SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not building yourself up with God's word, you will never reach your full potential.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, your heart will be shallow compared to the fullness that it could possibly have.
SPEAKER_00: We get fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say about being in the presence of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: In the presence of the Lord, it's fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And worship encompasses God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: We call it PB and J, Her Bible, and Journal.
SPEAKER_00: We have that bookmark that we read.
SPEAKER_00: We read a chapter a day.
SPEAKER_00: Be in God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Start your day in God's Word and make it a conversation with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: So last week, I started talking about being an outlier and talking about being a whole-hearted, all-in, burn the boats disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And what I felt were some of those preliminary steps, we're calling starting points of how to grow.
SPEAKER_00: Because any athlete knows that there's certain starting points for any sport.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that if you're going into business, there's starting points that you have to have in place if you're going to start your own business.
SPEAKER_00: We all know that there's starting points in marriage, they're starting points in learning how to drive.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are the starting points for a disciple?
SPEAKER_00: And last week we talked about this passage where Jesus is just cruising along and he comes across this guy named Levi, who's a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as far as you could possibly be from a wholeheart disciple would be Levi, who is ripping off his people.
SPEAKER_00: He's a money launderer, and yet Jesus initiates and calls him out to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's so many different directions we could take on discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that next to being called to follow Jesus, if indeed you have been called to follow Jesus, to be a disciple, secondly, it's what do you do with what he created you to be?
SPEAKER_00: Now let's go back to Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: I did this last week.
SPEAKER_00: You are created in the image and likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And I think through the years we've been slammed a lot with being sinners, but there's an aspect before we were sinners of being in the image and likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: So who is God?
SPEAKER_00: Because who God is gives us a reflection of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we know about God is he worked really hard in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: He created the heavens and the earth in the first six days of his existence in the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: We know his existence, we don't know when he began.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Alpha and the Omega.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Scriptures, it starts with God hovering over the waters and creating.
SPEAKER_00: We are created in the image and likeness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when Adam was created, male and female created Adam and Eve, he gave Adam work to do.
SPEAKER_00: He gave him a garden, he told him to work.
SPEAKER_00: This is all before sin.
SPEAKER_00: So this is in the sinless state of the perfect place of the first disciple, the first wholehearted disciple, Adam.
SPEAKER_00: He was to work the garden.
SPEAKER_00: So God has this creating side to us being created in the image and likeness of God that for six days he modeled to us.
SPEAKER_00: So, men and women, you are born again in Christ to be a creator.
SPEAKER_00: To be one who is used powerfully by God through gifts and talents and skills that He's placed in you.
SPEAKER_00: And you've been forgiven of your sin, but now you're set free to new life and a new way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I brought with me a bunch of books that are on my shelf in my office, having to do with earthly wealth.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, how many of you have read books on how to make money or how to invest your money?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone here?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the Warren Buffett way.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the Warren Buffett Way, the billionaire.
SPEAKER_00: Third edition.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, bestseller.
SPEAKER_00: Here is Kevin Fisher.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, excuse me, Ken Fisher beat the crowd, another bestseller.
SPEAKER_00: Here is Ken Blanchard, The Generosity Factor.
SPEAKER_00: Great book.
SPEAKER_00: Here is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, as well as cash flow quadrants.
SPEAKER_00: And then Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, another great book.
SPEAKER_00: All of these books deal with how to utilize your money, how to invest your money, how to capitalize on the market, how to make money.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, God wrote a book, and he actually gave us a chapter on how to have kingdom wealth.
SPEAKER_00: How God might make you the wealthiest, most joyful person you can be through kingdom wealth.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that in positive psychology, which has kind of been a new trend for about the last 15 years, positive psychology is discovering that it's not success that makes you happy.
SPEAKER_00: It's successful people become successful because they're happy.
SPEAKER_00: God wants you to discover your potential in Him.
SPEAKER_00: So turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 25, and Jesus tells a parable.
SPEAKER_00: And the parable is in the context of his second coming.
SPEAKER_00: And he's speaking of the fact that he's going to leave, he's explaining to the disciples he's going to leave, and he's going to be gone for a while, and he's going to come back.
SPEAKER_00: And in the first parable in Matthew 25, he's talking about these virgins waiting for the bridegroom.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about five who kept their lamps with oil and kept them burning, and those that did not.
SPEAKER_00: But in the second parable, he talks about the kingdom of heaven being like a man who had a ranch or a farm who's going to leave, and that he is going to hand over his products to his servants, and then he's going to return.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to want something back.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to want to return on his investment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, God has a 401k.
SPEAKER_00: God is a spiritual 401k based on the stock market of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he has invited us into this journey with him of how he might use you in a mighty and powerful way with the talents and gifts that he's given you.
SPEAKER_00: Sean Cor, in his groundbreaking book, The Happiness Advantage, defines happiness as the joy we feel striving after our potential.
SPEAKER_00: The joy we feel striving after our potential.
SPEAKER_00: So God, I thought about doing a PowerPoint this week on this, but I didn't have time because of different things that were going on.
SPEAKER_00: But bear with me, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Think of this in terms of circles.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way I see it.
SPEAKER_00: That we have from God.
SPEAKER_00: There's kind of two parts to this.
SPEAKER_00: One side is from God, the other is kind of our responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: But the first part, God gives us sovereignly natural talents.
SPEAKER_00: And some get more than others, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's probably our biggest struggle, is who gets what.
SPEAKER_00: But God sovereignly gives natural talent.
SPEAKER_00: God sovereignly gives spiritual gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, God, you're not going to like this part.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of you are like, oh, yeah, I get it, but some of you are like, ah.
SPEAKER_00: And that is this that God also gives you your background and your family of origin.
SPEAKER_00: You had nothing to do with that.
SPEAKER_00: God placed you, good, bad, or ugly, in the family you grew up in.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to use it for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He's got a plan for that background that you have.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's this other part that is our cultivation of what God's given us, and that's your character.
SPEAKER_00: How you begin to develop your character is not something that, yes, yes, it is something that God does, but it's not something you just hand off to God, but there's a cultivation where you resurrender regularly your flesh to the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, John chapter 15 so parallels what we're about to read.
SPEAKER_00: Because in John 15, it's talking about abiding in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what the purpose of that is?
SPEAKER_00: The whole purpose of John 15 is that you would bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That your fruit would remain.
SPEAKER_00: Your fruit would gather forth from who you are.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So there's your character.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, we have responsibility for the vision of our life.
SPEAKER_00: What's your vision?
SPEAKER_00: What's your mission?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you here?
SPEAKER_00: And I believe God can speak to us and He will speak to us through visions, dreams, by when we're going to school, through people we know.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a vision that God has for every one of our lives, and you have to seek God for that.
SPEAKER_00: Character and vision is that part that we cultivate.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, acquired skills.
SPEAKER_00: You develop acquired skills by you going to school or taking a class.
SPEAKER_00: Or you're here right now, you're acquiring skills by the reading, the teaching, and the equipping from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you might be falling asleep right now.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are falling asleep, which is actually an American tradition in the local church, I'm going to do everything possible not only to keep you awake, but to make you feel as unhappy as possible.
SPEAKER_00: So we acquire skills and we're equipped through the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what Jesus says about this idea of stewardship, this idea of what I'm going to call kingdom wealth and how to get it, and then how to develop it in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: So Matthew 25, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants.
SPEAKER_00: Circle that, highlight that, underline that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, let's begin this discovery of how to be an outlier, of how to be a multiplying disciple, of how to be an all-in disciple with this.
SPEAKER_00: That first of all, God called you to be his servant.
SPEAKER_00: Basic.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_00: We are his servants.
SPEAKER_00: And by being called by him, he initiated, and you're here today because God called you to be a servant.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, and I think this is missing often, he gave his goods to us.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us his image.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us his likeness.
SPEAKER_00: And even while you're in your mother's womb, we just sang about that in one of the worship songs, Psalm 139, which we we briefly looked at last week, God was forming you in your mother's womb with talents and gifts you had nothing to do with.
SPEAKER_00: And he gave you that mom, and he gave you that dad, and he gave you Uncle Bob.
SPEAKER_00: Uncle Bob.
SPEAKER_00: The one that you'd you know skirt around and avoid at every family reunion.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's got an Uncle Bob or Aunt Susie.
SPEAKER_00: But he sovereignly put you there for something that he was going to develop, and he gave his goods, and this is important, it's his goods.
SPEAKER_00: It's not yours.
SPEAKER_00: Super important to grasp.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know that I grew up part of my life on a ranch in South Carolina with my grandfather.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in that context, every, we called them hands, every hand that came to work with Granddaddy Joe was given goods that were my granddaddy's goods that they had to work with.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, if they broke something, granddaddy was not very happy.
SPEAKER_00: And he wanted that thing fixed.
SPEAKER_00: And I saw many a man who didn't know a whole lot about a truck or a tractor or a chainsaw learned really quick how to fix it.
SPEAKER_00: And I could see sweat pouring down these guys' faces, and they'd be working out there because they broke something.
SPEAKER_00: And so the owner has the goods, and he gave the goods to his servants.
SPEAKER_00: And to one, he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his own ability.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately he went on a journey.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's interesting, he uses the word talent.
SPEAKER_00: A talent was an ancient unit of weight and value in Greece, Rome, and the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, a talent was a unit of measurement for weighing precious metals, usually gold and silver.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, a talent was a value of money or a coin.
SPEAKER_00: The Hebrew term talent was kikar, meaning a round gold or silver disc or disc-shaped loaf.
SPEAKER_00: In the Greek language, the word comes from talaton, a large monetary measurement equal to 6,000 drachmas, or deneri, the Greek and Roman silver coins.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen, this is important.
SPEAKER_00: Listen up.
SPEAKER_00: The talent was the heaviest or largest biblical unit of measurement for weight, equal, don't miss this, to about 75 pounds or 35 kilograms.
SPEAKER_00: So, here's what many commentators say here.
SPEAKER_00: That if he means that they received 75 pounds, being one talent of gold or silver, that computes to the one who got five as receiving$1.25 million.
SPEAKER_00: And the one with two receiving$500,000, and the one who received one$250,000.
SPEAKER_00: That's a pretty good deal, gang.
SPEAKER_00: That says God's giving and in his illustration of the parable is extravagant.
SPEAKER_00: He's extravagant toward you, even if you just got one.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a oneer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a one er.
SPEAKER_00: I've been around a lot of fivers.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't one of them.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been around a lot of twoers.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't one of them either.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about half as good as them.
SPEAKER_00: Not the point.
SPEAKER_00: The point is God sovereignly gives and he's generous to all.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to look at this verse, and I want you to take own ability.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_00: I teach from the New King James Version.
SPEAKER_00: Mine says, he gave according to his own ability, and I have underlined that in my Bible, and I wrote underneath it potential.
SPEAKER_00: I want to approach the message today from the perspective of potential.
SPEAKER_00: That God has put within you great, extravagant, enormous potential.
SPEAKER_00: Every child, whether they have Down syndrome, they struggle with autism, they're missing a limb, they're blind, they're deaf.
SPEAKER_00: Every child has potential.
SPEAKER_00: Every young man and woman has potential.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are here today and you feel like a loser.
SPEAKER_00: The first half of your life, the first quarter of your life, the first third of your life has been one of destruction.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy, and he has ripped you off.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to tell you that this parable is for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to challenge you today that you have God-given potential.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Father, wants to develop in you.
SPEAKER_00: And it will take work and it will take discipline and it will take courage and it will take effort and you're going to have to keep getting up and you're going to keep getting knocked down.
SPEAKER_00: But when God begins to do a great work in you, we're going to see here what He does.
SPEAKER_00: How many have ever heard of the miracle of compounding interest?
SPEAKER_00: Almost everybody.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle of compounding interest is this idea that if you keep investing money and you let it grow, you don't take it out, but you let it grow, over time it's going to compound through the interest in an exponential way.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want to give you a new term.
SPEAKER_00: My term, I made it up.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't think it's any good, don't write it down.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to call it the miracle of compounding potential.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle of compounding potential.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my thesis.
SPEAKER_00: My thesis is this if you'll keep investing in seeking the kingdom first, if you will love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength daily, you will start to see an exponential, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit that's going to begin to set you free in areas you never thought you could be set free from.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of focusing on where you're in bondage or focusing on how bad it's been or how bitter you are because this or that happened to you, or where you were born, or who your parents were, or that you didn't go to college, or that you don't have all these things that everybody else has.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of that, you start pouring into the kingdom, and I'm going to explain in a minute how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be compounding, miraculous potential that God's going to exponentiate in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And it won't happen overnight.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to wake up one morning, you're a different person, and you're not going to look at your bank account, you're Warren Buffett.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm talking about is that you can be a Warren Buffett spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: That God can begin to use you in ways a year from now that were completely impossible right now.
SPEAKER_00: You know how?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're going to look at.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what this whole series is about about being an outlier and about being a multiplying all-in disciple is that God does it, but you cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You cooperate and you partner.
SPEAKER_00: You don't do it, but you partner with the one who does do it, and there has to be a partnership.
SPEAKER_00: So potential.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: Then he would receive the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.
SPEAKER_00: But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the version of Jesus that I grew up with in my background was that he kind of looked like a surfer boy.
SPEAKER_00: And he had really kind of brownish blonde hair, kind of pulled back, and he nice tan, looked real American.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't look Jewish at all.
SPEAKER_00: And he was just full of love.
SPEAKER_00: And I seems like I recall, I could be embellishing it here, but it seems like I recall him in a white robe somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: He's got his arms and he's got that, you know, Southern California, San Diego-born look, you know, right there.
SPEAKER_00: And then underneath it say, God is love.
SPEAKER_00: And he is love.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's cool.
SPEAKER_00: I think God's love, right?
SPEAKER_00: Scriptures say God is love.
SPEAKER_00: So nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: So if I read this story and I'm thinking about this owner, and the owner is Jesus, and he's gonna come back, who's he gonna have compassion for?
SPEAKER_00: The poor guy only got one.
SPEAKER_00: The guy only got one.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna have so much love and compassion for him because he he had an inferiority complex.
SPEAKER_00: He he had been he had just gone through a really rough childhood, and it was difficult for him.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're gonna see in a moment how Jesus handles this guy.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not surfer boy Jesus, it's a different kind of Jesus that comes out.
SPEAKER_00: So one got five, he doubles it.
SPEAKER_00: One gets two, he doubles it, and the guy who gets one goes and hides his Lord's money.
SPEAKER_00: Again, let me give you my thesis today.
SPEAKER_00: True happiness is found in the feeling of joy in striving after your full potential.
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think of the three was the happiest?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think was full of joy?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's something to be said, men and women, we're all in.
SPEAKER_00: And so few people are all in that you can be a success at almost anything you set your mind to if you're just all in because nobody is.
SPEAKER_00: Because all your you're it's it's it's not fair.
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of not fair that what's gonna happen as the years go by with roadsters, with road people, is that you guys are gonna be making such an impact on society and culture and your job and in your marriage and things like that, that's gonna seem exponentially bigger than everybody else because everybody else is just half in.
SPEAKER_00: When you're all in, you already have a step ahead of the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: So he says one had five.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to use some, since Jesus is using financial terms, I want to use financial terms.
SPEAKER_00: And there's three financial terms I'm gonna share.
SPEAKER_00: One is liabilities.
SPEAKER_00: A liability is something that is taking money out of your pocket, causing you to lose ground.
SPEAKER_00: Asset, secondly, asset, something or some investment that is putting money in your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: And then thirdly, cash flow.
SPEAKER_00: Cash flow is how much money you have immediate access to, right?
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about kingdom liabilities.
SPEAKER_00: Because what a kingdom liability is, is that something in our life that is actually stealing away your potential.
SPEAKER_00: You've been given God-given gifts, you've been given spiritual gifts, you've been given natural talents, you have chosen to develop acquired skills, you have those things, but these are those things that come to rob and take away the potential that you naturally as well as supernaturally already had.
SPEAKER_00: So, what are kingdom liabilities?
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you three.
SPEAKER_00: Give you three kingdom liabilities.
SPEAKER_00: And they all start with a B, because I'm a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Three B's steal your kingdom assets.
SPEAKER_00: Number one is bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: There's probably nothing in our lives that so destroys joy, vision, happiness, peace, then bitterness and unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Are you carrying today bitterness and unforgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have been ripped off.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not been ripped off yet, it's a coming.
SPEAKER_00: Because life is hard, life is difficult, and there's always people that are gonna rip you off, and you will experience that.
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do with it though?
SPEAKER_00: All of us have people in our lives that have really hurt us.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what are we gonna do with bitterness?
SPEAKER_00: And that's a whole nother message, but in a nutshell, Jesus can set us free from bitterness by us surrendering that to him.
SPEAKER_00: Some cases, there's all kinds of different ways that I've heard counselors use.
SPEAKER_00: Some have you write down that person's name, you write them a letter, and then you burn it.
SPEAKER_00: Just to be set free from that bitterness and that unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: But men and women, listen to me and listen closely.
SPEAKER_00: If you're struggling with bitterness today, and you can't get set free from someone in the area of forgiveness, get help.
SPEAKER_00: Get some blood-stained allies around you and start dealing with that.
SPEAKER_00: So bitterness is a liability.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness steals your assets.
SPEAKER_00: Number two.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, backstabbing.
SPEAKER_00: Backstabbing or gossip.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a gossiper, if you regularly defame others in conversations that you have, if you say stuff about others, you are stealing your assets.
SPEAKER_00: You're just letting the enemy come in and just rip you off.
SPEAKER_00: He's just stealing your assets.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a liability, folks.
SPEAKER_00: If you're one who regularly likes gossip, you like kind of the news of the day on someone or a company or a church or something like that, just think of it.
SPEAKER_00: This is a liability, I'm getting ripped off.
SPEAKER_00: I'm stealing from myself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm stealing the assets of the potential that God's put within me because I'm backstabbing others or I'm backstabbing an organization.
SPEAKER_00: And we all struggle with that.
SPEAKER_00: But stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to build assets in your potential, you've got to stop backstabbing.
SPEAKER_00: Number three.
SPEAKER_00: So first, bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: Second, backstabbing.
SPEAKER_00: Three, and this is this all, these all play together, and that's betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: Betrayal, betraying others, betraying a friend, turning your back on someone who trusted you and you put your trust in them.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we don't go separate ways sometimes when there's issues in business or there's issues relationally.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of life too.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm talking about betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you know something about someone, you use it against them to take them down.
SPEAKER_00: Betrayal is a liability.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've betrayed others, you need to give God that.
SPEAKER_00: You need to ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: If you're walking in bitterness, you've got to give that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a backstabber, you've got to stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got to ask the Holy Spirit to give you power to stop doing that.
SPEAKER_00: And instead, you've got to come positively with assets.
SPEAKER_00: So what are kingdom assets?
SPEAKER_00: Well, kingdom assets are what build up our potential.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts, I believe, with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's beginning each day in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not building yourself up with God's word, you will never reach your full potential.
SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
SPEAKER_00: Your heart will be will be shallow compared to the fullness that it could possibly have.
SPEAKER_00: We get fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: What does it say by being in the presence of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: In the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_00: And worship encompasses God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And we call it PBJ, Prayer, Bible, and Journal.
SPEAKER_00: And we have that bookmark that we read, and we read a chapter a day.
SPEAKER_00: Be in God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Start your day in God's word and make it a conversation with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, speak to me right now.
SPEAKER_00: Example being like verse 14 we just read.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, I ask you that I could be a servant today.
SPEAKER_00: God, you've delivered your goods to me.
SPEAKER_00: Use me mightily.
SPEAKER_00: Use me powerfully today.
SPEAKER_00: That's making the scriptures not just study, but an intimate dialogue with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is an asset.
SPEAKER_00: As we begin to pray, God's gonna answer your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna start answering your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Have you prayed about your job?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that 85% of Americans don't like their job?
SPEAKER_00: 85% of Americans don't like their job.
SPEAKER_00: And 2014 was the all-time lowest job satisfaction in the history of our country taking surveys on job satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: Americans are not enjoying their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we are the most prosperous, we are the most fruitful, we are the most comfortable people that the world has ever known, and 85% don't like their jobs.
SPEAKER_00: What in the world is going on?
SPEAKER_00: I believe that what God's saying to us is if you will begin to pray and seek my face, I'll open doors that no man can shut.
SPEAKER_00: I will do stuff that you can't naturally do.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the reason why most people don't like their jobs is they feel like that there's a limit to how far they can go.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_00: That they they feel like there's a limit to how far they can go.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the problem here's our struggle, gang.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Daniel, my son, shared this with me when we were having coffee this week.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was genius.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, every dad thinks his son is genius, but he is genius.
SPEAKER_00: But he was saying, Dad, most people have an employee mentality instead of an entrepreneurial mentality.
SPEAKER_00: Bingo.
SPEAKER_00: I like that.
SPEAKER_00: You see, many women, we sometimes think that somehow we need this company to provide for us versus you're free.
SPEAKER_00: You're free to think for yourself, you're free to dream for yourself, you're free to do something different if God's given you the potential to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got to pray and ask God for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So God's word, encouragement, encouraging others.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you four practical ways.
SPEAKER_00: Four practical ways, laws of the kingdom of how we build spiritual equity, how we build up our assets.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I believe.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, love people through your words.
SPEAKER_00: Love people through your words.
SPEAKER_00: Telling them you believe in them.
SPEAKER_00: There's something of an asset that grows in you as you give away encouragement, and that's what the word literally means, encourage, as you put courage into others.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, love people through focused attention.
SPEAKER_00: Love people through focused attention, eye-to-eye contact, focusing and loving them.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, love people through listening, listening to their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, love people through service, through serving them.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's in.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I had a drachma.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, wish I had a drachma.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I had a coin up here.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, gang, every time we tithe, every time we give to the kingdom financially, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: You get a talent back.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you go downstairs and you work in children's ministry and you're working with those kids and you're loving on the kids and nobody notices except that little circle of kids that are around you, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you go on a mission trip, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you sit down with your child who's struggling and you listen, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you and your wife or your spouse, you guys are having a fight and you decide to forgive, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: Every time we're in here in worship and we worship the Lord as best we can, and we're still thinking about what a lousy thing that happened Friday at work, but we did our best to try to worship, you get a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: We start to take classes at Outlet University, and we're starting to learn and grow mentally and emotionally and spiritually as we grow with these classes and stuff, you're getting a coin back.
SPEAKER_00: Because look what he says next.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: After a long time, the Lord of those servants he came and he settled accounts with them.
SPEAKER_00: So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I have gained five more talents besides them.
SPEAKER_00: Now look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
SPEAKER_00: This is the formula right here.
SPEAKER_00: His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: You are faithful over a few things.
SPEAKER_00: I will now make you ruler over many things.
SPEAKER_00: Enter into the joy of your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a lot here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, oh man, there's so much here.
SPEAKER_00: Ah that's like maybe I'll just stop and we'll go go at it next week.
SPEAKER_00: I might do that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I love about this: it's not what you think, it's not the faithfulness part.
SPEAKER_00: It's that we get to enter into the joy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know God is most joyful with your life when you're the most joyful with his life?
SPEAKER_00: God is most joyful with your life when you're the most satisfied with his life in you.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_00: So and we're in worship and prayer, and we're and we're having integrity at work, and we are, and we're giving and we're loving and we're caring, and nobody notices, and usually they won't.
SPEAKER_00: But God does.
SPEAKER_00: God notices.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees you in the secret places for work that he wants to do in your heart.
unknown: Man.
SPEAKER_00: He also had received two talents, came and said, Look, Lord, you delivered me two talents.
SPEAKER_00: Look, I've gained two more also, besides them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_00: You have been faithful over a few things.
SPEAKER_00: I'll make you ruler over many things.
SPEAKER_00: Enter into the joy of your Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the reward's the same.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, the reward's the same.
SPEAKER_00: Not the amount, but the reward's the same.
SPEAKER_00: I like to say pay's the same.
SPEAKER_00: The pay's the same.
SPEAKER_00: Be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Pay's the same.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man.
SPEAKER_00: Now here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, compassionate Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's a chance for him to be really compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I know you to be a hard man.
SPEAKER_00: Reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed.
SPEAKER_00: The word for hard is scarlos in Greek.
SPEAKER_00: Scarlos.
SPEAKER_00: Guess where we get that, guess what that's a root word of?
SPEAKER_00: It's the root word for sclerosis.
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard of sclerosis of the liver?
SPEAKER_00: It means to harden.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what he said is, I knew you to be a hard man.
SPEAKER_00: You're hard.
SPEAKER_00: You see, what had happened with this servant is he was actually the one that was hard.
SPEAKER_00: He had a hardened heart, and he looked, and his excuse was, Oh, I know you to be a man who reaps where you have not sown and sows where you have not reaped.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I've heard this taught.
SPEAKER_00: And this was kind of a psychological perception.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, his view of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: And I was afraid, I was full of fear, and I went and I hid your talent in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Look, there you have what is yours.
SPEAKER_00: But his Lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gathered where I have not scattered seed.
SPEAKER_00: So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
SPEAKER_00: This is not very compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, You're lazy.
SPEAKER_00: You're lazy.
SPEAKER_00: I gave you my talents, I gave you skills, I gave you spiritual gifts, I gave you natural giftings, and you didn't do anything with it.
SPEAKER_00: You're lazy.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give me this excuse that you had a fear of me.
SPEAKER_00: I have no room for that.
SPEAKER_00: You're just lazy.
SPEAKER_00: And then he really gets mean.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 28, therefore take the talent from him.
SPEAKER_00: So take everything that he's been given and give it to him who has ten talents.
SPEAKER_00: Golly.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that word abundance means superabound.
SPEAKER_00: It means to have excess, surpass what you even need.
SPEAKER_00: It's beyond your needs.
SPEAKER_00: And from him who does not have, even what he has, will be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: Write this down.
SPEAKER_00: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
SPEAKER_00: The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer in God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle of compounding potential.
SPEAKER_00: Kingdom assets.
SPEAKER_00: Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our admonition today is that every one of you are gifted.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us here are gifted kids.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants you to pour out your spirit, pour out your heart, pour out your mind and your soul to Christ so that he can exponentialize what he's got for you.
SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_01: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.