"Unlikely Choice"

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Matthew 25:14-15
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Judging by the verses above you probably think that today the message is about the Parable of the Talents when in truth it is really about you and I and the our choice to serve Him with everything that we have. In this parable that Jesus shared with His disciples  He starts by telling them that "the kingdom of heaven is like" what is about to happen in this parable. He tells them that the man who was going away gave his servants his goods and in the process he divided up talents to them according to their ability.

You know the story. The one who received five doubled it to ten and received this commendation when his master returned, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord." Same with the one who had two talents given to him. He doubled his two talents and again when presented to the master at his return he had this response, "Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord." Then came the third servant who had been given one talent. He didn't even dare to try. He hid his talent and kept it safely tucked away. When presenting it to the master on his return, his explanation contained three words that are guaranteed to be talent blockers! "I was afraid!" He gave this very simply reason as to why he hadn't doubled his talent. He said, "I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours."

At this point in the message we are going to make the jump to another story found in all four gospels. We are going to take a look at the account in John 6:3-14. It is where Jesus fed the 5000.  In verse 9 it says, "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?" Again we see a contrast in attitude. In the parable of the talents we see two servants take what they were given and despite the master's absence they put them to work and doubled them. We also saw the one who was afraid and hid his one away. In this verse we see a little boys attitude of  "Here is my lunch. I have five small barley loaves and two fish. Use it to feed the people."As we know Jesus more than doubled it. He multiplied it till all were feed with some left over. We also see the contrast in attitude in the words that Andrew tacked on as well, 'but what are they among so many'.

The thing is we all have a choice and it may be the most unlikely choice to make in the eyes of the world but it is still our choice, as His servants, to make.  The kingdom of heaven, or rather in our case, Jesus has gone away for a bit but and He has left us all 'His goods.' He has given to each of us a measure of faith,  His word, His name, His authority,  His blood, etc.  He has even sent the Holy Spirit to help us while He is away. There is even the potential for even more-what about when He said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12

It may seem like the unlikely choice to make after all it is a whole lot easier to hoard them for ourselves and to keep them hid away from the scrutiny of the world. We may even hold tight out of fear of losing them along the way or we may have a "Why bother, What can He really do with my One little talent?" or "I'm no body can He really use me to feed 1000s?" We may be afraid or have a why bother attitude but the truth is - anything He has given, He intended for us to use. He wants us to make the most unlikely choice possible and go for the double portion.

Lord help us to grab hold of the gifts, the talents, and even the anointings that You have given us and Lord by power of Your Holy Spirit help us to make the most unlikely faith filled choices to use them to bring increase the kingdom!