 I don't want to get to heaven and discover that there was so much more I should have done here on earth. Oh, Lord, that we would burn with holy fire, with passion, so much passion for You, Lord, that we can't sit still, but we have to do something. As we look at this parable found in Matthew 25, very popular parable that Jesus told, this particular parable reveals some truths about stewardship, about obedience, about how we as the servants respond to our Lord. Now all of us have a different gift set. All of us have a different deposit that God has placed in us. Your deposit is very unique. God has given you certain things that He has not given to others. And some of us, He trusts with more responsibility at the beginning because of the way He created us and what He put in us. But no matter where you begin, good stewardship will always cause God to give you more. The way you treat the responsibilities He has given you will determine the responsibilities He will give to you. Matthew 25, verse 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. 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. So notice here that the scripture says he divides in proportion to their abilities. Let's say you're like the servant, you get the one bag, okay? You're not like the two bag or five bag servant, but that's okay. You take that one bag of silver, and if you're a good steward, that can become ten eventually, then a hundred. So we don't all necessarily start in the same place because all of us have different circumstances, different starting points, but we can all obey God unto His glory. We can all obey God with what we've been given. Verse 16, the servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earn five more. So here we see this proactivity, this initiation that he takes to go and do something with what the Master had given to him. He doesn't have instructions on what to do, but then he also doesn't just sit on that silver and say, well, I'll wait for the Master to return. This servant takes the five bags of silver and begins to invest it, and he doubled it. Now watch this, verse 17. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. So this next servant with the two bags of silver, he doubles his investment as well. Verse 18, but the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the Master's money. Verse 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. All of us will give an account. Every believer will stand before God and receive their reward in proportion to how they behaved here on this side of eternity. So they are giving an account to the Master. Verse 20, it says this, the servant to whom he had entrusted five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest. I've earned five more. So he's excited about this. He presents this. What a joy it is to present to the Lord what you've done for him for his glory. Verse 21 now, the Master was full of praise. Well done, my good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in handling this small amount. So now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together. 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've earned two more. Here again, we see a doubling of the Master's investment. 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. So the Master is happy to see that his servants had done well with what he gave them. In fact, he has a celebration for them and then rewards them with more responsibilities. Verse 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. I was afraid I would lose your money. Interesting, fear is the root of inactivity. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. In other words, I did nothing with it. Look here is your money back. But the Master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. So I don't know about you, but when I look at this portion of Scripture, it seems to me that this servant with the one bag was thinking that he would possibly receive praise because he hid. Look, I was wise with it. I didn't want to lose it. I knew you were harsh, so I buried it. He was probably expecting the Master to say, you know what? Good job. That was wise. I'm glad that you didn't risk my money. But no, the Master replies in verse 26, you wicked and lazy servant. Interesting that wickedness and laziness come together, mentioned here. If you knew I harvested crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate, why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. In other words, you could have done something with this. Then he ordered take the money from this servant and give it to the one with 10 bags of silver. So now we see that the guy who had originally had five bags of silver who doubled it and has 10 now, he gets that servant's portion. And I believe that God has called us all to our own specific purposes, but then I also believe that God will add responsibilities to us that others have neglected. That's part of what the Lord does. It's a principle of stewardship. If one servant is not a good steward and the other servant is, the Lord will take those responsibilities from the lazy servant and give them to the faithful servant. When the Lord is dropping mantles to the earth, I don't want to be the one standing by the wayside letting him drop mantles. I want to catch a mantle. I want to be called upon. I want God to use my life. When God called David he was tending sheep. When God called Moses he was tending the flock of his father and all. When God called his various servants they were doing something, plowing the fields, serving in the temples, serving prophets. God does not anoint the lazy. In order to do the work of ministry, the Lord uses workers. When God calls upon someone to do the work of ministry, he looks for workers. So no, I'm not talking about salvation. I'm not saying that those who have the flaw of laziness are hopeless and can never be used. But what I am saying is that those who are inactive will not be called upon to do something for God's glory. And if you will say to the Lord, Lord I struggle with laziness, Lord I struggle with inactivity, but I want to do so that he'll work with you and then as he works with you, he will give you responsibilities in proportion to how you obey and overcome that laziness. So continuing now verse 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. God will add work to workers. If you do well with what you are given, God will give you more to work with. The fact that this master gave no instructions to them, sound familiar? He invested in them, put something in their hand and said, here I'm giving you this and now I'm leaving. That sounds familiar because this is quite similar to what the Lord has done with us. Think about the fact that the Lord has given you time, resources, relationships, connections, influence, breath, a physical body, strength, energy. He's given you skill sets and hobbies and passions and desires. He's given you a mind. He's given you a voice. He's given you wonderful things and you may be like I was where you say, Lord I'm looking at myself and I don't see much. I don't see talent. I don't see ability. I don't see skill. Let me tell you something. The Holy Spirit within you is your qualification. The power of the Holy Ghost deposited in you is what gets the job done. It's not by power nor by might. Say that out loud. It's not by power nor by might. It is by my spirit says the Lord. There is no limit to what God can do with a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit. It is not about how charismatic you are, how gifted you are, how intelligent you are. It's about how surrendered you are to the Holy Spirit. That power comes on a surrendered life. You may not see right now what God has put in. You may look at yourself and say there's no possible way that God put anything in me. There's no possible way that I actually have a skill set. You may look at others and say I can't speak like them. I can't stream like them. I can't pray like them. I can't study like them. I can't do this like them. I can't do that like them. I can't really pinpoint what God has given me. Okay, let's start with the basics then again. God has given you a voice. God has given you energy. God has given you time. God has given you people in your life that you can influence. God has given you a physical body. God has given you desire and passion to do something for him. Great. That's a wonderful start. But we see here that the servant who was wicked did nothing because he didn't know what to do. While you're working to find that specific destiny that God has placed in your life, you have to do something. Think about the fact that the master in this parable was more upset that the servant did nothing. That's what bothered him. You didn't do anything. You know, you could have at least put it in the bank. I could have gained some interest and the way the master is talking, we see that options are revealed. So yeah, maybe you didn't double my money like I wanted you to, but I would have been happy if you had put it in the bank and deposited it and gained some interest. In other words, I wish you would have done something. I wish you would have done anything at all besides bury what I gave you in the dirt because you were so afraid of me judging you. There are those who just will not budge and they think that's spiritual. Why are you waiting to be led when you've already been commanded in the scripture? Go do something. Spread the gospel. Expand the kingdom when you don't know what to do. Do something.