Have you heard the story of the very wealthy man who died and he went to heaven and he was walking around with St. Peter? St. Peter showed him the mansion of his gardener and oh, he was impressed, it was a huge mansion and he said, "Wow! You mean my gardener is going to live there?" And St. Peter said, "Yep, that's the mansion for your gardener." He went a little farther and showed him another huge mansion and said, "That's the mansion of the missionary that you knew when you were a kid that went to a foreign country." He said, "Good night! You mean that's where he's going to stay. This is incredible." By this time, this worldly man could hardly wait to see what his house was going to look like. They turned the corner and there was a little shack about 6 x 8 with a few boards leaned up against each other and St. Peter said, "That's your place." The guy was appalled he said, "What do you mean? My gardener got a mansion, the missionary got a mansion, and I've got to live in there. Why is that?" St. Peter looked at him and said, "Well, to be honest with you, we did the best we could with what you sent us."

God uses money and possessions to prepare us for His coming Kingdom. How we handle what we have now will determine what we receive in that eternal Kingdom. In verse 20, the master looked at the man who had five talents and the man said, "I've gained five more talents" and the master said to him "Well done good and faithful servant. You are faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of the master." You see, this is a story of living on a temporal earth and then getting ready for a kingdom. As you enter in the joy of the Lord, I'm going to give you more than what you had there, because you're a steward and I can trust you."

The guy that received two talents came up and said, "Master, you entrusted me two talents, see I've gained two more talents." And the master said to him, "Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of your master." He said, "Since you handled the temporary things on this earth well, I have more responsibility and more blessings for you as you enter into my Kingdom." What an incredible, powerful point. That is, "So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches. If you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?" It's from this teaching that we can make three quick points.

A. Money and possessions are very effective tools that God uses in our lives.

In other words, they have a tendency to get our attention. When we have a financial setback, we look around and say, "What happened to me?" God uses possessions many times to teach us things, to process us as a Christian and the mature believer says, "What do I need to learn from this?" The immature Christian says, "God what are you doing to me?" God uses possessions and money as a tool to shape us in our Christian life.

B. Money and possessions are very effective tests.

It's a very effective test in our life to see if He can trust us with more. What is very insightful in this passage is both of the men who took what the master had given them and utilized it as a good steward were given more and the one who did not take it and utilize it had to give up what he had. It becomes a test of the future Kingdom.

C. Money and possessions are a very effective testimony that God uses.

You see, we're to be a light in this world. This should be the distinction of a Christian. The distinction of a Christian isn't that that person has more money or less money than anybody else. They may be the richest person or they may be the poorest person in the neighborhood. That is not the distinction of a Christian. It's not prosperity gospel or poverty gospel that distinguishes us as God's child. You see what distinguishes us as God's children is not how much money we have, whether we have a lot or a little but our attitude toward it. Whether we handle it lightly or we grasp and hold on and hang on to it tenaciously tells what Kingdom we live for.

3. The amount is not important.

In God's sight, what is important is not the amount of possessions that I handle. What is important is how I handle those possessions, whether it is a little or a lot. Now, I know that because look at verse 21. This is the person who had five talents who doubled them to 10. Look what the master said. "Well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful in a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of your master."

Now, there was one who went from two to four. The one who went from two to four, look what the master said in verse 23, the very same words he said in verse 21, exactly. "Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter in the joy of our Lord." It's obvious to me that it doesn't matter to God whether we have a lot or a little. That is totally immaterial. To the master, the one that had two that went to four was in his sight as blessed and wonderful and as important as the guy who had five and went to ten.

Some people say, "Well, you know I just don't have a lot to give to God," or "I can't tithe because I don't have a very big income." You see, interestingly enough, the guy who strikes it rich can't tithe because he has too much and it would be just an exorbitant amount. And the one who has too little can't tithe because they can't meet their bills.

God's not interested whether you've got too much or too little. God's interested in only one thing. That is what are we doing with what we have right now, if you are tithing and you are a faithful steward of the little that you have. I mean you may have very little that has been entrusted to you at this point in your life. If you are faithful to God with the very little that has been entrusted to you, in God's sight that is as important as the person who has a whole bunch. These are just good biblical words of stewardship. When we realize that the Bible teaches more about possessions than it does about prayer, all of a sudden it helps us to understand what really is important in God's life concerning us. It's easy for us to talk about loving Him. It is easy to sing another song. But God may be asking us, "Are you putting Me first in your possessions?" as we sing.

4. Stewardship requires action.

What's interesting about this story of money management is that it requires action from you and it requires action from me. This fellow who had one talent knew what he should do. This is very significant, he understood. "And the one who had received the one talent came up and said 'Master I knew.'" What did he do? He hid his talent. "...but the master answered and said, 'You wicked lazy servant, you knew.'" We know the rest of the story. The rest of the story is the guy that had one talent and buried it, God took it away from him and gave it to the one who had five and multiplied it to ten.

CONCLUSION:

Some of us know what to do but we either disobey or delay and today we have a chance to change all of this. Ben Haden in his book "Changed Lives" said, "I want to tell you something from observation. I never met anyone who tithed that did not tend to be happy about the fact that he did. He was not just happy about tithing but about a lot of other things. I never met anybody that tithed very long who gave it up. I never met anyone who tithed who did not say at some time it had become extremely difficult. Generous people seem to be the happy ones and miserly people seem to be the unhappy ones. And the critical spirit is with those who are not giving people. Just look around you and you can tell."

Every year, when I teach stewardship, I give you an opportunity to be a steward and to act upon what God's Word teaches us. This is that day. Today we would like all of you to take action and make a decision about what you plan to do with the blessings God entrusts you with in 2010. If God owns it all, what am I doing with it? During our 2009 Stewardship Campaign we have been reminded of the fact that God owns everything. God asks us to give 10% of our income to the work of the Lord through His church and to be good stewardship wisely managing the other 90%. What will you prayerfully decide to give to your local church so that we together can be goods stewards of all that God entrusts to us?

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