Today's Passage - Matthew 25:24-30

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Matthew 25:24-30   "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. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' 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? 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. 'So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 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. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'   The third aspect of serving as a steward for the kingdom of heaven is that one day our master will come back and review our accomplishment with us. God has given us all kinds of resources in our daily life, and we need to understand that they belong to God and we must use them for the kingdom of God. When will the master come back? It's the day that Jesus returns. The Lord will ask us whether we have faithfully taken care of everything entrusted to us. The point of this parable is not how much each person received, but rather whether we have been faithful. The one who receive five bags of gold and the one who received two bags of gold received the same reward because they are equally faithful. We often compare ourselves with how much others have received, but we overlook that fact that those who received different amount of gold received the same reward. If we are only given one bag of gold and we earn another bag of gold with it, we'll receive the same reward as the one who received five bags of gold to begin with. May God open our eyes and see His will, and to understand that this parable is about being faithful in the work that God entrusted us.   Why was the one who receive one bag of gold rebuked as wicked and lazy? He's wicked because the master gave him one bag of gold, and it was his responsibility to saw the seeds and reap the harvest; instead, the servant blamed the master as hard. He's lazy because he didn't want to do what he was supposed to; even though we might know that God wants us to be faithful steward on earth, we might lazy and just don't want to do the right thing. Also, was the servant characterized as "worthless"? Worthless means that not putting things to use; we might have received all kinds of gifts from God, but we hide the gifts and don't use any of it for the expansion of God's kingdom. God's grace came upon us so that we can use it, since it's God's principle that the more we use the more we'll have, and the less we use the less we'll have. Many are accustomed to using their right hands, so their right hands become more useful; their left hands, on the other hand, become less useful because they seldom use them. Success according to God is to see whether we have been faithful in the work that He entrusted us. May the Lord help us to learn how to become a faithful steward before Him!   Pray with Pastor Tong     Lord, please help us to be determined to be faithful before you, so that we won't be wasting our life away. Let us make up our mind to please you in our daily life, and allow you to use us and help us to be faithful stewards, so that your will may be done. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!