We started a new series called “Beyond Scarcity” at Gateway Church in Austin.
God gave us gifts to live out our calling and for the good of others, not to be buried or wasted.
How am I using my God-given talents to serve others and glorify Him (point out God’s goodness to others)?
Discussion Questions:
Message Video from Gateway North Austin:
Message Audio from Gateway North Austin:
Message Notes:
So, we are in a series called Beyond Scarcity. We often believe we don’t have enough—money, time, or talent—but God invites us to live from His abundance. With Jesus at the center of our lives, we can experience freedom and joy when we open our hands to what God has for us.
This series is not about having an abundance mindset by viewing the world or the universe as good. Our experience has proven the opposite to be true.
Many of us have a scarcity mindset because we have been wronged.
We have experienced not having enough.
We live in a broken world where injustice is baked into the system where people are greedy and where people refuse to share.
We are actually being invited by God to see Him as good and as our Provider.
When we surrender our lives to follow Jesus, we become His children. And our heavenly Father provides for us what we need (maybe not what we want), but we can trust Him with our time, our talent, and our treasure. It is because of His goodness that we can have an abundance mindset.
If we’re honest, we’ve all had moments with a scarcity mindset where we believe, “There’s not enough.”
Not enough time to rest, not enough talent to make a difference, not enough money to give.
We live in a world that constantly reinforces that fear.
We are bombarded by ads all day long telling us we need this or we need that, and the end result is we feel like we don’t have enough! Do you know in the 1970s the average American saw or heard 500 ads per day – that includes billboards, radio, and tv ads. Today, the average American sees or hears 4000 to 10000! That variation is dependent on how much time you spend online each day.
It’s no wonder we feel like we need more and that we don’t have enough!
I don’t know about you, but I have decided to live a life beyond the algorithm!
I have decided I don’t want AI to tell me who to like and who to hate and what to buy and how to spend my time!
As we continue our series “Beyond Scarcity” we are looking at how to maximize three commodities that we seem to be lacking – our finances, our time, and our talent.
God’s Economy is Different!
In God’s economy, time, money, and talent are not the same as the way we see them.
Last week, we looked at how to recalibrate time in light of how Jesus lived and how He guides us to live. Rather than wasting our time we can experience more of His Kingdom right now!
That means we can experience more of God’s peace, joy, love, goodness, and presence AND bring more of the Kingdom of God to where we live, work, and play.
So last week, here at Gateway North Austin, Carlos asked Justin McCarty to share some insights from the Scriptures on what to do when we don’t have enough time.
Today, Carlos asked me to share what to do when we don’t have enough talent.
I don’t know if I should be hurt by that or honored?
God-Given Talent
Over the years, I have wrestled with talent and capacity. Perhaps we all do.
When I was 19 at Baylor, I met Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God. My friends told me meeting him felt like talking to an angel, so I came prepared with a deep question:
“I want to make a difference in the world—what advice would you give me?”
He smiled and said, “If you’re faithful in the little things, God will give you more.”
I rushed back to tell my roommate Craig, thrilled at what I thought was a personal prophecy—until he laughed and said, “That’s not a prophecy! Jesus said that!”
Embarrassed but convicted, I realized I’d been half-hearted in my $70-a-week youth pastor job, where my group had shrunk to one teenager. I started taking that one student seriously—preparing, praying, and investing fully. The group grew, and months later, I was invited to help start a youth ministry in Seattle.
Henry Blackaby’s words proved true: when we’re faithful with little, God entrusts us with more.
So let’s dive into the parable Henry Blackaby was quoting to see what we might discover about maximizing our talent.
For some context. Jesus is sharing about the Kingdom of Heaven also known as the Kingdom of God. He is not talking about where we go when we die. He is proclaiming the beginning of a new invisible Kingdom that is already here bringing light into our dark world, and one day when Jesus’ returns there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the Kingdom of God will be fully realized!
In Matthew 24, Jesus begins sharing about His return which has still not yet happened.
He tells 3 parables to help us understand how we should live while waiting for Him to come back and make all things right.
Let’s read the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25.
14 “Again, [the Kingdom of Heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, 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. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 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.’
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!’
22 “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.’
23 “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!’
24 “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. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “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? 27 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.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 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. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ – Matthew 25:14-30
Understanding Context
So do you all prefer the good news or the bad news first?
Let’s go with the bad news first. Otherwise, you may not hear the rest of this.
In this story, there is a master who throws his wicked servant into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Now, it is important to know that the Bible does not condone slavery as some skeptics may try to convince you.
When Jesus tells a story of a master and his wicked servant, he is not advocating for slavery. He is telling a story that everyone in his day would understand as 80% of the Roman world was enslaved. Now this was not race based chattel slavery like we had in the USA and during colonial times. That was a whole other level of evil. The slavery of the Roman Empire was how you paid off a debt, found a place to live, a way to find a job, a means towards providing for your family, or how you survived losing a war.
The other bad news is that we see that not using the talents you have is not considered just lazy or sad, but it is considered a type of wickedness.
The half brother of Jesus named James explains it this way:
“Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is guilty of sin” – James 4:17
We often think of sin or wickedness as the evil choices that we make intentionally going against what is good and what is best. Our wicked or evil choices are destructive to others and to ourselves.
Certainly, we have chosen to go our own way and against God’s way.
But we discover it is also wicked when we have the capacity to bring good or help to others and refuse to do so. That is quite convicting!
Let me come back to this idea of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in a moment, but first, it’s important to understand what Jesus is saying and just as important to understand what Jesus is not saying.
If you grew up going to church or you were shaped by cultural Christianity or any sort of religion where you were taught to be good to go to heaven, you might completely miss the point Jesus was trying to make.
Jesus was speaking to a religious group of people whose worldview was shaped by earning approval through performance.
You might hear this parable and misunderstood thinking that this is a lesson about working hard to earn God’s acceptance or a place in heaven. In that mindset, the “good and faithful servants” are seen as those who “did enough” for God, while the one who failed to produce results is condemned for laziness or moral failure.
However, Jesus was speaking to a culture deeply steeped in religious merit (Pharisaic Judaism) and to people who often measured worth by obedience and visible success. His story would have challenged that thinking—showing that the issue wasn’t the amount of work but having a heart to trust the master.
The faithful servants acted out of confidence in the master’s character and generosity, while the fearful servant acted out of mistrust. The wicked servant viewed the master with suspicion and even assumed he lacked character.
So rather than teaching salvation by works, the parable exposes the difference between a faith that trusts and risks because it knows the master’s goodness versus a religiosity that hides, fears, and ultimately produces nothing.
Now in these parables, it’s important to know that God’s character is not the same as the master in the story. This is super important!!
In another teaching, Jesus said: “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:9-11
In this parable, Jesus is saying, if your master is evil and even he is willing to reward you, how much more will your Father in heaven reward you for your faithfulness to Him!
Now for the good news from this passage.
I want to walk us through 5 spiritual principles we can apply to our lives from this parable.
God has given you talent.
Now this word “talent” was just a unit of measurement.
That’s why some translations use the phrase “1 bag of gold” to describe the 1 talent.
This parable is so well known that eventually the word “talent” has come to be known as your capacity or even skills.
And this is a beautiful thought!
You see, you were created on purpose and with a purpose.
There are good works that God has prepared in advance for you to do, and He has given you the capacity to pull them off!
Let me ask you, have you ever been encouraged by someone that you are really good at something?
That may be your God-given talent.
And here’s what is amazing, if you have a talent that you are willing to work on improving, you could become an expert in that skill.
Notice, none of the servants received 0 talents. They all got at least 1!
Do not believe the lie, that you don’t have any talent.
Now, it’s also important not to believe the lie that you can do anything you put your mind to. When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be the point guard for the Dallas Mavericks, and if that didn’t work out the quarterback for the Cowboys.
My Mom is 4’11” tall. Neither was ever possible.
Eventually, I began to discern my actual calling based on my actual giftedness.
You have been blessed by God with life!
You have been blessed by God with purpose!
You have been blessed by God with the talent to live out your purpose!
To discover your purpose, lean into your relationship with God and your church family.
He will guide you, and people who love you will speak into your life.
To discover your talent, start serving.
Start looking to meet the needs of those around you.
As you serve, God will guide and clarify!
Not sure of your calling or purpose?
Help someone else who is sure fulfill theirs while you discern yours.
Now, this gets even more amazing.
Not only do we have God-given talents, once you choose to follow Jesus, you have the Spirit of God within you and He empowers you with spiritual gifts.
Notice how Romans 12 says it…
4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 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; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 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.- Romans 12:4-8
This passage deals with spiritual gifts, supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit.
This can be different from your natural-born talent.
Let me put it this way- your spiritual gifts are for the church – building the Body of Christ (reaching new people) and building up the Body of Christ (helping those following Jesus to become more like Jesus and live out their calling); your talents can be used for any purpose – either for God or for yourself.
What are your talents?
What are your spiritual gifts?
How are you using them currently?
Are you maximizing your impact serving on Sunday?
Or serving as part of a group during the week?
Or as an undercover missionary at work or in your neighborhood?
Maybe you want to invite friends or co-workers to O Holy Night, an outreach concert you can find at our events page on our website.
Or are you burying your gifts and talents right now?
Next we need a new perspective. We need to remember that…
God owns everything.
Now we talked about this last week with regard to our time, and this is certainly true when it comes to our finances (which we will be talking about next week). This is also true of our talent!
We are stewards, not owners.
This may seem frustrating at first, but it is actually incredibly liberating!
Have you ever rented a place and something went wrong with it? What did you do?
You called your landlord. And if you had a good landlord, he or she quickly took care of it for you. You didn’t have to worry about fixing it. You just got to enjoy living there.
Now, if you have ever had a tenant, you know how important it is when they take good care of your property.
When we lived in Barton Hills near downtown, I convinced my wife to rent out our house on AirBnB during SXSW—thinking we’d make easy money.
Our first guests, musicians from the U.K., were a disaster: they broke a family heirloom and replaced it with a $2 pitcher from Goodwill, and my wife found a used feminine product on the bed. That was enough to end her “landlord” career.
A couple of years later, I talked her into trying again. This time, a Turkish social media company rented our place, took immaculate care of it, and even posted photos of their breakfasts on our back porch. It inspired us to start doing the same—and they left the house just as clean as they found it.
Are you a good steward of the resources you have been given?
God is our provider and the source of abundance and as we grow to realize that, we can right-size our perspective on all of life.
The Scriptures tell us that everything good we have in life is a gift from God.
As we live knowing that, we can rest in Him and have a deeper level of trust in Him.
There is a beautiful Psalm that reminds us that God doesn’t need anything from us because He already owns it all. What He really wants is our trust and gratitude, not empty religion.
When we turn to Him in honesty and thankfulness, we discover a God who provides, protects, and invites us into a genuine relationship—not one based on fear or performance, but on His love and care for us.
In Psalm 50:10 that is where God is described as “the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.”
When we follow Jesus, God becomes our Father, and our Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He provides for us. God’s provision may require humbling ourselves to ask for help or work a job beneath what we think we should be doing. When we trust Him and follow His guidance and leadership in our lives, He provides for us.
In a book I highly recommend called Experience Jesus, Really, John Eldredge writes about how if we are not careful we can become more disciples of the internet than we are disciples of Jesus.
What I want for you is what has been happening for me. As a lifetime worrier and someone who struggles with anxiety and control issues, I am discovering that we can trust God as we become more and more aware of how much of what we have is a gift from God. We can see Him more and more as the source of abundance, as our Provider.
Eldredge writes:
“Your faith is the key that opens the door to access Jesus, and having found him, you gain access to his help and the riches of his entire Kingdom! …
Eden was a place of supernatural abundance… The City of God is absolutely a place of supernatural abundance and provision… So the promise here ‘in the meantime’ is that there is a supernatural provision for us now, from God, for our weary humanity!”
– John Eldredge in Experience Jesus, Really
Remember “riches” in God’s Kingdom is not the same as “riches” according to the world. God’s economy is different than ours!
I know people who live in extreme poverty who have a level of joy and peace that people in the U.S. wish they could buy!
Our Father owns it all, and He entrusts us with what we can handle.
We are not all given the same resources, but we are all called to be faithful with what we have.
You may listen to this parable and think that it isn’t fair that one of the servants received only 1 talent and 1 received 2 and 1 received 5.
But let’s read it again.
14 “Again, [the Kingdom of Heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. – Matthew 25:14-15
The key phrase is “each according to his ability.”
Think about how kind this actually is.
God knows you better than you know yourself.
How cruel would it be for a parent to give their child more than they can handle.
We see that happen far too often.
How many people do we know whose cracks in their character are exposed when they have more than their capacity?
We have all been given talent, and rather than comparing ourselves to others, God is only looking at our ability to be faithful with what we have – so should we.
We moved here from Los Angeles almost 15 years ago. Yes, we are some of those people, but I know there are many of you here that are also from CA. My wife and I grew up in Dallas/Fort Worth if that matters to you. While we lived and served at a church there, I asked my mentor and senior pastor to share some of the strengths and weaknesses he saw in me.
He said: “Eric, you are really good at working with people more talented than you.”
Thank you?!
That sounded quite discouraging at first, but if that is truly the case then I have the capacity to lead anyone. If I could only lead those who are less talented than I am then there is a much smaller pool from which to recruit.
Don’t compare yourself to others.
Just be faithful to God with what you have been given.
Now, according to Jesus, being faithful means being steadfast, loyal, dependable, but it also means multiplication.
Work with that 1 talent and turn it into 2 or with those 2 talents and with His help, turn it into 5.
You can trust Him. You can ask for more, and ask for the character to handle more and the heart of generosity to share more with others.
When we are faithful with a few things, God will give us more.
What if we are not growing in our capacity now because we are not being faithful with what we already have?
What if we are missing out on more because we are not grateful for what we already have now?
Faithfulness requires risk and action.
What we discover from the wicked and lazy servant that had a wrong view of his boss is that playing it safe in fear leads to loss.
Let me ask you. Are you afraid of God?
I don’t mean the healthy fear that we are supposed to have.
We are supposed to have a reverence, an awe of His greatness, His power, His holiness, and His justice. As broken people who choose to go our own way, we need to have a healthy fear of God.
But I mean, do you have an unhealthy understanding of God?
Here’s how you can know:
Do you try to do the right things only so you will get a blessing from God?
Do you ever feel like you deserve God’s blessings because of the good things you are doing?
When things go badly, do you ever get mad at God because you feel like He isn’t giving you the good that you deserve?
You see that is the very attitude that Jesus is addressing here.
The religious leaders known as Pharisees believe they deserved God’s blessing and deserved God’s rewards because of their religiosity.
Jesus spoke out against that kind of spiritual arrogance time after time.
Jesus instead says those who are blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble, the meek, the peacemakers, the ones who are broken hearted, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
God never promised a life without suffering. He promised to be with us in our suffering.
Now some of this misunderstanding is based on the fact we had parents who loved us but may have given us the feeling that their love was conditional on our obedience or that their pride for us was based on how others saw us living our life.
If you are a parent, are you giving off that feeling to your kids?
Instead, the proper understanding is a loving God who loved us before we ever did anything good and whose grace covers all we ever do that is bad. He demonstrated His love for us in that Jesus died for us.
You see, we simply need to receive His love and forgiveness and then out of gratitude for all we have done, we let Him change us and we live for Him faithfully.
Not to earn His love but because we are already loved!
So taking a risk is no longer something we fear because we are doing so in partnership with our loving Father.
So taking action is no longer something we hesitate to do because we are motivated by our loving Father.
And finally…
There will be a final accounting, and Jesus stands with us.
Remember, Jesus is telling this story in the context of answering the disciples questions about his return.
They want to know: “what are we supposed to be doing when you leave us & before you come back?”
Jesus is saying, be faithful servants to your loving Father.
Just use what you have to serve others.
Be faithful with the little things so your Heavenly Father can give you more!
You see, how we steward our time, gifts, opportunities, and resources matters for eternity.
One day, we will receive our reward for our faithful service. If we take the risk to serve others by using our gifts, one day, we will hear:
“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!” – Matthew 25:21, 23
This is all possible because of what Jesus has done for us.
Remember the end of the parable where Jesus said the wicked servant ended up?
And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ – Matthew 25:14-30
Just two chapters later in Matthew, we discover that Jesus took the place of all of the wicked and lazy servants as he was led outside of the city and into the darkness to be crucified with common criminals who were weeping and gnashing their teeth due to the pain and humiliation and their impending death.
As Jesus was being crucified, he was taking upon himself all of our sins, all of our wicked and evil choices, and it killed him, but on the 3rd day He rose from the dead, defeating sin, death, and the dark powers in the cosmic realm. In a few minutes we are going to witness Baptism.
Those getting baptized are people who have believed this about Jesus and have received his gift of forgiveness and restoration because of the Cross and are committing to following Him with their lives.
Before we celebrate baptism today, let’s wrap up remembering the words of Peter in 1 Peter 4:10–11 when he writes those he loves that are following Jesus in this broken world. He writes:
10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 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. – 1 Peter 4:10–11
When we live as good stewards of the gifts God has given us, others see how good God is and want what we have found in a relationship with Him!