God knew what he gave you. God's not mad at you over the time that you don't have. But
see, we have to snatch back the little moments where we can meet with God. Some of us were
saying, "Well, I would pray more, but it's just so busy in my life." So, we're waiting
on like a whole weekend to spend with God where we can go to Scotland and have some
scenery, and I'm going to memorize a book of the Bible one day."
You better take that phone, pull up that Bible app and sneak away to the bathroom during
lunch. I used to do this in college because it is not how much time you have. God can
speak to you in three minutes and change the next 30 years of your life. Flip it. Turn
it into something. That was the master's happiness. He's like, "Cool man, I gave you five, you
brought me 10. I gave you an opportunity. You made it better. I'm happy about it." The
master was happy, the servant was happy except the one. The one who got one bag.
He was probably happy at first because there are only three servants that got anything
in this passage. And I guarantee you there were more than three that worked for the master.
Can we study the Bible? You all looking at me crazy right now. Can we study the Bible?
What else do you all want to do? So, it's a blessing to be trusted with anything, right?
A lot of people didn't make it to your age. A lot of people didn't survive. So, it's a
blessing just to breathe. If you do the math on it, it is a blessing just to be here.
The odds that you would even be here are very, very low. The odds that you would have the
opportunity to still be breathing, so it's a blessing just to have a bag. It's a blessing
just to be saved. We don't shout over that. I don't know why. I don't know why we get
so entitled when we start off really grateful, but probably it's comparison. That's probably
why we do it. Probably the guy with one bag was skipping down the street when he first
got it. Don't you think? "My master just gave me a bag. I got the bag. I got the bag. I
got the bag. I got the bag."
And he doesn't have a name in the parable. Jesus didn't give names in parables. That's
how we know they're not real stories. She's used them to illustrate a purpose. But we'll
call him Billy, just to... One Bag Billy. Any One Bag Billies in the house? Come on,
I'm not the smartest. I did not go to Harvard. I did not go to Yale. I barely passed biology.
Any One Bag Billies? Billy's skipping down the street. "I got the bag." And Billy was
so happy about the bag until he ran into the other guy.
And the other guy was like, "What's up, Billy?" And Billy's like, "I got the bag." And then
the other guy was like, "I got the bags too." And Billy's like, "Did you say bags? Plural?"
And then, the Timmy, Two Bag Timmy... "Come on, you all. I'm working for the Lord up here."
Two Bag Timmy's like, "Yeah. He gave me two bags." Billy's like, "Two bags?" "How many
bags you got?" "Well, just the one. I'm a one bagger." You felt good about what you
had until you went on Instagram.
This has needs to be in the parable. One Bag Billy went on Instagram. And not only did
he see Timmy skipping with two bags, but here about the time that he sees Timmy, here comes
Freddy, Five Bag Freddy. Freddy's like, "Eyy." And God told me to tell you this very succinct
statement. This is something I want you to get in your spirit right now, you got a lot.
It's going to take a little math and some of us are bad at math, but you really got
a lot.
As a matter of fact, we mentioned breath. Let me tell you what I googled this week.
If we live to be 71 and I don't know if we're going to make it if we keep watching CNN and
Fox news and scrolling Twitter, we might not make it to 71 if we keep giving ourselves
ulcers and blaming it on the devil when really it's our viewing habits and our clicking habits
and our watch time. Amen. But if we make it to 71, we will take 750 million breaths.
You just did it again. You just did it again. But it's easy to feel fear. When Billy went
on Instagram and saw it was two talent Tuesday, all of a sudden, he went, "Oh, man." Sometimes,
you feel good about your vacation until you see somebody else's. "Man, I felt good about
my physique the other day because I've been working out, man, for like six years now."
And then, The Rock came on my phone. Dwayne Johnson came on my phone, I put on a hoodie.
And here's what I'm trying to say. Can you all handle a real sermon or do you need angels
flapping around? See, the kingdom is here and now, and the thing about it is he gave
him a lot. You're like, "No, it's not a lot. He only had one bag. Poor Billy. But Billy
only had one bag, preacher. Steve. I don't think it's very fair to compare Billy." No,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You call it a bag. It says a bag because it was a talent,
but a talent was a unit of measurement.
And when it said he gave him one talent, what that represented was 6,000... hold up. 6,000,
it's about 20 years, right? 6,000 days of a day laborer's wage. So now, we're crossing
cultures here. This is an ancient measurement and it doesn't convert into U S currency or
whatever you're watching this in pounds or pesos or any of that. But if we track it back,
it's hard to make the connection because this is at the ancient texts that we're trying
to bring into modern times. But roughly, we could say that he was entrusted with 6,000
days of wages, one talent.
And see, it depends on how you count it, how much you see it as be. I'm about to preach
on this math lesson. 6,000, that would be roughly over $1 million. If you convert the
currency, it doesn't exactly convert... it's hard to do the conversion from Palestine to
Ballantine. That was premium. That was premium preacher stuff right there. But if we could
convert it, it's like saying he had a million. He had million.
To me, a million is a lot. Maybe not to you, but to me... how many of you $1 million is
a lot and you will take it if somebody wants to Venmo right now to your account? Come on,
somebody holler, cash up me, cash shop me the... I will take it. 1 million is a lot
to me, a million is a lot to me. Ain't it crazy how the devil can cause you to see a
little where there's really a lot? So now, we get stuck because we measure incorrectly.
I was reading the text over and over again, feeling bad for Billy. And the Lord said,
"It's still a million." Somebody say, "Still a million." Come on, you are not doing it.
Matthew say, "Still a million." Everybody on YouTube, put it in the chat, "It's still
a million. It's still a million. It's still a million. It's still a million." I bet you
you've got a million things to thank God for in your life right now. But see, in our culture,
we worship the bag and so we never see what's in it.
We worshiped the flesh. We're so carnal we can only see followers so we don't pay attention
to the favor of God that has been working in your life since you were a child. God was
with you and one word from God is a lot. Let me say it another way. One drop of blood was
a lot. One drop. If you got the blood of Jesus covering your sin, removing your shame and
canceling the record of the law that stood against you, if you've got forgiveness in
life in his name, shout, "I got a lot." Tell the devil, "I got a lot. It's still a million.
I might not have what they have, but I got breath and everything that has breath praise...."
It's still a million. It's still a million. You're still here. You're still saved. He
still loves you is still a million. So, you have to break down your blessings so you don't
take them for granted. The devil operates in generalities to keep you from seeing the
treasure of your talent. Always envious of somebody else's. I'm telling you right now,
this message will change your life because some of you, you think you are stuck with
what you started with and you're not. I promise you're not. Flip the bag.
God made some people such good listeners that they can get promoted on what they don't say.
Double down on your gift. "Well, I'm not that good with words." Then shut up and look smart.
In the meeting, just squint your eyebrows. Everybody be like, "He's deep." They won't
know how dumb you feel. Flip the bag. Work that shy gift. "Oh, he's mysterious." You
might get a wife being shy. She won't find out you're boring until it's too late.
And listen, I was thinking the other day, I went over to my mom's for dinner Wednesday
night. We go over there every week and she cooks for me. Oh, she made this meatloaf this
week, paleo meatloaf. It was good. Better than it sounds. They don't sound good but
it was good. And I looked at that platinum record that I took over to her house for O
Come to the Altar. This started with a voice memo I sang in my song in my phone, just a
little scrap of a song that Chris and Wade and Mack and the team came around and we finished
it.
But now listen, when I looked at the platinum record, what I thought about was how my mom
took the talent that God gave her as a mom. And it was right that I took the record to
her house. When people come to see my mom, she stops them because it's right in the foyer.
It's not in some back room, it is right there at the door. In fact, you can see them from
the road. When you sell a certain number of songs, they give you a gold record and a platinum
record.
I gave her the gold. I gave her the platinum. She didn't know you replaced the gold with
the platinum. She put both of them up there side by side. My mom is the one who worked
it out for me to go take guitar lessons. She does not play guitar. But she took her talent,
you understand? And when they couldn't afford guitar lessons for me, my dad started cutting
Harold Staley's hair for free so he would teach me. My dad couldn't teach me guitar,
but he could give a fade.
What I'm saying is that it's right that the platinum record is hanging on her wall because
she is the one who flipped the gift. Some of you don't even know the difference that
you're making right now. And it brought back a memory. When Harold couldn't teach me anymore,
I needed another teacher that charged money. And she would drop me off at Jack Cribb's
house. Jack Cribb was a local legend. Wasn't he too?. Customs Four Plus Two, they played
it every Fourth of July festival Moncks Corner ever had.
But he taught lessons in his garage and he sat on the freezer. It's a real fancy setup
too now. He sat on the freezer and I got the stool. And he taught me the Beach songs that
would teach me the chords. I don't know a lot of cords. I'm not a music theorist, but
the chords I know, I put them to work. It's not how many cords I know, it's what I do
with them that makes you feel it. You don't have to know a lot. You don't have to know
a lot. I promise you, you don't need a big vocabulary.
My mom didn't even have so much money. So, what she would do... and she was like, "How
did you remember this?" when I shared it last night. I was like, "Because you made me help."
She would take pine cones. I had to go out in the yard and get pine cones. And then,
she would take the pine cones and dip them in scented wax. And she would dip them in
wax and sell them at Christmas times like decorations. And I was thinking this in my
mind, I was thinking, she turned pine comes into platinum.
I was thinking about this. Come on, if you have the faith to receive this word, God said
there is something right now that you can dip. There is something right now that you
can do. There is something right now that you can double, double, double, double, double.
I hear God saying you are not stuck if you will take what he has invested and sow it
forward, you'll have no idea what he might put on your wall.