That question got me thinking, "Why do any of us do what we do? Why do you do what you do?"

Perhaps the answer to this question can be found in this next question, "What is your reason for living?"

What is your reason for living?

There used to be a TV game show, where contestants were given a certain amount of time to run through the supermarket and fill up their shopping carts with as much as they could and as many times as they could. When time was up the cost of the items in the shopping carts were totaled and the person with the highest value won.

Is that your reason for living: to accumulate as much money as possible; to amass the most possessions; to have more status than someone else?

In Peter’s first letter to the early Christians, Peter taught the followers of Jesus, how they should live.

On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being always and 5 being seldom then rate yourself.

Peter offered these word to challenge the early Christians, to challenge you and me, to encourage us to steady our course, to have a right attitude about being a Christian. They are words we need to be challenged with again. We live in a time when the average person spends the greatest chunk of his time increasing his possessions, wealth, status, and power.

How is God glorified by that? He is not. God is only glorified when we use our talents to help others. Remember what Jesus said,

"Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven."
Mt. 5:16

That is what Peter meant when he said,

Notice Peter said,

That is the point of the gospel lesson.

Common sense tells us why he didn’t give each servant the same. He gave to those what they can handle. In which case no one servant would be over whelmed by the responsibilities entrusted them.

For you and me the talents represent any kind of resource we are given, time, abilities, treasure. With these talents comes the responsibility to us them. The issue is not how much you have, but how well we use what we have.

Two of the servants used their talents well. The third did not, giving as his reason,

The only way a servant could fail would come from laziness or disregard for the master. Basically what you are talking about is self centeredness. We make excuses to avoid doing what God calls us to do. Excuses which are no different than,

An out of towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolate area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse named Buddy.

He hitched buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!"

Buddy didn’t move.

Then the farmer yelled, "Pull Buster, pull!"

Buddy didn’t move.

Once more the farmer yelled, "Pull, Coco, pull!"

Nothing

Then the farmer yelled, Pull, Buddy, pull!"

And Buddy easily dragged the car out of the ditch.

The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer, why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.

The farmer said, "Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only horse pulling, he wouldn’t even try."

How often are we like Buddy. We don’t like to do something if we think we are the only one doing it.

Why should I pour my time and effort into the work of the church? No one else seems to care.

Why should I put forth the extra effort to do a good job at work? No one else does, and it isn’t appreciated.

Why should I be nice to him? He’s certainly not going to make an effort to be nice to me.

The prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19:10 ran and hid in the cave and cried out to God, "I alone am left." Nobody else is trying, nobody else is faithful.

God told Elijah, your wrong, he had 7,000 on His side.

We may be blind to what others are doing around us. But this church is swarming with people who are like the 1st and 2nd servant in the gospel. As Paul said to the Galatians,

God rewards the faithful. The person who diligently prepares for Christ’s return by investing time and talent to serve God will be rewarded.

Amen