Success – A Biblical PerspectiveSample

Day 2 - What’s In Your Hand? Matthew 25:14 - 23       Luke 19:12-23 Parables use one medium to describe another. For instance, the parable of the sower isn’t about gardening as Jesus later explains. In our examples of the parables the Talents (Matthew 25) and The Minas (Lule 19), The Master represents Jesus and we are represented by the servants. In Matthew the resources He gives to His servants represent our “context” for living out our responsibility as His ambassadors/disciples on the earth. When we accept His gift of salvation we step onto the track of the race that is set before us. In Matthew 25, He illustrates that there is an unequal distribution of resources among us. Different gifts, talents, location, education, etc. No two of us are just alike, all different as snowflakes. In His response to the return of each of the servants, He shows the same level of pleasure to each as they used what they had been given. Each doubled the resource. The Master gave them each the same warm response. In the example of the mina in Luke 19, each servant was given the same amount, one mina, and was told to use it. The mina represents the equal opportunity that every believer has to fully utilize our lives for service in the Kingdom. In the Master’s response, we see that His pleasure is greater with a ten-fold return than a five-fold return. In both parables, the Master was scornful of the servant who buried his resource and did nothing with it. The response is sobering. We are not saved by works but we are created to do good works and our Master is disappointed if we don’t do them. What are your thoughts and comments as you reflect on your “context?” How are you investing yours in the Kingdom?