Which Servant are you?

Last night in our life group we studied the parable in Matthew 25 of the king who distributed to his three servants a set of valuable coins.  If you aren’t familiar with the story, here is a little recap for you. In the parable each servant was left with a set of valuable coins according to their specific ability. The first servant was given ten, the second five and the third was given one. In the parable it gives an account of what each servant did with what his master had given him. The first and second servant invested his their valuable coins and returned to his master with double the amount, the master was pleased with these two servants, for they had grown his kingdom with their investment.   And as for the The third servant… The servant that reminded me so shamefully of myself, he did not go and invest, instead out of fear the servant hid the valuable thing that his master had given him and his master was not pleased.    

There are so many different things that you can learn from this small account in Matthew, but last night our concentration was geared towards the gifts that OUR master had given us and what we are called to do with that gift.

We learned that each of us have been given a specific gift by God to reach those who are far from Him. Last night I had our ladies name their gifts and they ranged from the ability to relate to those in all situations to their gift to reach those far from God with their artistic ability.  I don’t know what gift(s) God has given you, but it’s pretty clear in this story what the purpose for those gifts are and that is to invest and expand.

This story challenged me to compare myself to the servants and I challenge you to do the same. If you have to be honest with yourself, which servant does your life and actions resemble most? Are you like the first two servants who took what their master had given them and invested and grew the kingdom? Or are you more like the first servant who has taken the gift and hidden it?

In verse 24-25  the servant explains to his master all the reason as to why he didn’t invest what he was given, but the more times I read those two verses the more those reasons begin to sound like excuses. As Christ followers we are called to reach those who are far from God, PERIOD.  In the story the master wasn’t concerned with the all the reasons the servant had for not investing his gift he was only concerned that his kingdom was not grown because the he did not invest.

Listen ya’ll, there are so many excuses we could give that we feel justify why we aren’t using our gift to expand God’s Kingdom.  Busy schedules, being uncomfortable, lack of resources, the list could go on and on and Shoot, I am probably better at giving excuses than any of you who are reading this. But just as the master wasn’t concerned with all the reasons (excuses) his servant gave, God isn’t concerned with mine.

Yesterday my heart wasn’t only convicted with the lack of using my gift to reach his people, but also the misuse of that gift.  There have been more times than I can count that I have used the gift God has given me to move me forward and give me opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. It’s such a wonderful thing to recognize that you have been blessed by God with a gift, but it isn’t just enough to recognize the gift but to understand the purpose of that gift. In the story the servants weren’t given the coins for their own selfish gain. They were given the coins so that they may go and expand their master’s kingdom and we called to do the same. 

I challenged our life group last night to push through our excuses and use our gift to reach those far from God, no matter the cost. I challenged them to push through uncomfortable situations and busy schedules to bring those who are far from God closer to Him and I challenge you to do the same!

I hope this encouraged you the way it did me.

Mark 16:15 “And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.’”