Use your Talents

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’  —Matthew 25:23

The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 reminds us to use the talents God has given us wisely. 

All of us have God-given skills and abilities at various levels.

And we must not bury, unused, what God has given us.

It is not only in our years of strength that God will use us, but also in our youth and age, as well as in our sickness and weakness. 

Let us continue to serve God. 

Let us honor our Savior by using our skills.

May our lives be a living sacrifice of love and action for God's honor.

God can use us at any age if we are willing.

The Parable Of The Wicked Vine-Dressers

Matthew 21:33-46

Passage

This parable was about the Jewish nation who had enjoyed the special care and goodness of God for centuries.

God had given them good laws. God had favored them above other nations. But they still rejected Him.

God had sent the Old Testament prophets and John the Baptist to them. But they tortured and killed them.

God then sent His Son to them. But they did not respect His Son! They murdered the sinless Savior!

God finally rejected the Jewish nation. The Kingdom is given to other nations! It was given to the Church!

Response

Let us respect the Son of God by obeying Him, and by giving Him first place in our lives.

Prayer

Oh God, help me submit to Your Son, and serve Him only! Amen.

The Parable Of The Sower

Matthew 13:1-23 (NKJV)

This chapter contains 7 parables about the kingdom of God.

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After the Lord Jesus Christ had told the parable of the sower, He told the 12 and a wider group of disciples the reason that He spoke in parables.

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He told these stories not with the intention to make His message clearer to the hearers.

It was to conceal the meaning of His message from them as a judgment from God.

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The Lord Jesus Christ explained the meaning of the parables to His disciples, but not to the crowds.

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In the parable of the sower, the crucial factor is not the seed.

It is the ground in which the seed is sown.

The state of the ground determines the fate of the seed.

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In this parable, the seed is the word of God.

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The preaching and teaching of God's word must take first place in the work of the kingdom.

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If we neglect our private reading and meditation of God's word, or if we attend a church where the Bible is not faithfully taught, we will be weak and unstable in our Christian life.

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The word of God falls on different types of heart.

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The 'wayside' hearers does not understand God's word and Satan snatches it away from his heart.

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The 'stony places' hearer has a shallow heart.

Though there is an appearance of new life in Christ, there is no depth and his profession of faith soon evaporates when trouble comes.

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The 'thorns' hearer has a worldly heart that chokes the word of God so that it becomes unfruitful.

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The 'good ground' hearer is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces.

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What kind of ground do your heart provide for the word of God as you hear it taught week by week?

Do you seek to understand it?

Are you shallow or worldly?

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If we want to bear precious spiritual fruit in our lives, we must make every effort to prepare ourselves to hear God's word each Lord' Day.

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To obtain the best from preaching, we must come to services fresh in body and in mind.

We must come with a prayerful and submissive heart.