Journey to Joy // Make it Make $ense
Read Time: 14 mins, 23 secs
His master answered, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master.’
Matthew 25:23 NET
The Bible outlines blueprints for blessing and plans for prosperity. We, however, often fail to take the commands as wise counsel. We are told that prayer is the ingredient God uses to produce peace; however, in the midst of our worry and anxiety, prayer is often the last thing on our list. We are told that if we come to Him when we are weary and burdened, He will give us rest. However, we often opt to brandish our own burdens instead of casting our cares on the Christ who cares for us.
This passage offers a similar word of wisdom. It offers the ingredients God uses for increase that many of us often ignore. It shows us the journey to the joy we've been asking for and the fulfillment found in faithfulness.
Verses 21 and 23 of the story are our key. The master invites some into the joy they've been looking for, and we want the same thing. Some experience the joy of the lord and a life of greater abundance. But another fails to experience all that was on the table. Wisdom says to learn from the successes and failures of others, so how can we learn from those who received joy and the one who didn't? Did he refuse to bring the ingredients? If we are to experience the feast of abundance that God is offering, we must learn to be like the wise servants in this story and not like the one who missed out on the joy and promotion he needed? Could it be that the joy we're looking for comes from being a good employee in God's company?
Stewarding Servants
Jesus tells the story of three slaves and their activities when their master goes on a long trip. To understand this story, you must understand slavery in the Greco-Roman world. If you're from the United States, especially if you're black, you likely get a pretty uncomfortable idea when you think of slavery. While slaves at this time were still considered property and often experienced abuse and exploitation at the hands of some masters, it wasn’t race-based, and many of them were brought into slavery because of war or debt they owed and given the opportunity to assimilate into greater society when debt was paid. They were often educated and served as doctors, teachers, and administrators in wealthy households. They were house managers and integral parts of business and family. Think of Joseph in Potiphar's house or a political hostage like Daniel.
These servants are like employees and have been tasked with managing the property and affairs of their master while He is away. They are essentially tasked with managing the company while the owner is out. The resources they are given aren’t bonuses or Christmas gifts they can do whatever with; think of them as responsibilities tied to the company they work for. The text says that the servant with five talents turned them into ten, and the servant who had two turned them into four, but the servant who had one held and hid instead of stretching and stewarding. Do you see the issue here?
These servants represent us while the master represents God. Jesus, while telling this parable, was in His final days with His disciples before going back to heaven. He had given them everything they needed to continue the work He started. The disciples then and we now are the employees to keep God’s mission going while He is away. Now, He is expected to return again before taking us to heaven, and when He does, He is going to ask how we managed the opportunities, gifts, and resources He gave us to use for His work while He was away. He is a master asking His home managers what they did with His resources while He left them to manage it. The issue is that many of us don't see ourselves as managers, so we don't see the mismanagement of our gifts, time, and resources as stealing.
Bank Branch Blessing
I want you to think of yourself as a branch in God’s bank. Early banks were created as people deposited valuables in secure buildings and institutions like temples for safekeeping so that they could travel lighter and not have to keep a constant eye on them. They would receive a receipt or paper banknote to confirm how much they had deposited so that they could withdraw that amount later. What we’d see as bank branches started to emerge as merchant families and travelers who didn't want to carry around a lot of heavy valuables would instead keep the lighter deposit slips or confirmation from the other bank with them when they traveled, and when they got to their destination and needed funds, they'd turn in the deposit slip and withdraw an equal amount from another “branch” of the bank. The idea of a good bank is that you can securely store and easily withdraw what you deposited when and where you need it.
God has deposited His resources, gifts, and purposes in us, and is thinking that if He spreads us out in different places and spaces, when He needs something, He will have someone He can make a withdrawal from. The gifts aren't ours to begin with. We're simply stewarding them for the Master. When He travels from city to city, He is expecting to be able to withdraw what He needs based on what He deposited in you. The issue is that many of us think the gifts, opportunities, and possessions given to us are ours to hoard and not God’s to have. So when God knocks on the door of our heart wanting to use what He placed in us, we deny Him.
Imagine a bank that doesn't give you back the money you deposited when you need it. Would you keep using that bank? On the other hand, if the bank you deposited in always seemed to increase what you gave it, how much more would you give the bank? This is what we see in the text.
Servants Don’t Save; They Steward
This is why it’s important that we recognize that a servant of God is called to steward, not just save. Now to be clear, I’m not saying that you shouldn't save or that safety nets aren't important. You should have a realistic emergency fund that makes sense based on the various risk factors and variables of your life. However, the primary role of a Christian isnt just to hold on to what God gave you; it's to advance it. Adam’s first job was to cultivate and keep the garden. God gave a gift, and Adam's job wasn't just to make sure it didn't go backwards, but to push it forwards. I’m not saying that protecting what God has given doesn't matter. But some of us are so committed to preservation that we abandon progress. God didn't call Adam just to keep what He gave going but to add to it. To multiply it. To prosper it. To grow it. You are not called by God to hoard the gifts He has given you but to use them. It doesn't make sense for Him to give you gifts, resources, and opportunities that will never be seen, used, and grown.
While this is bigger than just financial stewardship, I, like Jesus, recognize that finances are often the best way to tangibly describe and study the heart posture behind a successfully stewarding servant.
Drain the Swamp & Raise the Roof
Imagine your financial life like a man stuck in a house or room that is filling with water. Water is pouring in, and as the water passes his ankles and travels up to his knees and then chest, he soon finds himself stuck in the room, swimming in the pocket of air that remains above him. Can you imagine the pressure? Can you imagine the stress? Can you imagine how tired he is while being forced to expel all the energy he can to simply stay afloat? The water rising are his expenses, and the ceiling above him is his income. The space between is his breathing room.
Many of us feel like this man. We've been treading water for years and trying not to drown. We try to handle our financial life by simply making more, raising the ceiling. The issue is that it would be much more logical to first figure out how we can drain the water and stop the rest from pouring in. Renovation is easier when you aren't wet. Draining the room and lowering our expenses should be the major goal. While raising the ceiling, increasing income, or growing your gifts should be a part of your financial plan, it's much easier to do when you drain some water and are no longer exhausted and gasping for air.
The issue is that the work of searching for what expenses are silently dripping into your life is a work many of us want to avoid. It's hard to cut the comforts that are drowning us out. It's often harder emotionally to drain the water, but that's what we need to do. Stewardship isn't just about making more. It's about optimizing what you have.
Can I describe a financial reality where this shows up especially in our communities? Because of financial trauma, financial illiteracy, financial fear, and less-than-ideal financial mindsets, many of us would rather see money sitting stagnant than take the educated risk of seeing it grow. Sometimes the potential energy money allows feels safer than allowing it to progress in a more kinetic way. What do I mean?
Say you have a balance of $1,000 in credit card debt. You wanted something, and you felt like saving or sacrificing was too much, or you didn't budget for a need or have the cushion for an emergency, so you got it on credit. Let's say your Annual Percentage Rate (APR) for interest charged is 21% of the unpaid balance. You may pay the minimum of 2% of the balance each month. Your payment would be around $20, so you feel like that's doable.
You get the $1,000 to spend, but not much has to be given up monthly. You feel like you have more breathing room and fewer expenses with a lower monthly payment. But money is about facts, not feelings. The issue is that at 30 years in, you'd still owe $406, and by the end of the payoff you'd have paid about $8,000 when you only spent $1,000. Is that worth it? By contrast, if you had just saved that $20 payment you each month, you’d have $1,000 in a little over four years. Longer than instant gratification but way shorter than a few decades.
Why do I tell you this? Because if I were working with you to help your personal or business finances, I'd tell you to quickly pay off and get rid of dead debt like this. Credit card balances, car loans, and other debts that are eating away at our income and filling the proverbial house with water. However, many of us are too tied to present emotions to steward successfully. This is something I've seen many times with church and personal finances. We sometimes feel safer hoarding money in a mattress than we do allowing it to multiply in the market. I'm not saying to deplete what has been saved to an unsafe level. Plan for emergencies. And with a clear budget, you will be able to plan and prepare for many of the expenses that often feel like emergencies when they hit us. But if you have excess, it makes so much more sense to pay off the things that are taking from your pot each month. Yes, it feels better emotionally to have $10k in savings, but if you keep $2k for emergencies, use $8k of it to pay off the car and credit card and any other debt, you could use what you were paying on those to save back up to $10k. We’d often rather have savings than successfully steward, but sometimes stewarding involves using some of what was saved. It looks like the last servant was afraid to do this. What if the servant with one talent paid off all the company debts? Yes, his savings would be lower, but he’d free up however much was tied up in current and future payments and see an increase. But he was so paralyzed with fear that he couldn't move.
Coaches, Counselors, Community
I think it's interesting that the master says to the last servant that he could've just put the money in the bank if he was afraid to step out on faith. Again, it's better to put your resources in the market than to hide them in a mattress. It's better to put blessings in a bank than on the back burner. The master tells the servant the least risky thing he could've done and still got a return. He could've asked for help and got others involved. He could've let another trusted person help him steward.
While he was only given one talent, a talent was worth about 6,000 denari. A denari was a day's wage. So that's about $88 with an 8-hour shift at Ohio minimum wage. So $88 times 6,000 is $528,000 that this talent was worth. While it may have been less than the others, it was still a life-changing sum. We don't know how long the master was gone and expecting them to steward this money, but the text does say it was a long time. If the servant simply put it in a high-yield savings account with only a 4% annual return, he would've had $642,407 after 5 years, $781,411 after 10 years, $1,156,891 after 20 years, and $2,535,647 after 40 years. What if we used our lifetime to slowly but surely grow the gifts God has given us? If the servant had simply invested what he was given in a savings account for the duration of his career, he’d have over $2 million more than he started with! Look how much God can do if you just take what He gave to you and partner with someone else to prosper it.
What does this look like with us? What bankers has God allowed you to partner with when you don't know how to steward what He’s given? A banker in this analogy is the person who partners with you in purpose to produce and prosper what you couldn't alone. What coach can help you build? What counselor can help you optimize? What community can you partner to produce more than you could produce on your own?
Who or what can you pour into to push along the ministry you don't know how to do, are too scared to do, or don't have the opportunity to do? What “bank” can you give your gifts to? Who can you partner with in purpose? Some of my favorite types of people are the ones who call or email me and say they can’t sing in ROAR, preach at ROAR, or make an event, but they can contribute so that someone else can get there. I love the people I've met in churches who say they don't know the young people or how to lead a social or Bible study, but they can supply a house and food whenever I want to. Maybe you're not the one to feed the college students in your city, but you may be able to fund the person who can. Hey, maybe you don't want to write a devotional every week for a couple thousand people, but you can fund the person who is willing. Wink wink. What community can you pour into? You may not be able to get to church anymore, but you can still make an impact. You may not be able to get to that country, but you can help those who can. Give what God gave you to someone else so that they can take the ball further than you could alone. That's much better than hiding your gifts.
How Do You View the Master
Some of us are more like the saving servant than the stewarding ones because we rely more on fear than faith. Faith asks what happens if God wins, while fear asks what happens if He fails. Faith pushes you to prosper while fear prompts you to conserve. Faith leads you to ask what else God wants to do, but fear makes you question what God missed. Faith leads you to jump as if God will catch you, but fear leaves you to settle like you're your only protection. Which one leads your life?
It seems like the core question here has to do with character. The core question as to whether you will be the successful or the scared servant is based on who you believe God to be. We see this as the last servant's issue based on his response. Look at verses 24-26. This lazy, wicked, and scared servant believed the master was harsh and unfair. This misrepresentation of the master's character is what led to his paralyzing fear. I’d like to argue that fear based on our misunderstanding of the Master’s character is also one of the biggest hindrances to us successfully stewarding what He gave us.
It's hard to soar when you feel stuck. It's hard to run when you feel like you're walking on eggshells. It's hard to perform under pressure. This servant was afraid to try because he was afraid to fail, and he was afraid to fail because he didn't really know or trust the master. However, when you know that God is gracious, that He loves you and He wouldn't lead you into anything to harm you, it gives you more room to run. The other servants weren't afraid to try because if they messed up, they knew the master would catch them. They knew He would rather them try and fail than fear and hide. When it comes to stepping out on faith and shining in the way He designed you to, do you think more about God being proud of you or disappointed in you? Do you think more about God catching you or dropping you? Odds are that if you view the master like this last servant did, you'll never step out.
I recently went to a training with a pastor who has been blessed to see God move very powerfully in their ministry. One church they were at grew from $1 to $3 million in tithes during their tenure, and another one grew from $3 to almost $5 million. Those seem like made-up numbers to some of us, but can you imagine the community impact you could make with that? The jobs created? The schools funded? The debts cleared, and lives changed? And while the pastor shared some of what their churches were able to accomplish, the craziest fact was that at one of these churches, they never preached on giving. So how is this possible? How do people care enough to pour into what God is doing without being asked? The pastor argued that true generosity and stewardship of what God has given doesn't come from head knowledge but heart transformation. When you experience for yourself that God supplies all your needs, you stop checking His math when He tells you to give of yourself. The pastor argued that the more people got to know the Master, the more they naturally wanted to steward what He gave them. If you are having trouble stewarding the gifts, opportunities, resources, and relationships that God in His sovereign nature planted in you, odds are you haven't spent much time getting to know the real character of the master.
The main difference between the successful stewards and the scared steward wasn't head knowledge or income but what they believed about the master. A.W. Tozer famously said that what comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. If you want God to trust you with more and invite you into the joy of the Lord, you have to learn to trust Him more. Let Him take the time to introduce Himself.
In summary, you're called to be a steward and not just a saver. You're called to produce and not just protect. The master gave you gifts so that He can use them for His glory to accomplish His mission. A few things to do as a stewarding servant:
Take inventory. What have you been given? What has God deposited? What gifts, opportunities, resources, talents, skills, testimonies, dreams, and examples has God trusted you to steward? One of the biggest reasons people fail financially is because they don't budget. A budget is simply an acknowledgment of and plan for your money. A schedule is the same for your time. You don't know what you're wasting if you don't know what you have. Take inventory.
Identity the Mission. What is God calling you to and what are the priorities? He has called you to be loved by him and love others as a result. Build your life around that mission.
Cut the Fat. After you determine what you have and what you are called to, cut out excess. Cut out things that aren't helping you steward successfully. Cut out things that are taking your time, attention, energy, and money from God-given mission. It sometimes hurts, but it's worth it.
Partner with People in Purpose. It's better to ask for help than it is to be so overwhelmed and afraid on your own that you never move forward. What coaches, counselors, or communities can help you use and develop your gifts? What movements or ministries can you pour into to partner in purpose?
As mentioned before, this ministry is one I have big dreams for. I want to create Christ-centered and practical content, devotionals, bible studies and books so that as many people as possible can experience the sense of peace, passion and purpose Christ brings. It would mean the world if you followed the Spirit’s prompting and poured into this ministry. It costs thousands to keep this up and now that I am married I don’t want to take too much from my family funds to push this. You can use the donate link below to subscribe to a monthly gift or use Cash App $ThoughtsByPace to Partner in Purpose. Thank You.
