reason for us to suffer such loss because we already know what happened to the obedient servants who invested their gifts.  How are you investing the gifts God has given you thus far in your walk with Christ?

Your servant
Dan
drdanelliott@gmail.com