Ep. 341 Why is self-sufficiency not always a good thing? Part 3 of 3 Richard Spann (Re-release)

Richard Spann is the former Ministry Director of the Kansas Communities Ministry and is a retired pulmonary physician. He shares thoughts about the importance of investing in eternal things, the souls of men and women, in this talk from January 2018.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 3:32

So another area that I want to touch on is that the whole area of investment of living our lives and dependence upon the Lord. But I think this is critical because the one thing that Adam and Eve did was to declare their independence. They said, we're going to do our own thinking. We can make our own judgment. We have a knowledge of good and evil now. We can figure this whole thing out. And so our race, the race of Adam, is cursed with independence. As we grow up, we're even taught to be independent, to do our own thinking, do our own way. And we have to come back to a point where everything is filtered through the Lord. We need to have his purpose, his power, and his process. And I want to think about that with you for a moment. His purpose means his will, not our will. If we want to make a difference for eternity, we have to be involved in what he wants us to do, not what we want to do. See, for the for the Lord uh was fully committed to his father's will. It was not that he was simply resigned to God's will. He he was not merely submissive to God's will. It's not like he accepted God's will, but it says in Psalm 40 verse 8, I delight to do your will. So Christ delighted to do the Father's will. Now, where did he get that? Well, he he loved the Father supremely because he knew the Father completely. So it's that deep knowledge of our Father that leads to love and leads to a commitment to his will. And that is what the Lord wants to develop in each of us as we follow him and as we become involved with things that last for eternity. We can look in John 6.38 and see where the Lord declared this. It says, For I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And then in John 8.29, the one who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him. And this purpose of commitment to fully God's will is demonstrated in the temptation in the wilderness. Where in Matthew 4 7 it says, Jesus answered to him, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. I've got that written wrong. It says, I should have had Matthew 4.4 there. Man uh does not depend on bread alone, but on the uh every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So I've got the wrong reference there in Matthew, but it's the reply to the temptation to turn the stones into bread. Then I have the wrong the wrong verse there. So he was tempted to depart from the from the will of God to meet a very basic need. And I think we are tempted in that always. Will we do things our way or will we do it God's way? And that is very critical to doing his will. The second thing is his power. Um and not his power is dependent really upon the Lord. And to depend on his power, we need to have complete confidence in God always. Christ succeeded in the first temptation, uh, the weakness of when he was weak when he was going to turn it ask to turn it into bread, but he succeeded in the second temptation because his confidence in God was so strong that it did not need to be demonstrated. Likewise, as we invest in our lives in discipleship, our confidence needs to be fully, fully in God. Um and this is what he said, the verses I've written again, it is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Not only do we need to depend upon him for uh his will, for his strength, but we need his process. We are always tempted to take a shortcut in what we do, and here Christ was tempted to take a shortcut by falling down for a moment and giving homage to the evil one. When Satan failed in his attempt to destroy the perfect man, he then tried to destroy him as the perfect servant. But again, the Lord's answer to him was, Away from me, Satan. It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. So what do we what can we take from this? Well, Christ is our life. He has already succeeded. He left that temptation in the power of the Spirit. In the power of the Spirit, His life, his perfect humanity, his deity is given to us. And as we live in perfect trust in Him, moment by moment, day by day, we then are able to live in complete, full, and total dependence upon Him. And to the measure that we do that is a measure that we have impact. Prayer in His name, I think, illustrates this. I remember Ray Steadman saying, you know, I asked him one day, what does it mean to pray in God's name? He said, It means three things. It means what he wants, it means dependent on him to do it, and it means dependent on his process. And those are three things we've looked at. God's will, dependence on him to do it, and dependence on his process. And that process often involves something sacrificial in our lives. Then we see the same thought in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, do not put out the spirit's fire. How do we put out the spirit's fire? By doing our own thing, dependent upon ourselves, dependent on our own process. It's all the same thing. We put out the spirit's fire by doing that. And finally, let's look at the fact, and I think this helps me too as I look at investing for eternity. Look at the fact that there will be discrimination made among his servants. And let's look here at the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20, 1 through 16. It says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. He agreed them to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace and doing nothing. He told them, You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour, the ninth hour, and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one is hardest, they answered. He said to them, You also go and work in my vineyard. When evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. These men who were hired last worked only at one hour, they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, Friend, I'm not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for Daenerys? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first, and you the first will be last. Now, when we look at that, we each one of us thinks, well, maybe that wasn't fair after all, because we have a sense of fairness. But I think what he is saying is the same thing in all of these three parables and teachings, that his reward is given to faithfulness to opportunity provided. Some did not have the opportunity, but they were faithful to the opportunity provided. God gives different opportunities, uh, different um amounts of ability to each one, but they're faithful to the ability, faithful to the opportunity that God gives us, they will receive the same award. There are many here in this world who uh do not have much opportunity. They have a few children, maybe an isolated part of the uh city or the world, but their faithfulness to raise those children, their faithfulness to impact the lives that they are around, will be remembered and will be rewarded, the same as those who have had a more widespread ministry. Uh, the interesting thing about this, as I look at it, is that this problem could be avoided by simply paying those who were at work all day first, and they would have left and been on their way. Why didn't that happen? I don't know the answer to that. But I do wonder if those that uh did bear the burden of the day didn't have an opportunity to learn something about the landowner, that uh he is generous, to know him in a deeper way. And um one of the things that uh is impacted me about this teaching is that eternal life really is knowledge of Christ and of God. So the opportunity in our lives to really know Christ deeply and to know God more deeply, there was given an opportunity to know that to these who were hired earlier. They did not really approach it that way, however, and thought they'd been been cheated. But I've always wondered if there isn't some other teaching aspect to that story.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

It's interesting that those first ones, I I always thought they negotiated with it, they agreed rather than just letting the landowner okay, we'll just trust you.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Right, they all agreed, they all made that mark. We're gonna make a few with it where the others just trusted his grace. Uh-huh. Yeah, I think I think that's a good point. And then the parable of the talents is a second teaching the Lord gives on this subject of eternal reward, discipleship. Matthew 25, 14 through 23. Again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To when he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. Mastery said, You entrusted me with five talents. See, I've gained five more. His master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. The man of the two talents also came. Mastery said to you, entrusted me with two talents. See, I've gained two more. The master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful to a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. And that included the guy that buried his one, because I think what we want to see is how the Lord treated the one with five and the one with two. And if you look at that, you'll see the commendation was the same. The master said in both times, see, I've gained five more. His master replied, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. And he said the identical thing to the one who gained two. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful to a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. Again, faithfulness to opportunity provided. The opportunities are different with all of us. God will treat us fairly.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

But the older son was jealous of the younger son who was given a great feast. And that's kind of what's going on here. The ones who've been working all day long were jealous of the ones who didn't come in until the eleven hour. The reward is life with Christ. Uh-huh. A more eternalized. Right. And had the great feast. And although that didn't happen with this, you know, they still, the ones that came in at the 11th hour, received the same thing with the ones that came in at the very beginning, didn't they?

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Well, the Lord gives us that teaching, and then and then two more, and putting them together, we can we can kind of get a appraisal of that. And the last one, we'll just cover that briefly as well, the parable of the minas. Uh, while they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem. The people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said a man of noble birth noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, We don't want this man to be our king. He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, Sir, your minor has earned ten more. Well done, my good servant, his master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very small manner, take charge of ten cities. The second came and said, Sir, your minor has gained five more. His master answered, You take charge of five cities. Now I think the thing that we need to note here is that the commendation was not the same. The supply was the same. They had a minor, they had a similar opportunity, they were given the same uh ability, opportunity. The one had had ten, one had five. The Lord said, Well done, good and faithful servant, to the one. The other, he recognized the work that would uh was done, what was accomplished, but it was not of the same degree that he could possibly have done. And so the Lord differentiated there between the servants. So I think the the lesson that I see from here is that uh looking at my life, God has given me opportunities. And God has given me uh individuals, God has given me talents, abilities, finances, uh time daily to make an impact for things that last for eternity. And when I stand before him, he's going to want to know uh what was accomplished. What did you do based on what I've given you? I've given you my son, the Holy Spirit, made him live in you to accomplish all this. If you live in dependence on him, uh this is this is what I would like to see. So I need to say, well, Lord, uh this this is this is what's developed. And so uh there will be that time when I stand before him when uh when he will be interested in that. And he really wants to reward us, he's desirous of rewarding us. And I think as we looked at that uh verse before, uh, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so that when it is done you'll be wealthy and into eternal wealth. And then Matthew 6, store up treasure for yourself in heaven. As we have our children and we want them to have an occupation which will take care of their family and all of their needs, we want them to live abundantly and not be in want or need. So I think the Lord wants that for us for eternity. He wants us to enjoy the fruit of our lives here. Uh and he is a gracious God who gives us an opportunity to invest that. 2 Corinthians 5.10, and this is the last item, discipleship rewarded. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. But we have that opportunity each day to live. I once heard a speaker who started off his talk by saying, each one of us lives in Philippians 1.21. Philippians 2.21. Philippians 1.21 says, for me to live as Christ, to die is gain. That's Philippians 1.21. For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Or the alternative is to live our lives in Philippians 2.21. Everyone looks out for his known interests, not those of Jesus Christ. So as I think about that uh comment of his, periodically that will come to mind, and I think, am I uh living a life of Jesus Christ, or am I looking out for my own interests today or this week or this year? So I think the Lord has said to me the choice is mine. What I choose. But that's a great question.