Increase to the Lord

And so, continue your work even though August is, coming to an end in this series, but Lord, I pray that your work in our hearts would continue, that we would be the husbands and wives we need to be, we’d be the parents we need to be, Lord, that you would continually remind us of these things and by your grace, conform us into the image of your son and specifically in these ways that that you’ve outlined in your word. So, help us. Even tonight, Lord, help us as we try to to encourage the people of God.

And so, we just trust you for that. We ask you for your guidance and help in Jesus name. Amen. Now, because we’ve already covered this fairly recently, I’m not gonna spend a lot of time going into all the details. I’ll trust that you remember at least some points from that and we’ll kind of build from there. Verse 14, the Bible says, For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods.

And it goes on to say in verse 15, and unto one he gave 5 talents, to another two and to another one, to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey. And so you know that, you know this, this is a parable that is an illustration used to teach a truth. And in this case, this Lord that goes into the far country represents the Lord Jesus who has departed from us for time and he’s coming again and we know that when he comes again, we’re gonna stand before him and the first word I want you to note, if you’re writing these these down, short notes tonight, three words. The first word is two words, the goods, the goods. You’ll see that in verse number 14.

Beginning of heaven is as a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. Now, the goods being referred to here that what I want to kind of apply this to is I want to apply it to your family.

The goods are your family, my family. Notice verse 15, unto one he gave five, to another two, and to another one. Now, you’ll notice the goods are not all the same. And every family is different, every family has a different dynamic. Every family, some people have a lot of children, some people have no children, some people have somewhere in between. And some people have, you you get married and there’s different dynamics with husbands and wives and all of that, but if you’ll remember that as we’ve gone through the August Family Focus, one of the things we’ve kind of parked at is this truth that if you remember children are in heritage of the Lord.

And that word heritage just means it’s his possession. He owns our children. He gives them, if our children are God’s property, that’s what the word heritage means, they’re God’s property. Then the fact that he gives them to us is sort of like what we read here. In other words, they’re they’re Gods, but they’re entrusted to us. Right? So you see the same truth here, it’s just the goods I wanna point out are the goods that we have in this one case are our children.

But another good that we have is our spouse. If you remember in first Corinthians, we talked about how that the the Bible says, Paul said that God gives gifts some after one some in one manner and some after another manner and in that context, he’s referring and he’s talking about the debate of well, should you have a spouse or should you not because of the the present distress he says in that at that time period, what was happening in his world.

And he says, he acknowledges, he says, I would that all men were even as I myself, that is were without a wife. So that he he said, so that you can devote your whole your whole life, to the Lord. But then he he backs off a little bit and he says, but God gives gifts, some after this manner and some after that. In other words, one of the gifts that you have, one of the gifts that we have from God is our spouse. And that’s what we saw.

And so, in our studies, we’ve seen that our spouse is indeed a gift of God. You wanna think of that as a good, right? Something that God has committed to us. And every family looks a little bit different how that turns out, how many kids there are, what ages they are, and all of those different things. Every family is different. But the key thing to remember is that our children and our spouse or maybe I should say in the right order, our spouse and our children are gifts of God that come, first of all, come from God to us. Just like we read here, this Lord who traveled to a far country, he took his property, his talents, which is a measure of weight, which is money, he took his property and delivered them, his goods to his servants.

And in the same way, God has entrusted to us his property in the form of our children, in the form of our spouse. They belong to God and they have been given to us by God. So my wife is not just my wife, my wife is a gift from God. And my children are not just my children, we cannot view them in that secular way. They are God’s children that have been committed to me, right? To committed to my wife. We have to view them that way. That’s the only correct way to view them. Just as when these servants receive this talent and they were holding a talent was like, you know, a 20 pounds of approximately 20 pounds, you’re talking, you know, they they hold these or maybe, you know, one of them had five, five, you know, it’s a 100. So, they’re, they they had this, this money, this weight of money that they’ve been given and they are looking at this and they had to remind themselves that I am not simply free to do what I wish with these goods that I’ve been committed by my Lord. They are his. Therefore, I must be faithful to do with with his property as he wishes.

And that is in a nutshell what having a family is all about. For a Christian, our family is not ours to do as we wish. It is God’s that has been committed to us. We must do His will with that which He has committed to us. So the goods, that’s the first thing I want you to see. Let’s keep reading down to verse number 16. Then he which had received the 5 talents went and traded with the same and made them other 5 talents.

And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord’s money. After a long time, the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, lord, thou deliver unto me five talents, behold, I have gained, that’s our second word, the gain.

I have gained beside them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord thou deliverest unto me two talents, behold I have gained two other talents beside them.

His Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy lord. So notice in the first two, the first two servants mentioned here, they both have taken this money, these goods of the lord and they have gained something with them. They have gained something with them.

Now if you compare the beginning of this parable, the beginning of this this story if you will in verse 14, when this, this Lord takes first five, next two talents, and last one talent, so that’s five, and two is seven, and one is eight. So you remember at the beginning, if you compare the beginning to the end, you’ll see at the beginning there were a total of eight talents, five, two and one.

But by the time you get to the end based upon these verses that we’ve read, you no longer have five, two, and eight, you now have ten, four, and of course, still the one.

They have gained. And here’s what I want you to see from that. Now remember, these talents, these goods of their Lord, for what we’re looking at tonight, represent our families, our spouses, our children, our grandchildren, if you will. All of those things are things God has committed to us. And so by the end of this story, here’s what you have. You have seven talents that exist in the end, that did not exist in the beginning.

That’s the game. Seven talents exist in the end that do not exist in the beginning. This is the game, this is, if I might say, this is the goal. Now think about what that means for your family.

In your life, God has given you a spouse, for those of you who are married, maybe those of you who will get married at some point in the future, God has given you a spouse. God has given you children. He has he has committed his goods, his property to you. And the expectation of our Lord is that that property that has our our wife, our children, might I If I could just say it like this, the Christian family.

The goal is that that might increase. That there might be gain to the Lord through that. Now think about it. You know, you get married to the love of your life. Let me just say something about this. Look back at verse number 15. It says, and he And under one he gave five talents to another two and to another one, every man according to his several ability.

Let’s just say this, the wife, the husband, and the kids that you have are the ones that you’re supposed to have. There are some people that live plagued with the question, did I marry the right person? Once you’re married, you’re married to the right person. You might as well leave the rest in the past. Your kids come along, you have the right kids. You don’t have the wrong kids, you have the right kids. How do we know that? Alright, take a step back, how do we know that?

We know that because you’re married to them. It wasn’t a surprise to God and God’s providence and God’s guidance of your life. It wasn’t a surprise to him. It’s like it’s like, oh, I married the wrong person and now God is wringing his hands. What is he what am I gonna do with this person? They married the wrong That is not the way the Lord is thinking about this at all. And the same thing is true with our children. He gave you he gave you the right goods, okay?

He gave you the right goods. So, these are some of these ideas we have and even among Christians, you know, listen, if you’re married, you you got the right person. You, those kids you got, they’re the right kids. They’re the ones that the lord wants you to have, right? We just have to try and trust that to god and know that god’s way is best, alright? Now notice, going back to where we left off on the gain.

So, notice the talents, they’ve increased from eight and we’ve got four. We started with we started with five, now have 10, started with two, now have four, and of course, the ones, the one outlier. And god has given you and me, god’s given us a Christian family. Here’s what I want you to remember. The lord did not give us, He did not commit to us the goods of a Christian family so that they would remain just that.

You know what the Lord’s goal is? Is that the Christian family increases. And I’m not talking about numbers of kids. That’s all fine and good, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about I’m talking about when you two, when you got married, it’s it’s just you and your spouse, right? That have that, you know, two believers in Christ but you know, in the Christian family, the lord wants that as as the lord gives children and grandchildren, the lord wants those two people who are there for his glory to cause a multiplication of people who also believe in Christ and glorify God.

It’s not just about me and my wife and that me and my wife serve the Lord, but it’s also that the kids that god gives to us and hopefully the grandkids which we have one, we have another on the way but the others that come along, those also glorify the lord. In other words, what was just two Christians, two people trying to serve god turns into a whole multitude of people that increase to the glory of God. That’s the goal. That’s the hope. Now, we know it doesn’t always work like that in every case. Again, we take that, we commit it to God and we say God knows best and we seek God for all of those things, but ultimately, generally speaking, this is what He wants. He doesn’t want us to just remain for us. He wants there to be an increase.

He wants our faith not in just our personal faith, but He wants through our lineage, through our kids that He gives us, through these gifts and goods He commits to us, He wants our faith to be increased into the faith of others, Our service into other service. And so that when Christ comes, it’s not just Adam Wood and Allison Wood who stand before God. And I think there’s a real lesson here about the judgment seat of Christ.

When the Lord comes to reckon with us. I know we think about, you know, we’ll give an account for that which God has entrusted to us and we think of, you know, the knowledge God’s given to us and the families we were raised in, how we used that, how we used our time and our life and our money and all those things and that’s all true and that’s all good. But I think one of the things maybe we don’t think about very often is what about our family that God has entrusted to us?

When we stand before God, I wonder and I dare say I believe that the Lord’s gonna say, what about the increase in your family? Did your family increase to the glory of God? And when I stand before the Lord, just speaking for me now, my wife stands before the Lord, probably one of the greatest blessings that I’ll ever have. It won’t be a ministry in Cambodia, it won’t be a ministry at Choice Hills Baptist Church, probably the single greatest increase to the Lord that I can hope to offer to Him is my children and my grandchildren who themselves trust in Christ, and who themselves seek the Lord, and who themselves serve the Lord.

And that my faith and that of my wife has increased and has been gained to the Lord. You see, that’s the goal. That’s the goal. That’s how we pray. That’s how we hope. That’s how we trust. The Lord’s, you know, in the final day when the Lord does all the reckoning, he’s gonna reckon it all just right, right? But if the Lord has committed children to you, if He’s committed to you a spouse, He wants those things to be gain. He didn’t give those things to us just for our own satisfaction, although they’re greatly satisfying.

He gave those things to us just like these goods for gain, to Him, because they are His. But before we go to the last point, don’t forget there’s one final guy.

With this last man, there was no gain. Nothing new existed. He started with one talent, he ended with one talent. Only that which was original remained. And I don’t want that not as a believer, not as a Christian, not as a you know, I want my faith and I hope that you want your faith to abound and produce the faith in others, growth in others, Christ’s glory in others.

But I certainly want that in my family, not to be started, you know, Christ saved me and that’s it. I want that to multiply and to increase. The third word.

The third word, you’ll see it in verse number 21 which we’ve already read, but I’ll reread them. Twenty one and twenty three, his Lord said unto him, well done thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Verse 23, his Lord said unto him, well done thou good good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. The third word I want you to see is this.

So we have the the goods, the gain, and lastly, the glory. The glory. Now, in these two verses we read, there’s two glories. First, you have the glory that the Lord of these servants receives from the increase or the gain of what He had originally committed to His servants.

What was originally five pounds and two pounds has now turned into 10 pounds and four pounds. And that’s gained to him. That’s glory to him. And when our families, listen, when our families when our families increase and increase in that way, faith and love and service and all of these things to god, when our families increase in that way to god, what was just one just two Christians now becomes a whole host of people.

That glorify god and know god and and and serve god and and worship god and all of that. When when when all of that, you know what? That that’s glory to god. It is increased in the earth. Christ’s name is magnified and spread abroad.

And so that’s the first glory, but then there’s a second glory. And the second glory comes in the form of the praise that the Lord gives to his servants in that day of reckoning. And He looks at everything, everything we’ve done with our families, how we’ve treated our wife, how we’ve treated our husband, how we’ve treated our siblings, how we’ve treated our children or parents as the case may be. And He reckons with us to hear the Lord say, well done. You know what that is? That’s praise from the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s glory.

You know what? There is no glory greater than the glory that comes in the form of a word of praise from the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who knows our very motives, he knows our heart, he knows our desire, he knows what’s done in public as well as in private And he who knows all, truly, to use a good Bible word, he who knows all truly, looks at the whole picture and says, well done.

You know what that is? That’s glory. And that’s the only glory that really matters. That’s the only glory that really matters. So the Lord gives praise to us when we’re faithful servants, and who because we, through our labor for His name’s sake, gained something for our Lord with what He had committed to us.

This is the ultimate goal of the Christian family. The ultimate goal of the Christian family is not to have a happy life. That is a secondary benefit. The ultimate goal of a Christian family is not to have a happy life. The ultimate goal of a Christian family is not the satisfaction, and there is great satisfaction as I’m learning, of having kids and having grandkids and all that comes along with that. That’s not the ultimate goal, it’s a secondary benefit.

The ultimate goal and the ultimate purpose for the Christian family is that we have some gain, that we have some increase to offer to our Lord Jesus Christ. For the good gifts that he has entrusted to us And that that increase is increase to Him and to His glory. That’s why we’re here. That’s it. That’s why you have a Christian family. That’s why you have a family at all.

It is for His increase, for His glory. And I hope that’s what the Lord does in your life. Whether it be through kids, whether it be through your your spouse, whether it be your grandkids, your great grandkids. Listen, there is no greater thing that you can offer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you could say outside of your own self. There’s no greater increase or gain that you and I can offer to the Lord Jesus Christ than our Christian family that has been, that has caused His glory to be seen in the earth.

That Christ is magnified because of our family. That’s the purpose of our family. And that’s the the glory from the praise of Christ that we hope to hear when we, when we try to build our family in a way that’s pleasing in His sight, in a way that glorifies Him. Let’s pray.