- Talents are an interestingly vast topic. What is talent? How do you get it? Does everyone have one? In this series, we will discuss all of these areas and get you started in using your very own God-designed talents the way He purposely made you.
- Matt 25:14-20 – Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a] each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag 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 five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have 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 with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two 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!’ “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.
- I feel like this ending is surprisingly intense. I originally wanted to leave it out. While I really want to encourage you and make you feel good about the talents that you’ve been given, it was important to leave this ending in.
- It was important to Jesus to end the story this way, so taking it out would be cutting Him off.
- It proves how serious Jesus takes talents. God entrusted specific ones to you and He expects you to do something with them. This is a warning that there are consequences if you don’t use them.
- What was a talent worth at this time anyway?
- At this time, the currency wasn’t based on what was printed, it was based on weight.
- The currency word that I am most familiar with is “shekel.” A shekel weighed 17 grams, approximately 2 grapes.
- A talent weighs as much as 3,600 shekels or about 75 pounds.
- The modern equivalent worth of a talent differs depending on who you talk to, but many scholars say it should equal about 20 years of a typical day laborer’s salary; $400,000 each.
- Bottom line, when God gives us talents, He is putting us in charge of something incredibly valuable
- How do we define “talent” today?
- The dictionary has multiple definitions, but the one I’m using for this is “A power of mind or body considered as given to a person for use and improvement.”
- Some are evident: it’s easy to spot the smart kid, hear the good voice, read a great story, or eat a delicious meal.
- Others are more internal but no less valuable: the ability to feel and understand other people’s emotions, to encourage people to become their best, to be able to communicate points well or to have self-discipline.
- Whether or not you could audition for America’s Got Talent, you have something to offer, and it’s incredibly valuable to the person who gave it to you.
- What happens when we don’t use our talents?
- Ultimately, the servant who buried his talent and did nothing with it was cast out of the land.
- God takes talent very seriously. When He gives us something to take care of, He is not asking us to neglect it and pretend it’s not there in fear of losing it altogether.
- When fear is the excuse to not use our talents, we are telling God that either we think He made a mistake, or that we don’t trust His gift (and therefore don’t trust Him!)
- Fear is a terrible motivator, it is a lie from Satan set out to keep us from making a difference. In my life, there are two main fears that affect the use of my talents:
- Fear of failure: I’m often afraid of making a misstep, losing my progress, and being unable to get back to where I was.
- I’ve learned that in these situations, God proves that He is able to use me way better when I’m weak than when I’m “perfectly nailing it.”
- Fear of not being good enough: Not that I make a mistake, but that I was never up to par in the first place. A fear that I will put in a lot of work and expectations to find that I don’t qualify or am unworthy.
- We cannot make our standard of worthiness be the first place or highest level. First of all, it’s just not possible. Secondly, if only the absolute best at something did it, then we wouldn’t have a lot of great teachers, musicians, actors, chefs, etc.
- This both sum up to one thing: fear of rejection. Who am I afraid of being rejected by?
- People. Unfortunately, I can’t promise that you are not going to be rejected by people. Jesus actually promises that we will have trouble. But He also promises even bigger things than acceptance by people:
- John 16:33- I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
- Matthew 19:29- And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.
- Those are some pretty big promises!
- God. This is one person I can absolutely promise will not reject you if you use your talents. He gave them to you in the first place! The only way to get your talents rejected by God is to do nothing with them, as seen in the parable.
- People. Unfortunately, I can’t promise that you are not going to be rejected by people. Jesus actually promises that we will have trouble. But He also promises even bigger things than acceptance by people:
- Fear of failure: I’m often afraid of making a misstep, losing my progress, and being unable to get back to where I was.
- Ultimately, the servant who buried his talent and did nothing with it was cast out of the land.
- How do we find out what our talents are? Everyone is different, but here are some places to start:
- Try new things! See what you enjoy or don’t.
- Ask your friends and family what they see, you may be surprised.
- Take a personality test like Meyers Briggs or Enneagram.
- Look at our last episode and see how my friend Jenn helps people find their strengths.
- How should we use our talents?
- Proverbs 21:5- The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.
- Jesus chose money in this parable for a reason. Our talents are like currency, we’re meant to cultivate them, use them, give them purpose. We are not meant to hide them away.
- Some ways to invest in talents are lessons, practice, sacrifice time, research, study.
- Do not compare! Comparison only discourages.
- Natural talent is easy to spot: the most graceful dancer, the baseball player who inherently knows how to hit a ball, etc. But natural talent does not mean that you should not invest more in them.
- People who do not have as much natural talent as others can easily become as good as, if not better, than those with natural talent when they invest well (listen to the episode for a true-life story).
- We need to manage them well.
- Ecclesiastes 9:10- Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
- Colossians 3:23-24- Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
- Our talents belong to God, not us.
- Matthew 5:14-16- You are the light of the world. A town, built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (emphasis mine)
- Galatians 5:13-14- You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- 1 Peter 4:10-11- Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
- We are not meant to have the same talents.
- In this extremely public and social media-driven world, it is easy to look at others’ talents and accomplishments and wish we had theirs.
- God made you with your talents for a reason!
- Life would be extremely boring and incredibly competitive if we were all designed exactly the same way.
- In the New Testament, Paul calls us to be a team, working together as one body.
- Romans 12:3-8- For by the grace given me I say to every one of you; Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
- Whether or not our talent is “glamorous,” its purpose is to glorify God, not ourselves.
- I have a lot of tools in my kitchen that I use. Arguably the least glamorous one that I have is my Dobie Pad (or kitchen sponge).
- If I didn’t have tools like this that do that dirtier jobs, I would never be able to clean, restore, and reuse my other tools like mixers, whisks, spoons, etc. Sounds kind of like some talents I know, like servanthood and encourager.
- No matter what our talent is, God designed it for a specific use.
- Ephesians 2:10- For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- 1 Corinthians 12:12-25- Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
- Some day in the (very) distant future, someone may come into my house and say “Wow! What a clean kitchen!” They will not think that it is so clean because I have an amazing Dobie pad, they will know that the work was done by me, the welder of the tool. Our talents need to work that way: show God’s greatness through what He did with us and not taking all of the credit ourselves.
- I have a lot of tools in my kitchen that I use. Arguably the least glamorous one that I have is my Dobie Pad (or kitchen sponge).
- We have a very, very rich God!
- When he talks to the servant with five talents (roughly $2,000,000) he calls it little!
- We serve a God who has endless resources and loves us so much, enough to entrust us with them. When we look at it that way, it makes it so much easier to trust his judgment and use those talents that He gave us.
- Matthew 25:21- 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.”
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