"The Christian never receives anything for his/her own. It is always for the glory of God and the growth of the Kingdom"

Matthew 25

    ¹⁴ “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. ¹⁵ To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,^[a]each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶ The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. ¹⁷ So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. ¹⁸ But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

   ¹⁹ “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’

   ²¹ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

   ²² “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’

   ²³ “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

   ²⁴ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

   ²⁶ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? ²⁷ Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.

   ²⁸ “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. ²⁹ For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

The Sermon this morning was on this parable and it kind of rocked my world a little. Our Pastor pointed out 3 points from this passage:

1. Each and every believer is given talents 
2. One day we will be called to account for each of these talents
3. Every believer will be given a reward beyond our wildest imagination.

I think the biggest thing that hit me was how wasteful we are with the gifts and talents we've been given.  The pastor talked about the lazy servant.  It was not that he did something wrong, he was punished because he did NOTHING AT ALL.  Woah.  He used a quote by someone I can't remember but it definitely hit home: 

"To have done no harm is enough for a stone, but not for those made in the image of God"

I also realized how often in my life I've used the phrase "I do/don't want....."  

I don't want to perform because it would take me away from my family 

I don't want to lose my privacy 

I want to be able to get married and have kids and I can't do that when performing 

I don't want to live in a big city like New York

I'm in the time of life where you are constantly looking forward to what the future holds and how I get there, but not once did I stop and REALLY ask what God wanted for me.  I mean, I am constantly asking, but many times I'm not fully listening or I'm only hearing what I want to hear.  For a long time I didn't want to become a performer, I had a plan that didn't include travel and publicity and it made a friend of mine very frustrated with me.  He didn't understand why I would waste the talent he saw in my voice. He thought I should be working towards a performance degree and a career in performance. I was flattered but I didn't really think that much of it......until today.  

After the sermon this morning, I started thinking.  When making my plans I didn't once stop to consider what God did or did not want for my life.  I knew exactly what I wanted and that was all that mattered.  It didn't cross my mind that if He wanted ALL of those things for me, there was nothing to stop that from happening.  If He wanted me to, I could have it all....no big deal. Why do I have such a finite view of my Savior?  

I still don't really know what I will be doing for the rest of my life.  I could be a big time opera singer or may called to stay in the opera world closer to home or maybe I am meant to be a mom or a teacher.  I haven't been given that answer yet, but I do have a renewed energy to hone the talents I've been given and to do it for the glory of the Father and the Kingdom no matter what I end up doing.  That in and of itself is a blessing.  

If you would like to listen to the actual sermon you can go here