Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct/76

Contributor - Art Zeistra

Title - Utilizing our Talents

Topic - Stewardship

If you were given $5.00 and were given 50 days to multiply that sum, what creative projects would you start? On Sunday, September 12, everyone over 12 years of age will have an opportunity to multiply that total. In Matthew 25: 14-30, there is a parable on talents. Each of the servants was given one, two or five talents and was asked to multiply what he had received. All of us have been blessed with talents that are to be used in the upbuilding of the church.

So read the announcement in the Evangel, the publicity page of the Emmanuel Community Reformed Church in Edmonton, Alberta.

Just before the sermon in the morning service on September 12, the deacons handed out envelopes. In each envelope a $5.00 bill was placed. A historical event took place - instead of the church asking for money, Emmanuel Church was handing it out! This has never happened before. Everyone was to take that sum and multiply the amount and bring it back on Sunday, October 31. In the December edition of the Pioneer, a report will be given.

The five dollars that was handed out was a dramatic way to make the Bible come alive and allow the sermon to become very practical.

In Matthew 25 :14-30, Jesus tells a parable about an employer wno went on an extended trip and entrusted three employees various amounts of money. To the one employee he gave $5,000.00, to the second employee, he gave $2,000.00 and to the third employee he gave $1,000.00. He encouraged them to do with it whatever they wanted. After a period of time, he returned and was pleased o find that the first two employees had doubled their amount. The third employee who had received $1,000.00 had buried the amount in the ground. When the employer heard this he was upset because the least that could have been done was to put the amount in the bank to receive interest. The amount was taken away from him and given to someone else.

The significance of the talents is that the Lord God has given something that belongs to Him - spiritual gifts and ministries - and has distributed them among Christians according to His will. These gifts are given to Christians in order that they would be traded, invested, risked and multiplied in the lives of others.

The five dollars that was distributed was a visual aid that this money coming from an outside source and given for a season was to be distributed to everyone and used imaginatively in the service of the Lord.

As Christians, we all have been given, from God, spiritual gifts. Some of us have received more gifts than others. Jesus is saying to every believer it is not the amount of gifts that are important but what is done with what we have received. The beauty of being a Christian is that God says, as you are led by the Holy Spirit, there is room for imagination, personal initiative and opportunism in the use of gifts. These gifts are not ours but they come from God, who encourages us to utilize them completely. Therefore, there should be no 'holding back' or being conservative' but we should be faithful with what God has entrusted to us.

One day, there will come a day of accounts. Jesus will ask, "Joan, Sue, Mary, Jim, Bill or Art, what have you done with the gifts that I have given?" May we respond gladly by saying, "Lord, thank you that you have blessed me with talents, time and possessions and by your grace I have brought glory to your name and have furthered Your Name."

What a comfort will come to our lives to then be able to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Jesus says to us, "Trade 'till I come". I have given these talents to you to 'be used. Take a risk this day, step out in faith for I will be with you.

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