Use Your Gifts And Talents To Grow The Kingdom of God

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you for being here. Today I have got a great sermon for you on how you are gifted. You have been gifted with a lot of things and it is important for you to use those gifts.

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God has given you many gifts and talents, you got to use them. Do not let them go to waste. We were deriving this message from Matthew of the parable of talents. Chapter 25 verses 14 through 30. If you have your bibles, get them out, use them. If you do not have your Bible it is okay, I am going to read it to you and I will put the references in the description below. So get your Bible, come back, read through this stuff as a refresher of this message at a later time. It would be great for you to read them with your Bible, read them to your family, etc, use it as a discussion, whatever you can do.

I am going to read through this Matthew 25 verses 14 through 30 so bear with me. Here we go, ‘Again it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To the one he gave five talents of money.’

Now how much is a talent? A lot. A talent was worth more than about a thousand dollars. Today a talent was probably like five grand. Five talents of money, so $25,000, another two talents, and another one talent. Some scholars say it was like a million dollars so the value varies, but it is a large, large sum of money. Then he went on his journey. Now this journey was not just like a day trip, he was gone for a year or more.

‘The man who had received five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also the one with two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.’

‘After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled his accounts with them. The man who had received five brought the other five and said, master, you entrusted me with the five talents, see I have gained five more. The 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 in your master’s happiness.’

‘The man with two talents also came. Master you entrusted me with two talents, see I have gained two more. 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, share in your master’s happiness.’

‘Then the man who had received the one talent came and said, master, I knew you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and I went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

‘His master replied, you wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I harvested where I have not sown and gathered where I have not scattered seed. Why then should you not have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have had it back with interest?’

‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has, will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. Throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Luke also has a similar story. We are going to read that one very quickly, it is a little shorter. Luke 19 11 to 27. ‘While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. Jesus said a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. He called 10 of his servants and gave them 10 minna and said put this money to work until I come back.’

‘His subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say we do not want this man to be our king. The king however returned home and he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it.’

‘The first one came and said, sir your one Minna has earned 10 more. Well done good servant, his master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of 10 cities. The second came and said sir, your one Minna has earned five more. His master said you take charge of five cities.’

‘Then another servant came, sir here is your Minna, I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I am a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did not you put my money on deposit so that when I came back I would have collected it with interest?’

‘Then he said to those standing by, take his Minna away from him and give it to the one who has ten Minnas. Sir, they said, he already has ten. He replied I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given. But for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me.’

Pretty serious business. This is a great parable. In both of them, a master is going away leaving money. In this example, three separate servants, he left money to more, but three of them are specifically noted. The first two servants in both scenarios put their money to work and they doubled or in the one case, they turned one Minna into ten and one Minna into five. So I mean ten times and five times the master’s investment. They really really put their money to work, their talents. In Matthew, it is called a talent.

Now that talent could be money, but today could be your God-given talent, put it to work. What did the master say in Matthew 25 verses 21 and 23, ‘Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little, I will set you over much.’ In Luke what did they do, Well done good servant? Take charge of 10 cities. Take charge of five cities. This other one, no, he does not get anything. Give it to the other guy who already has.

Everyone who has a little, it will be taken from them. Why? Well, because they are not able to manage what they have, so if you have a little bit and you do not seem to get anywhere, you do not seem to get anything, maybe start managing what you have properly. Show God that you can manage it properly and He will give you more.

The master was pleased that his servants were faithful. As a reward, he put them in charge of more than a small amount of money. One put in charge of ten cities, five cities, they passed the test. How are you doing on your test? Are you failing your test or are you passing it? God is giving you some stuff. He wants to give you immeasurably more, but can you handle it?

It is the same way if you have employees or kids, you put them in charge of something and then as they show you that they can be responsible, you give them more. You say hey here is an allowance, manage it properly or Hey your job is to do this and then when they show you they do that well, all right here is more.

This is a great example, your child may say Dad I want these new toys or Mom I want these new toys and you say look at the toys you have, they are broken, they are beat up, they are never put away. Why would I buy you this new item when you cannot even take care of the old items? No, show me you can take care of these other items and then maybe you will get the big item.

God is the same way as evidenced in both of those passages, but if you cannot take care of your little ten-dollar toys then you do not even get to have those toys. I will take them away from you because you have shown me you cannot take care of it. Do you let your child continue to have that thing and keep breaking it or do you take it away because they do not use it properly? What do we call this as parents? You lose your privilege.

If we do this to our children, God is our father, of course, He does it to us. Look, it is in the Bible. If you are not managing what you have properly, why would God give you more? He would not. He will take it away and give it to someone else who can manage it properly. He will take it away. Do not lose your privilege, start managing things properly. These servants in this parable were trusted with a little and now they can be trusted with much.

Let’s go to Luke again, a different passage, Luke 16:10 and this one is the parable of the shrewd manager. So read this parable, but I am not going to read it now for sake of time, but verse 10 says, ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. Whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.’

So if you cannot be trusted with your ten-dollar toy, I am gonna take it away and I know that I cannot trust you with a fifty-dollar toy. But if you can be trusted with this little one, I know that you can be trusted with this big one.

God is the same way with us. If He gives you a certain income or certain talents and you are not using it properly, He is not going to give you more. He will take what you do have because you will lose your privilege. That third servant was afraid to lose what he was given, so he hid it. Do not hide your talents. Do not hide your gifts. Do not hide your wealth, use it.

This servant, he was afraid, he hid it in the ground or hid in a piece of cloth, then he gave it back to the master. When the master returned, the master was very unhappy and said you ought to have invested it with the bankers so at least I could have gained interest. That was Matthew 25:27.

Let’s go to another verse though, this was similar to Luke, Matthew 13:12. This verse says, ‘Whoever has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from them.’ Just like Luke 16:10, you will lose your privilege.

In this parable, this master represents God as we have said. The servants are His people, you and me. You have a choice, either be like the first two servants. What were they? There are some lessons here beyond managing what God is giving you. These first two servants have a couple of characteristics that you need to have in your life.

These are some points to write down. Use your gifts, use your talents, use what God has given you. Okay, the point is how do you do that? These two servants in both parables have the same words representing them. ‘Well done good and faithful servant’. That is what you need to do. You need to be good and faithful, and how do you show that you are good and faithful? You use what you are given appropriately. That means take care of it.

Just like the child who wants more toys, you say take care of these, pick them up, put them away, take good care of your belongings and more will be given to you. I will get you more then because I know you can take care of it. Just like the kid who wants a pocket knife, if they cannot operate it properly you are not going to give them a knife. They will cut their own head off or that crazy movie The Christmas Story where he wants the Red Rider bb-gun and I will tell him you will shoot your eye out because they do not think he can properly handle it.

It will not be given to you until you show you can properly handle it. But how can you show you can properly handle it unless it is given to you? Good argument. Show you can properly handle what you already have so that you can request more. This could be part of it sometimes.

You might pray for things in Jesus’ name. We have talked about this before in other sermons, you might pray for things but you are not getting them. Well, Jesus says that if you say anything in His name it will be given to you and James has said oh well if you are praying and you are not receiving, you are asking with wrong motives.

Maybe sometimes you are praying for things in Jesus’ name that you cannot handle because you have shown you cannot handle them. Show you can handle it. Take care of what you have. Do you have a beat-up car? Do you have a broken lawnmower? Do you have a house that is falling apart?

Maybe it is time you start taking care of those things that you have so that God will see that, hey this is a good and faithful servant, everything I give them they take care of. They take really good care of it. They manage it properly. They keep it well maintained. They are taking care of what I have given them, I know that they can handle more. I will give them more.

Whoever is responsible with very little will also be responsible with much. What is the lesson here? Get to the root of the problem. The root is God is training a characteristic. He is not saying you are going to get wealth, you are going to get possessions. He is building up character. If you are responsible with little, that characteristic means you can be responsible with much. If you can manage little you can be responsible with much.

The one master said you can manage these Minnas, this money, you can now manage cities of money, treasuries. You can manage it all because you are able to deal with little. If you can maintain your house you can be trusted with a hotel. If you can maintain your bank account you could be trusted with another, maybe a savings account or brokerage. If you can manage the car you have, maybe now you can manage a second car or maybe now you can manage a boat or a jet ski of some kind or a snowmobile.

If you are faithful with little you can be faithful with much. If you have little and you are good with it, even you can get more. God says more will be given to them. But if you are not good with it, even what you have will be taken from you. Just like if you cannot manage it, your car will get repossessed. Maybe your house will be foreclosed down and the bank will take it. Your money will go to the credit card companies in the form of exorbitant interest because you are not managing it. Even what you have will be taken away, you will lose your privilege.

You can either be like those first two servants, good and faithful, and be given more. Or like that third servant. What is he? Evil and lazy. You wicked and lazy servant, you let it go to waste, folded up in a cloth or buried in the ground where for the whole time period it did not move, it did not do anything, it was worthless at that point in time. It had no value because it was not being used for anything.

Money or talents, our gifts, our abilities only have value if we use them. If you do not use it there is no value. This book right here, this Bible, you could buy a Bible for five bucks, ten bucks, you could buy them cheap, maybe even at the dollar store. You could buy this Bible, you could get them for free, but if you let it sit on the shelf and never ever use it, it is worthless.

If you take it and use your Bible and read it, now it is worth way more than the five dollars you paid for it or the ten dollars you paid for it or the hundred dollars, maybe you got an expensive one. The point is anything you have, this pen is worthless if it just sits here and does nothing, it is worthless. But if I take it and use it to write my sermons, this pen has value. Without this pen, I cannot write the sermon. I could type them of course, but if you do not use it it is worthless. That is what this is saying. This third servant did not use the gifts they were given and therefore that is worthless. Do not be evil and lazy.

Proverbs is all about laziness. Some of those chapters in there say do not be lazy. The lazy people are not going to prosper. The sluggards are too lazy to even bring their hand back to their mouth. They are so lazy they turn on their bed like a door turns on its hinges. Do not be the sluggard and the lazy person. Get out there and be like the ant who is wise.

Are you gonna be like the first two servants who are good and faithful and take care of what you have so that you show, you prove that you can be given more? Or are you going to be like this third servant who is worthless and lazy and does not use their gifts and lets them go to waste and then even what you have will be taken from you? The choice is yours.

Use your gifts. A great way to use your gifts is just say what do I have? Look around. See what you have, whether it is time, money, space in your home, ability, and then start figuring out how you can use it. You have extra bedrooms, how can you use them? You have extra space, maybe you can use them, rent out storage space. Maybe you can rent out a room. Maybe you can house missionaries for free.

Maybe you can take care of kids. You can become a safe home, a shelter in place for emergencies. You could use those rooms, even if you do not want people, you could store items and then you could take that money and use that. Maybe you have extra cars. Someone needs a vehicle to drive, lend them your vehicle. Maybe you have a gift of teaching or interpreting or maybe you have divine gifts like speaking in tongues, understanding tongues, prophecy, start using that. Maybe you have great wisdom, use it.

How do you use these things? Well, comment below with your wisdom, your insights. If your gift is teaching, you do not have to go be a teacher at a school, get involved at church, or Sunday school kids’ programs. There are so many ways you can use the gifts God has given you.

But the point is to start using them. God has given you a lot of money and maybe you are working all the time, you do not have time to go use your other gifts. Maybe you are already using it at your job, bringing in money. Now what? Use that money somewhere, invest it, tithes, donate, offerings, use your money, help others. The whole point is whatever you have, whatever you are given, you need to use it.

Let’s pray. Lord thank you so much for the stories of the parables of the talents and the master going out in Matthew and Luke. Thank you very much for the lessons provided in those stories. That we want to be like the good and faithful servants. Lord, we know that you are our father and you are not going to just give us everything we want, we have to show you that we are ready for it. That we are ready to receive whatever it is we are asking for in your name.

Lord, I ask that each of these people, I know they all have needs in their life, they need something they want something. Show them what they must do in order to get that. That they have to show, they have to prove that they are worthy to receive those extra blessings. Inspire them to take really good care of what they do have, to manage it properly, to use their time wisely, to use their skills, to use whatever you have given them and that they would use it to the fullest. Then you would bless them with more exactly like these parables showed us.

The one who has five double them to ten, give them more, give them from this worthless lazy servant. Give him more. The one who has 10 cities, give them this other minna, give them more Lord. Inspire them to not be that evil and lazy and worthless servant. Inspire them to use their gifts that they have. Inspire them to use their Bibles, otherwise these possessions that they have, if they are just sitting there they are worthless. They do not need them.

That is the other lesson, Lord. If there is a worthless possession in their possession, something that is sitting around and collecting dust, throw it out, get rid of it into the darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Get rid of it if they do not need it in their lives. Help them get rid of it. We are not attached to things of this world, we have to build our heavenly kingdom, store up heavenly treasures. If there is stuff in this world that is worthless, that is a hindrance, get rid of it in Jesus’ name. Inspire them to use the gifts you have given them. We pray this In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks again for being here. This is a very important topic. If you have any questions on how you can use certain gifts you might have. If there are things that you have in your life, maybe you take an inventory and you want to know where to bring things, where to get rid of things, how to use space in your home, how to use your money, how to invest, how to do any of that kind of stuff, please I encourage you, talk to people.

Comment below, comment below. Definitely, we can reach out, we can talk, we can discuss things, and help you find out how to use your gifts. If you have any questions on what your gifts are, there is a great spiritual gifts test by Lifeway. I will have a link in the description below. Have a great week. God bless.

Spiritual Gifts Survey From Lifeway (Printable)

Spiritual Gift Test (online)

“Spiritual Gifts: What They Are, Identifying & Using Yours” – Woman Of Noble Character