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Today I'm going to speak on the resurrection
of the hidden talent.
The resurrection of the hidden talent.
This is a parable that Jesus spoke in
the New Testament.
And I was surprised when I began to
prepare this message.
And I began to look at it in
the context of what I felt the Holy
Spirit was speaking to me.
I felt I was a two-talent Christian.
After finishing the message, I feel that I'm
a four-talent Christian.
I asked Pastor Neil, how many talents do
you have?
And he said, I'm a three-talent Christian.
Others knew it was a trap and they
wouldn't answer me this morning when I was
asking around.
Unless you think that sounds boastful, it is
not a boast.
I believe that many who are here today,
you're going to know before this message is
over how many talents you have.
You're going to know.
It might be just an estimation, but heaven
will reveal the exact number, but you're going
to have a number.
By the time we're finished, you're going to
be able to meditatively reflect on a few
things and say, yes, I'm a five-talent
Christian.
Now, that's not boastful to say that, and
you're going to see that in a moment.
Now, if you turn to Matthew chapter 25,
please with me.
Matthew chapter 25.
I'm going to need my glasses today.
My dear daughter went away for the weekend
and took my large print Bible with her.
And I'm just very thankful that my daughter
took a Bible with her away for the
weekend.
But I'm going to suggest in the future
that for the sake of her visually challenged
dear father, that she should take another Bible
and leave my large print Bible here so
I can preach from it on Sunday morning.
The resurrection of the hidden talent.
Father, I thank you, God, for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, this is not something that was on
my heart.
It was on yours, and you opened this
to me during the week of prayer and
fasting here in this church.
And it's about your word.
And God, I'm asking that you give me
the ability that as far surpasses any natural
ability that I may have.
That you would give me insight and the
capability of speaking simply, yet profoundly, of these
truths that you've chosen to reveal to us
at this time.
Father, I pray for ears to hear.
I pray for hearts to receive.
I pray for faith to arise in every
heart.
Lord, truly you are wanting to move in
the miraculous in our generation.
I ask you, Lord God, for a very
easy ability to speak this.
And I thank you for it in Jesus'
name.
The resurrection of the hidden talent.
Matthew chapter 25 will begin at verse 14.
For the kingdom of heaven is as a
man traveling into a far country, who called
his own servants and delivered unto them his
goods.
And unto one he gave five talents, and
to another two, and to another one.
To every man according to his several ability,
then straightway took his journey.
Then he that had received the five talents
went and traded with the same, and made
with them five other talents.
And likewise, he that had received two, he
gained other two.
But he that had received one went and
digged in the earth and hid his Lord's
money.
After a long time the Lord of those
servants cometh and reckoneth with them.
And so he that had received five talents
came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord,
thou deliverest unto me five talents, and behold,
I have gained beside them five talents more.
And his Lord said unto him, Well done,
thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been
faithful over a few things.
Behold, I'll make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
And he also that had received two talents
came and said, Lord, thou deliverest unto me
two talents.
Behold, I've gained two other talents besides them.
The Lord said unto him, Well done, good
and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over
a few things.
I'll make thee ruler over many things.
Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Then he which had received the one talent
came and said, Lord, I knew thee that
thou art a hard man, reaping where thou
hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast
not strawed.
And I was afraid, and went and hid
thy talent in the earth, and lo, there
that thou hast is thine.
His Lord answered and said to him, Thou
wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I
reap where I sowed not, and gather where
I have not strawed.
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money
to the exchangers, and then at my coming
I should have received my own with usury
or with interest.
Take therefore the talent from him, and give
it to him which has ten talents.
For unto every one that has shall be
given, and he shall have abundance.
But from him that has not shall be
taken away even that which he has.
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer
darkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
Now before I even start to speak on
this, there are some questions.
As we look at this particular parable, I
think should and probably do come to every
one of our hearts.
First of all, what are these things called
talents?
Now, it's been misunderstood, misrepresented, even mispreached over
the years that talents are the ability to
sing and play the guitar and do all
these types of things.
Many of you had these abilities before you
came to Christ, and that doesn't all of
a sudden make them talents once you're saved.
You know, we even have stewardship weekends where
we say, Give your time, talent, and treasure
to the Lord.
And the inference, of course, is that these
giftings, some of which are not supernatural, they're
just natural giftings, and they don't perhaps at
least fully qualify as far as what this
parable is speaking about.
We ask ourselves the question, is God unfair?
Why does he just give one man one,
or woman, another person two, and somebody else
five?
And then at the end, when the poor
fellow that had one and didn't use it
has it taken away, why is it not
given to the man who has four?
Why is it given to the man who
has already ten?
Doesn't that seem rather unfair?
These are questions we look at.
I mean, if we're looking at it strictly
from a mathematical sense, we can even come
out of this saying, You know, I don't
understand the reasoning behind all of this.
Now, let's go back to the beginning.
He says, The kingdom of heaven is as
a man traveling into a far country who
called his own servants and delivered unto them
his goods.
Now, that's exactly what Jesus was speaking about.
He was God.
He had come from heaven.
He had come to the earth.
He had taken on a human body and
human form.
His name was Jesus Christ, God in the
flesh.
He called those that were going to be
not only his ambassadors on the earth, but
they were going to rule and reign with
him as his bride for all of eternity.
Those that he was going to redeem by
his own blood.
And then the scripture says he delivered unto
them his goods.
Those things that he had, those things that
he brought with him, as it is.
He brought this inherent power of God.
He brought this incredible compassion, the mercy of
God, the resources of heaven, as it is,
were in Christ.
And if you've been any amount of time
in the word of God, you start to
know that these resources now belong to those
who are Christ's, who have trusted in him
for their salvation.
And he gave to them his goods.
And I see these goods as the promises
of his mouth and the power of his
life to perform them.
I have the goods of God within me
if I have Christ in me.
I have God's promises when I opened this
book.
And Peter, the apostle, says it the most
clearly, that we are made partakers of this
divine nature by these promises that are given
to us in the word of God.
Now, it's not just the promise, but it's
also the power of the indwelling spirit of
God who comes and makes these promises that
he makes to us a reality in our
lives.
I've said it how many times from this
pulpit.
He takes us where we can't go, gives
us what we could never possess, makes us
a thousand times more than we are.
This was the miracle of God's people that
those who walked with him in the Old
Testament knew.
Jonathan, when he climbed up to fight the
Philistines with his armor bearer, said it doesn't
matter to the Lord to save by many
or by few.
There have been many throughout even Old Testament
history who understood this.
That God comes and when he has found
a heart of faith, there's an unlimited resource
of God's power and life available to those
who call out to him and have a
believing heart according to his promises.
Now, in verse 15, it says he gave
one five talents, he gave another two, and
he gave another one to every man according
to his several ability and straightway took his
journey.
Now, this is very interesting.
If you look at it just for face
value, it looks like God gave these resources
of his life based on the man's ability
or the woman's ability.
It almost looks like he came down and
he said, okay, you're a good speaker.
Therefore, I'll call you to preach in such
and such a place.
Or you have a compassionate heart.
So I'm going to send you down to
the Bowery Mission and you're going to spend
weeks and days giving food and encouragement to
those who are living on the streets as
if he took his goods and gave it
to men who already possessed an ability.
But you see, that's not really the context
of this verse of Scripture.
When you really tear it apart in the
Greek text, the word several means a special
relationship.
It's the word used in the plural form
in John chapter one, verse 11, and it
means those that he was familiar with.
In John 1, 11, it says he came
to his own.
Of course, in John 1, 11, it says
in his own received him not.
It means he came and gave his goods.
Let me put it this way.
To those that he was familiar with.
To those who had a special relationship with
him.
It's to those whose heads, as it is,
are leaning on his chest and listening to
his every heartbeat.
Those who don't have necessarily a whole lot
of natural ability, but they're saying, Jesus, I
love you.
God, I love you with all my heart.
I want to be where you are.
I want to be doing what you're doing.
Wherever you ask me to go, that's where
I want to go.
What you ask me to be, that's what
I want to be.
What you ask me to do.
These are people who have a special relationship
with God.
That's what the word several means.
And the word ability in the Greek is
dunamis, and it means inherent power.
The definition, as I read it, was powers
and miracles that come out of the mighty
power of God inherent in Christ and which
power was lent to his witnesses and ambassadors.
Now, this is strictly my translation, but here's
the way I see this particular verse of
Scripture.
He came and he delivered his goods according
to those who knew him and were open
to receive his power.
It really changes it.
It's the several ability that comes through relationship.
Those like you and I who say, God,
I know you.
I love you.
I know who you are.
I know your promises are true.
I know you can't lie to me.
I know you have the power to make
every promise in this book a living reality.
And I place no barriers in front of
me.
I believe that every wall that the enemy
has erected in lands that you have destined
that I should occupy has to come down.
I believe that I am more than a
conqueror in Christ Jesus who loves me.
I believe with all my heart that I
can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me.
God, if you have asked me to do
it within my life, it can be done.
I do not look at impossibility as impossible
any longer because it says in your text
that with God all things are possible.
There are things that are impossible with men
but with God all things are possible.
I believe this, God, with all of my
heart.
And God came and he called together these
types of servants and he delivered to these
servants his goods.
Now the Scripture tells us clearly that we
are given giftings of the Holy Ghost, that
we are given a new mind, we are
given a new heart, we are given a
new spirit, we are made into brand new
creations in Christ Jesus.
The inherent purpose of God in Christ in
leaving his church on the earth is that
first of all the desire of his heart
in seeing the lost come to him might
be fulfilled.
And secondarily that God through Christ might be
glorified in the earth through a church that
is made by this incredible life of Christ
into what we could never even hope to
be in ourselves.
If we were left to ourselves what a
miserable testimony for God this would be.
There would be big people and little people
and talented in the natural and untalented in
the natural.
We'd have all these divisions.
But what I love about the kingdom of
God is that he called all of his
servants together and he just gives according to
our relationship with him, not according to our
natural ability.
Thanks be to God.
That's why Isaiah talked about this kingdom and
he said the lame take the prey.
Amazing.
Those that are nobody and nothing, the Gadarene
demoniac became a preacher in his generation going
back into his community and telling them the
wondrous things that God had done for him.
A man who only dwelt among tombs and
broke chains and cut himself with stones because
of the terrible inner turmoil that was in
his life now became a preacher of the
gospel.
I thank God with all my heart that
the ground is completely level at Calvary.
We and I don't bring.
God doesn't want our ideas.
He doesn't want our natural abilities.
Most of these are a hindrance to the
kingdom of God.
He wants a heart that says, God, guide
me, lead me, make me what you want
me to be.
Take me where you want me to go.
And oh Jesus, all I ask more and
above all of these things is that you
be glorified through my life.
God Almighty be glorified through my life.
He gave all of these goods as it
is to those who had a special relationship
and were open to receive his power.
Then he took his journey.
Paul says in Ephesians 4, 7 and 8
unto every one of us is given grace
according to the measure of the gift of
Christ.
Wherefore, he saith, when he ascended up on
high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts
unto men.
Now, in other words, he gave you and
I the ability to do everything he's called
us to do, to go everywhere he's called
us to go, and we can conquer everything
he's called us to conquer.
This is what makes the Christian life an
incredible life, folks.
If you're not living here, it must be
hard.
That's all I can say.
It just must be a hard place to
be, to be aware of this, but not
part of it.
Learning, but not coming to the knowledge of
what this truth is all about.
To never have the Bible studies, but never
have the Bible study you.
To learn about all this power, but never
experience any of it.
To be walking around always living in the
realm of natural thinking and natural strength and
natural power, never ever walking in the realm
of the supernatural.
To me, that would be an awful, boring
Christianity.
Now, there were people before us who also
had God's promises, and you're going to find
that in the book of Numbers.
Take a look at the Old Testament to
the book of Numbers, chapter 13, and look
at the people, of course, the children of
Israel, who had all of the promises that
we have today.
They had the opportunities that we have today.
Now, Numbers chapter 13.
Now, in Exodus chapter 3, in verse 8,
the intent of God was spoken about his
people.
He said, I've come down, he's spoken to
Moses now, of course.
He said, I've come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians and
to bring them out of the land, that
land, the land of captivity, into a good
land and a large, a land flowing with
milk and honey.
That means a land with incredible provision.
Exactly the place that you and I have
been called into in Christ Jesus.
We've been called out of captivity.
We've been called out of bondage.
We've been called out of this life where
all we do is the mundane coming into
this place of incredible provision that comes from
the hand of God.
Under the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites,
the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the
Jebusites.
In other words, these are places God says
that I'm bringing you into.
Right now, they're occupied by other things.
But those other things that occupy these places
of promise don't have a right to be
there any longer because I said I'm bringing
you in.
Now, God says, for example, you're a believing
person.
But right now, selfishness and incredibly large and
walled selfishness is occupying this place that God
says I have for you.
But God says, don't be afraid of that.
You have something else occupying this place of
promise.
But I'm going to take you in with
my power and my promises in your life.
If you have a believing heart, I'm going
to take you in and these walls of
selfishness are going to come down and you're
going to be known for who you are.
It requires a heart of faith to say,
God, I'm simply going in.
I'm going to believe what you say and
I'm not going to be satisfied, Lord, until
these things that you promised me have become
a reality in my life.
Now, Numbers chapter 13, verses 21 and 22,
there were 12 men, each man a ruler
from all of the tribes that were selected
to go in and spy out this land
that God had promised.
Now, I'm a leader of you and I,
even today, we're reading the Bible.
And in some measure, today, whether or not
you're a leader, you are spying out the
land.
We are going in today and you come
with me on this journey and we're going
to go into this place that might even
be occupied.
I realize that it might be occupied in
your heart by something else right now, but
we're going to go in and see what
it is that God is speaking to each
one of us today.
Now, they went up, Now, we could insert
in here in the New Testament, it says
here the wilderness of Zin to Rahab, etc.
We could say they searched it from Genesis
to Revelation.
And they ascended by the south and they
came to Hebron and all these names are
there.
The children of Anak were there and Hebron
was built seven years before Zion and Egypt.
I could say if it was a testimony
written about you and I, we could say
that they went to the Friday night school
of the Bible, they got into the book
of Corinthians with Pastor William, they got into
the book of Romans with Pastor Neil, they
came in, they studied, they had their own
devotional time, they went in and searched the
land.
And this is what we do when we're
opening the Bible, folks, I want you to
know we're not doing anything different than these
12 spies were doing.
If we don't learn from history, that
they did.
We're going in, we're searching this land, and
it says in verse 23, they came to
the brook Eshol, and they cut down thence
a branch with one cluster of grapes, and
they bared between two upon a staff, and
they brought of the pomegranates and of the
figs.
And the place was called the brook Eshol
because of the cluster of grapes which the
children of Israel had cut down from thence,
and they returned from the searching of the
land after forty days.
Now they spent a significant amount of time
in this land looking at things, and they
found this cluster of grapes so large, with
so much provision, that they had to cut
it down, and they put it on a
beam as it is, a wooden beam, and
carried it between two men who were in
there spying out the land.
And you see it the way you want,
but I'm telling you folks, I see it
as a complete type of Jesus Christ.
You see, grapes were symbolic of wine and
of provision.
Now remember the first miracle that Jesus did
is He changed water to wine in the
New Testament.
He referred to the life of the Spirit
as a new wine which cannot be put
into old wine skins, but has to be,
or in other words, doesn't fit into old
religion.
It has to be put into a new
vessel that has a new mind and a
new heart, otherwise the old religion cannot contain
this new wine that He spoke of the
life of the Spirit in type.
I want you to see this.
You have two men, you have this incredible
cluster of provision, this new wine that is
on a board suspended as it is between
them.
Think of Calvary for a moment.
You have two thieves.
In between those two thieves is Christ, the
provision of God for everything that you and
I will ever need.
Through Him, the new wine of the Spirit
comes into the life and heart of those
who reach out to Him by faith and
receive Him as Savior.
We have all the provision we will ever
need in Christ.
And you say, well, why was He crucified
between two thieves?
Assumedly, if these two men carrying these grapes
was not Joshua and Caleb, then were they
not thieves?
Were they not men who had gone into
this place of promise?
They're carrying this incredible provision.
They're aware of the cross.
They're carrying it between their shoulders, but they're
not partakers of it.
They really don't believe it.
Everything that God has said is there.
They go into the promised land.
They look and they say, yes, it's true.
It's all true.
But they really don't believe it.
And folks, if you're in this Bible, especially
if you're a pastor or a teacher and
you're looking at it, but you really don't
believe it, doesn't that make you a thief?
Don't you stand before the people of God?
And aren't you bringing an evil report of
the Word of God to the ears of
God's people by saying, yes, it's there, but
it's not good enough just to walk by
faith?
Here, I've got some other methodology whereby we
might take over the promised land.
Does that not make you a thief?
Oh, folks, everything in this Bible points to
Jesus Christ.
Christ is in every line, from in the
beginning in the book of Genesis right through
to the end of Revelation.
He is in there.
It's all about Christ.
Everything points to Christ.
They went into this land.
They were carried.
They came back into the camp as it
is of the children of Israel.
They had this incredible type of the provision
of God in Christ suspended on a beam
because that's exactly how the provision of God
came to you and I.
God suspended His Son on a beam and
crucified Him in between two thieves.
And that's where our provision comes from.
That's where our life comes from.
That's where the goods of God were released
into fallen humanity.
That's where the grace of God has come
to us and literally makes us more than
we could ever hope to be in our
entire life.
Now, these men came back into the camp
in verse 24, verse 26.
It says they went and they came back
into the camp.
And from the wilderness of Paran to Kadeshah,
they brought back word to them unto all
the congregation and showed them the fruit of
the land.
And they told them and said, we came
to the land where you sent us and
surely it flows with milk and honey and
this is the fruit of it.
That's the type of a preacher, folks, or
a Christian who just says, yeah, I've been
in the Bible.
Oh, yeah.
And everything God says is true.
Everything God says.
It's a Martha type, whom Christ Himself is
standing there and says, your brother shall live.
And she says, yeah, yeah, I know you're
the resurrection, life, et cetera, et cetera.
He'll live at the end of the days.
He says, no, you don't seem to understand
what I'm trying to say.
She doesn't believe it because it's just all
in her head.
She's they came back and they said, it's
everything that God through Moses told us that
it is.
And then you find in verse twenty eight,
this terrible word, nevertheless, the people are strong
that dwell in the land.
The cities are walled and very great.
We saw the children of Anak there.
It's like that man who goes to Bible
study in Times Square Church and says, oh,
it is a phenomenal the promises in the
word of God.
But nevertheless, I've only got a grade seven
education.
And I'm not a very good speaker.
And I've never cared much about people.
I don't like people touching me.
I don't like touching people.
And there's giants in my life.
You know, it's true.
It's true.
Everything in the word of God is true.
But for me, there are just so many
giants in my life.
There's so many walled cities, so many the
Amalekites, verse twenty nine dwell there.
And everybody knows how powerful they are in
the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Amorites, and all
the rest of them.
And verse 30, it says Caleb still the
people before Moses and said, let us go
up at once and possess it.
We're well able to overcome it.
But the men that went up with him
said, we're not able to go up against
the people, for they are stronger than we.
And they brought an evil report of the
land.
Now, this is incredible.
You see, folks, it's possible to bring a
positive report about what God has spoken, but
an evil report about what God is able
to do.
And folks, that's I think that's in a
lot of pulpits today.
A positive report.
Oh, yes, this is good.
But an evil report about God's ability to
perform the things that he could.
He said he is able to do.
And the ironic thing is at the end
of all of this, in chapter 14, verse
six, it says Joshua, the son of Nun
and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were
of them that searched the land, rent their
clothes.
And this is the passion of of men
and women of God who have known the
power of God.
They have been a recipient of faith as
it is.
And they literally tore their clothes in exasperation
and say, folks, has God brought us this
far?
Have you seen so much to turn back
now to be just we've been brought through
the Red Sea.
And do you not remember how God brought
us out of darkness, how he sent plagues
on our enemies, how we followed this very
clear pillar of a cloud by day and
a pillar of fire by night?
Have we forgotten all of this goodness of
God?
And now we walk in and see a
few walled cities and a few giants and
some some remnants of things that that God
said he's destined to destroy.
And now we're going to turn back and
bring an evil report about the things that
God has said.
Folks, that decision still is as valid today
as it was in their day.
You and I have the same choices to
make.
We can come to this church.
We can fast and pray and say, God,
take me into your word.
We can shout and dance and get excited.
But ultimately, every man, every woman, every young
person has to make their own choice to
go into this place of promise to say,
God, I'm going in.
I'm going to have everything you've got for
me and every way you've determined to glorify
your life through mine, Lord, I'm going to
let you do it.
I'm not going to say no to anything.
I'd rather die fighting a giant than live
in the wilderness of doubt and unbelief.
I'd rather die on this journey.
And they speak to all the company.
Verse seven in chapter 14 of the Children
of Israel, saying the land which we pass
through to search is an exceeding good land.
Oh, folks, I can tell you this today.
Pastor Neil can tell you, Pastor Patrick, Pastor
William, Teresa, Pastor David, everyone who understands in
this pulpit, all the elders you heard this
week, this is an exceeding good land.
This is not only incredible promises from God,
but the promises are a reality.
We have lived, we've seen, we've touched, we've
tasted, we've known victory.
He said, if the Lord delights in us,
then he will bring us into this land
and give it to us, a land that
flows with milk and honey or flows with
the provision of God only.
Verse nine, rebel not against the Lord and
neither fear the people of the land.
They're bred for us.
Their defense is departed from them.
The Lord is with us.
Fear them not.
In verse 10, here's an amazing thing, says,
but all the congregation bade stone them with
stones.
Now, if God hadn't appeared in his glory,
they would have killed Joshua and Caleb.
And it's an amazing thing.
They here they are.
They're supposed to be doing what David would
one day do.
They're supposed to be picking up these promises
of God and literally casting them into the
foreheads of their enemies.
They're supposed to be tearing down contrary arguments
to truth.
They're supposed to be conquering in the name
of their God.
But yet they're picking up stones and preparing
to throw them at the very men who
are speaking on God's behalf and encouraging them
to go into the promised land.
And, you know, folks, these stones are a
type of contrary arguments, contrary arguments against truth,
excuses.
It's an amazing thing.
This is always the pattern in this church.
We will always encourage you to move into
the promises of God.
We will always encourage you to become more
than you are.
We will always encourage you to obey God
and let God's life, let the life of
Christ be glorified through you.
There will be people who will sit here
for a season.
They will shout with everyone else who shouts.
But there comes a time when they will
say no to God.
No, I'm not going in.
There are just too many giants.
There are just too many things in my
past.
There are just too many walled cities.
There are too many insufficiencies in my own
life and power and character.
And ultimately they will pick up stones and
begin to throw them at the preachers of
the gospel.
It happens over and over again.
They'll leave the house of God.
They'll pick up stones and say, ah, enough
of this drivel, enough of this preaching.
It it leaves me nowhere.
It does nothing for me, does nothing for
my family.
And they'll cast stones at the preachers and
out of the house they go.
Now, Matthew, chapter 25, if you'll go back
there, please, with me where we started.
We're going to talk now for a moment
about the man with the one talent.
Then he did it, received in verse 24,
the one talent.
He came and said, Lord, I knew you
that you're a hard man.
That's Matthew, chapter 25, verse 24, reaping where
you've not shown and gathering where you've not
strawed.
And here, in effect, this man is throwing
an stone at Christ.
That's what he's doing.
He says, Lord, you are the kind of
man and I knew it.
I knew it.
I knew this the kind of man you
are.
You send me out to harvest and you
send me out to reap and you don't
you don't you don't even lift a finger
to help me.
You don't you don't do anything for me.
You don't help me.
You send me into all these impossible places
by myself.
And he said, I knew that's the kind
of a man you were.
I knew one day you were going to
have me stand before you and I was
going to give an account of of what
I did for you.
And and here you made no provision for
me to do it.
You gave me this measly little talent, this
little deposit, as it is of your life,
this this insignificant little measly talent.
And so I just took it.
And he said, I buried it in the
earth.
Now, notice he didn't say I took it
and buried it in myself.
He buried it in another place.
And the word in the King James is
he says, and there thou hast is thine.
In other words, yeah, you gave me a
promise or two.
And here here's your promises.
That's really exactly what this is speaking.
He says, you gave it to me.
It meant nothing to me.
It didn't help me.
So here it is yours.
Take it back there.
What you have is yours.
You can't say here because it's never had
an effect on him.
He's never come into his heart.
It's never become part of his life.
It hasn't given him strength.
And it was only a one talent.
And the Lord answered and said to him,
thou knewest thou wicked and slothful servant thou
knewest that I reap where I sowed not
and gather where I've not strawed.
Now, this becomes interesting because this is actually
it's not really correctly placed in the King
James Bible because it is a it is
a sarcastic question.
That's in the original text.
Here's exactly the way it's written in other
translations.
Oh, is that how you knew me to
be?
Oh, that's what you thought I was.
You thought I was a man who didn't
who called you to do things and didn't
give you the power to do it.
Is that how you thought I was?
And it's really a sarcastic, rhetorical question.
He says, well, at least you weren't willing
to use what I gave you for my
glory in your life.
At least you could have given it to
somebody who would use it.
But you didn't even do that.
I mean, you had the revelation of the
promise.
You didn't believe it.
You didn't grip it.
You never let it become part of your
life.
The least he said you could have done
is given it to somebody else who could
have used it.
But you didn't even do that.
You just took it.
You buried it.
And at the end of time, you said,
here's here's your worthless promise.
You could have it back.
That's amazing, because the Lord looks down to
this man and he said, take the talent
from him and give it to him, which
the man that has 10 talents.
And he says and then he goes on.
And I don't know where it is in
here, but he talks to whoever.
Oh, yeah.
For everyone that has shall be given.
Verse 29.
And he shall have an abundance.
But from him that has not shall be
taken away even that which he has another
place.
It says even that which he seems to
have give it to the man with 10.
You know, in Numbers 14, 24, the Lord
said, my servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him and has followed me fully.
Him will I bring into the land where
into he went and his seed shall possess
it.
No, folks, I want to tell you something.
God will give to those who want his
life and there will be an abundance.
It's not just in you, but it will
affect your seed after you.
I see in my spirit a man or
woman who rejects the truth of Christ and
then fathers a spiritual lineage and a physical
lineage after them of just a people who
just don't understand God and do little to
bless the earth.
God is not magnified or glorified to them.
But I see another man, another woman.
It doesn't matter where you've come from.
It doesn't matter what your background is.
Doesn't matter what a mess you've made in
the past.
But you make the choice to say, I'm
going into the promised land and I'm going
to take everything God has for me on
this journey.
And by God's grace and strength alone, Jesus
Christ is going to be glorified.
And God says my seed after me is
going to possess it.
I'm going to have children, whether they're physical
or spiritual children.
But nevertheless, I'm going to have children after
me.
My life is going to have an effect.
People are going to look at my life
and say, I know that God lives.
Hallelujah.
And there will be a lineage after me.
There will be a hundred, maybe a thousand,
maybe ten thousand come after me that will
live for God, because I made the choice
to honor him and receive everything that he
has for my life.
You know, folks, I told you at the
beginning when I started, I thought I was
a two talent Christian.
Then I decided I was a four talent
Christian.
It's possible I'm a 20 talent Christian.
Now, listen to me.
This is not boastful.
It's the weakest that needs the most talent
from God, not the strongest.
It's the weakest.
It's the man.
It's the woman who says, I know I
can't do this without you, Jesus.
I know I can't be what you've called
me to be without your power.
You have to make a deposit in me
or I can't do it.
I can't be kind if it's not your
kindness that you have to deposit kindness in
me.
I have no wisdom unless you give me
wisdom.
I can't preach unless you give me the
power to preach.
My mind is too narrow.
It's too limited.
You've got to give it to me.
And so really, this is an amazing thing.
Like.
There are instances in my life, as I
was preparing this, where I know I've needed
supernatural empowerment to go where Jesus has called
me to go.
I could not have gone there without a
supernatural empowerment.
There are no amount of courses I could
have taken that would have given me the
ability.
Firstly, when I was a young Christian, I
was saved almost two years.
And it was I just could not be
a stand up witness for Jesus Christ.
I just didn't have the power.
I could sing the songs in church and
then I'd want to melt through the sidewalk
when I see a Christian walking my way.
And I was with some of my unsaved
buddies at work.
I just couldn't do it.
And I remember getting so sick of my
spirit.
I wanted to, but I couldn't.
I just could not stand up for Christ
the way I wanted to in the first
months in the workplace.
And I remember driving my police car one
day down one of the streets in the
city where I was patrolling.
And I was so mad, I punched the
steering wheel.
I was just furious.
I said, God, I want to live for
you, but you've got to help me in
this thing.
I can't do this thing.
I can't.
I want to, but I can't.
And folks, it was just a few days
later that I was in a meeting of
ex-cons in a halfway house.
They laid their hands on me and I
was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And God gave me my first talent.
Not first talent as a deposit of his
life in mind.
You see, it's not about singing and playing
the guitar.
It's a deposit of his life in mind
where I said, I can't go.
I can't do this thing.
And so he says, well, I can and
I will do it through you because you
desired me.
I'll give you this.
And he gave me his goods.
Really, that's an amazing thing.
And his life, his power.
And folks, this is not a head trip.
This is supernatural.
Because the day after this happened, I was
standing up for Christ.
It was amazing, the difference.
God had put a love in my heart.
And I was standing up in the workplace
and standing up everywhere I was going.
And a compassion started to flow out of
my heart.
I was still a patrolman.
I would go into places where, you know,
the furniture is all busted.
People are beating each other up.
And I'd sit him down and say, listen,
you need God in your life and tell
him straight out.
I was standing up by the grace and
the power of God.
And I got me into a lot of
trouble.
And I needed a I needed a further
deposit.
I remember as a young Christian, I was
driving one day after having had my devotions
in the morning.
And and I read in Ephesians, husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church.
And I thought, oh, my goodness, how am
I going to do this?
I mean, first of all, I don't even
understand how you love your church.
And our marriage in the beginning, Teresa and
I was gone through some pretty bad water.
And I said, God, I need you to
do this.
And I can't tell you the moment or
the hour, but I can tell you that
he gave me his goods and he put
a deposit of his heart within mine.
A talent.
That's my second talent.
And I started to love my wife in
a way that I'd never loved her ever
from the beginning when we it was a
deeper love.
It was a supernatural love.
It was a love that is not conditional
on anything that you see or feel with
your natural senses.
It was deeper.
It was something in the heart.
And it's amazing the love that God has
put in my heart for Teresa and the
love that she's he's put in hers for
me.
And it's an amazing thing to be able
to say that I didn't know how to
be a father.
I was a very, very selfish man, folks.
And I'm not exaggerating in saying that I
was a very selfish man, very self-focused,
self-centered.
And to be a father was such a
hard thing for me.
And I saw it in the scriptures and
I began to cry out to God.
And I believe that's where another talent came.
And he started to enable me to be
a father to my sons and my daughter
and beyond that now, even nieces and nephews
and other kids along the way, just he
put something in me which was of his
life.
And you say, at what point did this
happen?
I don't know.
It happened the moment I cried out and
said, you know, this it's my it's my
gifting to be a father.
But there are Hittites in that land right
now and there are Perizzites and there's Amorites
and there's other things dwelling there that shouldn't
be there.
And God says, no, I'm going to take
you in there.
You just have to have a heart of
faith and I'm going to deposit in you
a talent, which is another measure of my
life and give you the ability to be
what you're asking me for.
I remember when God called me to preach
the gospel and to leave secular security to
pastor a church.
And it's really not something I wanted to
do, but he called me to do it.
And I remember crying out to him, so
I don't know how to do this.
I've never been raised in a Christian home,
even a Christian church.
I have no idea what to do in
this.
And I cried out to the Lord and
he began to simply guide me and deposit
again another talent in my life and enabled
me.
See, folks, it's not the talented that need
talents.
It's the needy that need talents.
It's the needy that need these deposits of
God's life.
And then even to come to New York
is just so far out of my comfort
zone.
You have to understand, I was pastoring a
little church.
And that was a big step for me.
You're talking to a guy that used to
have panic attacks if I was singled out
in the classroom, you know, and all of
a sudden, you know, I'm pastoring.
I got fairly comfortable with 150 something people
on Sunday morning and knew everybody.
And we knew each other rather intimately.
It's a small country church.
We're a very nice, tight knit family.
It was actually a very pleasant place to
be a pastor.
And then I'm called here.
And I remember the first time standing on
the platform in New York.
The lights were so bright, I couldn't see
anybody's faces.
There's 100 or so cultures in here.
And I'm realizing, God, I'm probably stepping on
100 sacred cows every time I open my
mouth.
And I don't really have a frame of
reference for all of this.
And the Lord said, just call out to
me, I'll put another deposit of my life
within you and I'll give you the ability
to do.
And folks, I want to tell you something.
You see, when I used to read this
parable, I almost thought it was unfair that
God took the talent from the man who
only had one and didn't use it.
And gave it to the man who had
10.
I used to think, well, why didn't you
give it to the guy?
I'd give it to the guy with four.
I mean, give the guy a break.
I mean, he's out there.
He's plugging away.
You know, he's probably a lousy singer and
he can play a few chords on the
guitar and he's really struggling.
And then so this talent becomes available and
you give it to the guy that's already
got 10.
It hardly seems fair.
What's the point of it?
And then I began to realize this.
The Lord opened this up to me.
He says, I gave it to the man
with 10 because you see, this man has
become addicted to honoring me.
This man has an open heart.
He's got open hands.
And he says, God, I'm looking for another
opportunity to glorify you.
I'm not just standing here, just hanging on
to these few little things.
But, oh, God, you've been so good.
And we've been walking together in the miraculous.
And I've known and seen your power.
I've seen your glory in the sanctuary.
I've known your glory in my life.
You've taken me to so many places and
you've done so many things through me that
I know could never be done apart from
your supernatural life in mind.
I'm addicted to glorifying you, Jesus.
I want more.
I want you to take me more.
I want you to broaden the stakes in
my tent.
I want you to put me in more
difficult places.
I want you to send me where I
have absolutely no frame of reference.
God Almighty, the world now has become the
vineyard that you're sending me to.
And I don't care where you send me.
I don't care what kind of people it
is.
It's no longer.
It's not about my might or power.
It's by the Holy Spirit.
It's the anointing of your spirit in my
life.
Hallelujah.
Folks, the best thing that could happen to
you today is you could get addicted to
glorifying God through Jesus Christ in this house.
Get absolutely addicted.
Oh, God, enough of this in my life.
Enough of the Hittites in this place.
Enough of the Amorites occupying this place.
Enough of this.
I'm called to glorify God by the power
of the Holy Ghost within my life.
I have promises from a God who cannot
lie.
And God, what you said you're going to
do in my life, you're going to do
in my life.
You cannot lie to me.
In the last book of the Bible and
Revelation, and let me just refer to it
for time's sake, because I'm closing with this.
There was a church called Ephesus and they
were a Bible centered church, really.
And to this particular church, Jesus said, you're
a working people.
I know your labor, your patience, and you
cannot bear them which are evil.
And you've tried those which are apostles and
are not.
And you found them liars.
In other words, you're in the book and
you know the book and you're a discerning
body.
You turn on the television, you know, a
fraud instantly, you know who is speaking for
God and who is not.
And the discernment is only because you've been
in the book.
And he says in verse three, you've born
and you've patience.
And for my name's sake, you've labored and
not fainted.
But he said, nevertheless, I somewhat against you
because you've left your first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen and
repent.
And he says, and do the first works.
In other words, you've searched the land for
many days and you've said, you know, things
about me.
But what about the first things?
The first places, you know, we can get
so deep in God, we can miss the
first places.
We can miss those first battles.
God says, think back.
My first call, the first deposit of my
life in you was to rid you from
selfishness.
The second deposit was to give you a
loving heart.
The third deposit was to give you courage
to be a husband, to be a wife,
to be a father, to be a friend,
to be a diligent worker in the workplace.
I put deposits.
But you see, you've you've buried those.
Those are the first talents that I gave
you.
You buried them and you've now gone into
knowledge.
But he says, if you don't go back
and do the first works, you're going to
lose your candlestick.
And the candlestick is the testimony.
The testimony of the Christian is the supernatural
life of Jesus Christ in us.
That's the testimony.
It's not just thrown back knowledge about God.
As wonderful as that may be, the true
testimony is a supernatural life that you're standing
there.
And it's not just what you say.
It's who Christ has become in you.
You're standing in the marketplace.
You're standing in your home.
You're standing in the workplace.
And you're able to say, I am what
I am because God has deposited his life
in me, has changed me.
And you have a candlestick in the midst
of a darkened generation.
You have a testimony, a vibrant, living testimony
of Almighty God.
And simple throwing back scripture at people in
a darkened room is not good enough.
You have to have a testimony.
Now, this man had every opportunity at any
time to go back and get that talent.
But he chose not to.
And then one day he stood before the
Lord.
And as I said earlier, he said, here,
here's your talent still on the page.
Still in red letter in the Bible, but
never became a reality in my experience.
But you and I today have the option.
I can go back at any time and
resurrect that very talent today.
That very thing that God first gave to
me.
That first ministry that I may be neglecting,
the power to go into the prayer closet.
This very thing that God said, no, I
have not forgotten.
And I put three talents in you right
in the beginning, but you've buried those in
another place.
Let's get back there.
Let's go back there.
Let's dig those up.
Let's do it now.
And I promise you that if you will
do this today, you'll become addicted to glorifying
God.
You will.
You become addicted.
I mean, I am.
Pastor Neal, I know you're addicted.
Pastor Patrick, Pastor Williams, I know it.
I have the privilege of walking with people
who are addicted to glorifying Jesus Christ.
Absolutely addicted.
And the addiction is, you know, Lord, I
don't have the ability to do this, but
you do.
So come and do it.
And one more time, you'll be glorified.
In this life.
Hallelujah.
How does the man with 10 at the
end, how does a man with five know
he's gained five?
How does the man with two know he's
gained two?
It's easy.
At the end of your life, you stand
before God and say, God, you gave me
the power to love my wife and I
love her.
You gave me the power to father my
children and I believe that I have fathered
them.
You gave me the power to preach the
gospel and I have preached the gospel.
You gave me a new heart, a heart
of love and compassion, and I have reached
out and I've gained honor for your name.
Through what you chose to do in me,
I believed you.
You didn't fail me.
It's not presumptuous to one day stand before
God and say, God, thank you for what
you gave me.
Because it honored you in my life.
Hallelujah.
I'd like to give an altar call today
for those in the main sanctuary, the balcony,
the annex.
We're going to stand in just a moment.
If the Holy Spirit today has shown you
a deposit of the life of Christ that
you have neglected.
I'd like you to come and meet me
here and we're going to pray that you
head out of this sanctuary with a shovel
and you dig that thing up and come
back to God in that and let Christ
be glorified through your life.
The first things, the first things that God
spoke to your heart, the Holy Spirit has
to speak this to you.
I can't do it.
The Holy Spirit has to do this now.
Let's stand.
If he's drawing you, come join me here.
Balcony, you can go to either exit.
Annex, please just stand between the screens.
We'll pray together momentarily.
The first things.
There's a song called Take Me Back.
Take me back to your Lord.
Take me back.
Let the Holy Spirit just examine your heart
right now.
Is there something that God called you to
do?
Way back.
And you buried it under a mountain of
scriptural learning.
It's buried.
And the Lord says, I've not forgotten.
And neither have you.
I want to take you back.
If you have the courage, God will do
that for you.
Pray with me, Lord Jesus.
Thank you.
For speaking to my heart.
And for loving me.
In spite of my failure.
You've shown me.
Where I've left some things.
That you've given me.
That I'm supposed to be.
Walking.
In victory.
Today.
I believe.
That you are calling me.
To pick up these victories again.
Trust you for the strength.
Trust you for the power.
I believe.
That I can do all things.
Through Christ.
Who strengthens me.
The cry of my heart today.
Is Jesus.
Be glorified.
In my life.
Be glorified.
In me.
And I thank you.
From the depths of my heart.
Amen.
I'll just give him thanks.
Give him thanks.
Hallelujah.
Some of the greatest victories we'll ever experience.
Is not with a big shout at an
altar.
It's with a deep inward.
Understanding of what God is speaking.
Go back.
Times Square Church.
Pick up those talents.
Dig them up.
You find God will be faithful to you.
And I promise you.
You will become addicted to glorifying Christ.
This is the conclusion of the message.