Faithfulness

Matthew 25

¹⁴ “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. ¹⁵ He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.

¹⁶ “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. ¹⁷ The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. ¹⁸ But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.

¹⁹ “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. ²⁰ The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’

²¹ “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!

²² “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’

²³ “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

²⁴ “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. ²⁵ I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’

²⁶ “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, ²⁷ why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’

²⁸ “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. ²⁹ To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ³⁰ Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Mark Hatfield (former senator from Oregon) tells of touring Calcutta with Mother Teresa and visiting the so-called “House of Dying,” where sick children are cared for in their last days, and the dispensary, where the poor line up by the hundreds to receive medical attention. Watching Mother Teresa minister to these people, feeding and nursing those left by others to die, Hatfield was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the suffering she and her co-workers face daily. “How can you bear the load without being crushed by it?” he asked. Mother Teresa replied, “My dear Senator, I am not called to be successful, I am called to be faithful.”

The same is true for us – we are called to be faithful not successful.

Have you ever wondered what it means to be a successful Christian?

Is it The mega-church pastor who preaches six times on Sundays, writes chart-topping books, and has his own podcast with really cool rock music at the beginning? Maybe.

Is it the children’s ministry volunteers who patiently work with kids to impact their life for Christ? Maybe.

Is it he homeschooling mom who deals with large volumes of laundry and baby poop on a daily basis? Maybe.

Is it the person who spends lots of hours at the church or home praying for others? Could be.

Is it the youth worker who leads a teen to Christ? Maybe

Is it the follower of Christ who is consistently here on Sunday morning and tithes faithfully? Maybe

In Matthew 25:14-28 Jesus spells out a blueprint for success that’s very different from our standard definitions of success. You know the story. A master is preparing for a journey and starts dishing out the money to his servants.

The first servant gets five bags of silver, the second gets two , and the third gets one (some translations use the word talent).  Servants one and two immediately hit the streets, putting their talents to work in the cause of the master. Servant number three digs a hole and buries his talent. The master returns.

Servant number one stands before his master and presents him with ten talents, a return of 100%. Servant number two? One-hundred percent ROI. Servant number three presents the master with a big fat nothing. He simply returns the talent he was given.

The response of the master teacher is incredible. To the first two servants he says:

Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. “Let’s celebrate together”.

No reference to the numbers. No talk of the bottom line. The master highlights the faithfulness of the servants. You have been faithful over a little. That’s it.

A successful Christian is someone who faithfully uses their talents and circumstances to further the cause of God.

What is the cause of God?  To connect people to Christ.

God isn’t interested in producing good results.  In fact, if you look at Hebrews 11 you will learn that those who were faithful to God were martyred, abused, and treated poorly for being faithful. But if one is faithful – good things for the Kingdom happen.

What does he say to the two servants who went an invested what he gave them – “Well done good and faithful servant –  you have been faithful in little, I will give you more.”

Like the other Fruit of the Spirit we have talked about, no human can produce faithfulness.

How do get faithfulness?

You get faithfulness by putting your confidence in the One who is faithful to you.

Look at God’s faithfulness

22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
    His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
    his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
    therefore, I will hope in him!”              Lamentations 3

15 But you, O Lord,
    are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry
    and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15)

9 Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9

Not that He has to, but, God has proven His faithfulness to His people time and time again throughout history. The scriptures are about (from Genesis to Revelation) God’s love for and faithfulness to His people.

Those who don’t experience His faithfulness don’t stick around long enough to experience his faithfulness.  They give up. They quit and then blame God for failing them.

God is always faithful whether we are faithful or not. Look at what Paul says in Rom. 3:3

True, some of them were unfaithful; but just because they were unfaithful, does that mean God will be unfaithful? Romans 3:3

Despite your past – God stayed faithful to you

Despite your personal failures – God has stayed faithful to you

Despite your selfishness – God has stayed faithful to you

Despite the other things we have worshipped – God has stayed has faithful to  you.

Despite your moments of unfaithfulness – God has stayed faithful to you.

Despite your disappointment with God – God stayed faithful to you

You can put your confidence in the one who is in the wise control of your life. You can put your confidence in the one who will always remain faithful to you no matter how many times you mess up, no matter how many times you fail, no matter how many times you need forgiveness, no matter how many times you need comfort because it is through those times that you learn what it means to be faithful.

Stop and think about this for a moment.

For those of you have been married for a number of years – think of how faithful your spouse has been to you.

For those of you who have close friends – think of how faithful your friends have been to you.

For those of you who have parents – think of how faithful your parents have been to you.

I am confident that all of us have been disappointed in our spouse

I am confident that all of us have been disappointed in our friends

I am confident that every person who has been a child has been disappointed in their parents.

Why did you stay with them? It is because you thought the relationship was worth fighting for.

I am also confident that every person in this room has disappointed God.

Now think of how faithful He has been to you.  Why does He stay with us?  Because he believes the relationship is worth dying for!

The only way God can produce faithfulness in you is if you put our confidence in the One who is in wise control of your life and has always been faithful to you.

The third person in this parable had very little confidence in his master.

This third person had a counterfeit faithfulness. He was being loyal out of self-righteous pride.

• The self-righteous are faithful to only themselves and what’s best for them.
• They are not the friend who will be loyal to you through thick and thin. They are in the friendship to drain everything out of you.
• They are unteachable.
• They think they are right all the time.
• They are stubborn.
• They are hard-hearted.
• They worship themselves
• They have no desire to know the truth.

They are faithful out of selfish motives.

A lot of people are in a relationship with Christ for what they can get out of the relationship and not for what they can give to the relationship. We come to worship wanting to get something from God. Over the years I have heard phrases like, “boy, I didn’t get much out of that sermon”, “I didn’t get much out of the songs we sang today”. People are always wanting God to give them something. But God, wants us to give Him something.

What can we give? Our faithfulness.

That is what our best friend wants

That is what our spouse wants

That is what our God wants.

Put your confidence in the ONE who has been faithful to you. He is not expecting big results. Nor is He expecting success.

He simply wants you to stick with Him until your story is over.