Faithful Use Of Talents

[0:00] Once again, we thank God for the opportunity to be here to worship with you this morning and to share the word of God with you.

[0:14] We thank God for some members of this church that we have known for many years, including Matt, who introduced us this morning.

[0:27] We also thank God for Robin Town, who is not with us. We have known her for many years. She has been in Africa for many times, even before Brian came.

[0:41] I think she came before Brian. And then we also thank God for Brian Nekala, our friends and ministers with us with the missions upfield for many years.

[0:55] We've known Brian Nekala. In fact, I just realized it is over 20 years because we met them in 1997 when we joined Trinity and joined the school for our training.

[1:13] And so we thank God that, you know, we have heard very many things about Christ the King. And now we have the opportunity to be able to worship with you and just be blessed together as we have been blessed through the first session of the worship, through wonderful songs and everything just lifting our souls.

[1:38] So it was a wonderful experience. This morning, as you have it in your bulletin, we are going to share the word of God from Matthew 25, verse 14 to 30.

[1:54] And this is the parable of the talents.

[2:12] Before we get into this parable, I am a teacher. I teach pastors in different, even theological schools. And teachers like giving exams.

[2:26] Although sometimes marking exams is not fun. But today I want to begin by giving you a short exam. But this exam, you don't have to answer and you don't have to mark.

[2:37] So it's a good thing because nobody has to do extra work. But these are just questions that I want to ask in the beginning so that we can think about them as we go to the text.

[2:49] And the first question is this. How would you respond to a person who accuses God of exploiting him or of taking advantage of him and his resources?

[3:07] How would you respond to that person? If a person comes and says, God is an exploiter. He takes advantage of people. Just think about it. Second question.

[3:20] What comes to your mind when a person is asked to be faithful? Of late in Kenya, in many ministries of the government, we have been experiencing many corruption scandals.

[3:40] And so the president was talking and he told his cabinet ministers and his permanent secretaries, if you don't do your work properly or if money is rooted in your ministry, I will take care of you.

[3:59] Basically, he was telling them, you have to be faithful in whatever you are doing. Therefore, what he was meaning is stop stealing public funds.

[4:15] Question number three. What comes to your mind when an employer asks his employees to be faithful?

[4:28] Okay. An employer comes and says, be faithful. Most likely, I would say that he means stop stealing my time or my resources.

[4:42] Because we can be faithful. We can be unfaithful by stealing time of our boss. And so today, I want us to go beyond that and ask ourselves, as we get to this passage, you know, why should we be faithful to God as his servants?

[5:11] Why should we be faithful to God as his servants? And also, what does it mean to be faithful to God as his servants?

[5:26] This leads us to the parable that we have just mentioned. If you want, turn with me in the book of Matthew 25. And I will highlight just a few things before as we continue.

[5:39] Number one, you find that there are other parables that come before this parable. And the first one, it is in Matthew 24, verse 42 to 44.

[5:57] And this is the parable of the homeowner and the thief. And the key lesson from this parable, it is preparedness.

[6:10] Also, we have another parable that begins from verse 45 to 51 of chapter 24. And this is the story of the wise and unwise household servants.

[6:23] And the key there, it is also, it is performance of the servants, especially when the master was away.

[6:39] Then we have the parable of the ten virgins. That it begins from chapter 25, verse 1 to 13. And again, the key lesson here is preparedness and readiness for the return of Jesus Christ.

[7:01] Or for the return of the master. I mean, for the coming of Christ. Then now we come to our parable, which is Matthew 25, 14 to 30.

[7:12] And the focus here is on the faithful improvement of the talents allocated to each servant.

[7:26] Faithful improvement of the talents allocated to each servant. That is the focus. So, in addition to the preparedness, that becomes the key focus.

[7:43] Allow me to quickly explain some words so that when we use them, we know what we are talking about. I say this is a parable. And a parable is a story designed to illustrate or to teach some truth.

[8:03] Or a moral lesson. So, in this passage, the purpose of the parable is to teach some biblical truths.

[8:14] And that is what we are going to see soon. It is very important to note that in this passage, there is an idea that the master went away for a long time.

[8:35] And so, this is also important to pay attention to. What about the talent? What does it mean here?

[8:45] It says this. For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted them with a property. To one, he gave five talents.

[8:58] So, the word talent here becomes very important. In our modern English, the way you talk about English here, the word talent is used for skills and abilities.

[9:14] Or if you want mental abilities that God has given to people. So, we ask, what are your talents? Maybe playing basketball, doing this, singing.

[9:26] We think of those kind of skills and talents that God has given them. But, in the New Testament times, the word talent was used as a unit for exchange or as money.

[9:47] The estimate of talent's value vary from different, you know, writers. But, it is commonly agreed that it was a lot of money.

[10:01] And the many agree that it was about or around $300,000. So, it was something small.

[10:12] Even the one who was given one talent, somebody may think he was given very little. But, the point is, he was given around $300,000 to do business with.

[10:26] Therefore, we go now to our key points here. And I want to ask, why should we be faithful as God's servants?

[10:40] And through this question, and also asking the question, what does it mean to be faithful? We are going to highlight, okay, four main biblical truths.

[10:55] Or, if you want, biblical principles that can guide us, that we can deduce, that we can come up from this particular story. And I believe that these truths or biblical principles are going to help us as we serve the Lord, as we live our Christian life.

[11:14] The first one, turn with me, look at me, or look with me on the verse 14. It says, For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.

[11:35] This property, we know it was talent. Therefore, the first thing here is that God, I mean, the master or the man called his servants.

[11:49] And he entrusted them with his property, asset. But this property, we know it was in terms of cash talents. And therefore, the first truth that I see from this text, and I want to apply it straight to us, is this.

[12:09] We, as Christians, again, I'm speaking with the Christians here, are God's servants. And all our resources belong to our God.

[12:21] I feel like saying, You know, praise the Lord. In other words, a small thing here. This person is a servant.

[12:34] And whatever he needed was entrusted to him. And so I come straight to us, and I say that as Christians, all what we have, and even ourselves, we are God's servants.

[12:45] In the ancient world, again, slaves or servants were owned by their masters. And they were bought, and they were controlled.

[12:58] Likewise, in the Bible throughout, the language that is used is that we, as Christians, are God's servants. Why? Because, as Christians, we are owned by God, for we were purchased with the blood of his son, Jesus Christ.

[13:20] That is very clear in the Bible. You can read it somewhere, but in the 1 Corinthians 6, 12 to 20. 1 Corinthians 6, 12 to 20.

[13:31] Paul instructs believers to flee immorality because their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6, 12 to 20.

[13:41] It says, For you are bought with a price. And that price, we know, it is the blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

[13:56] The Bible continues to say this also. In Romans 6, 22, the Bible teaches that we are God's slaves.

[14:10] We are slaves of God. That is a language, again, of the servants of the Lord. Okay? 6, 22.

[14:20] And that is why Paul can use this biblical truth in this passage and argue that Christians are no longer slaves to sin.

[14:33] Okay? But they are slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. Because we are slaves of God. And he continues to say we are slaves of righteousness.

[14:44] And Ephesians 11 to 16. The apostle Paul, again, makes it clear that all saints, that is believers, are to be equipped for the work of the ministry.

[15:00] Verse 22. Verse 12. For the work of the ministry. Therefore, the church is viewed as a body of Christ. And each part or each member is required to work for the growth of the whole body.

[15:15] Again, according to this passage of Ephesians 4, 11 to 16, it is very clear that the work of pastors and the pastor teachers is not just to do the work of the ministry, but to train the church members so that they can be able to do the ministry.

[15:35] That is why they are equipped. You know, you read verse 11 downward until verse 12 and verse 14, and it says God has given people gifts as teachers, as a family, to equip the church for the ministry.

[15:51] Therefore, all of us are called to do the ministry. We are God's servants. It is not just us as pastors or teachers, but all of us are called to be involved in the work of the ministry.

[16:10] Let me also remind us that we are also God's resources. We are also, whatever we have has been entrusted to us by God.

[16:25] There are many biblical passages that I can begin to talk about and try to explain this. But it's very clear that we as God's people, and even anybody in this world, the Bible tells us we have nothing that we not get from God.

[16:45] Everything that we have, our abilities and our resources, we guard them from our God. And so, in this sense, it is very clear that it is wrong to accuse God of being exploited or taking advantage of his people.

[17:08] Because we are servants, and all that we have. The Bible says even God wanted even animals in the hills. He would not ask us. He would just get them.

[17:19] And we know the story very well. The many hurricanes that happen sometimes in this part of the country and other parts of the world, they come and they devastate everybody.

[17:32] Because God can choose to do whatever he wants to do with the world and with all of us. And we all belong to God. And that is why also the story of the rich poor in Luke chapter 12, you can wait somewhere.

[17:47] Luke chapter 12, verse 13, 21, brings this point on. When this rich man accumulated all things that he had, and he told his heart, let you sit down and enjoy yourself.

[18:03] God told him, I mean, the parable, you know, Jesus told him, look. I mean, from now on, the things that you have, you will not enjoy them anymore.

[18:19] And we know that story outhanded. The man said that the man passed on, passed away, and he left everything. Because everything belongs to God.

[18:32] Therefore, as we conclude this point, we say we are God's servants. We were bought by the blood of his son. And therefore, we have all reasons to call ourselves children of God, God's servants.

[18:50] Because the blood of Jesus Christ that paid for us and of our sins, there is nothing that could surpass that blood. The question as we move away from this point is, do you feel yourself as a servant of the Lord?

[19:08] Not just a child of God, but as a servant of the Lord. Do we feel ourselves? Do we look at ourselves and say, all our resources and our abilities are God's?

[19:22] They don't belong to us. Including our education, our training, and all what we have belong to our God.

[19:34] I believe this is very important for us as Christians. We have to begin there. We are God's children. We are his servants. He died for us. And even that is why Paul said, the life that I live now, I no longer live for myself.

[19:50] But I live for Christ. Because it's Christ who died for me and saved me. You can say that. And we should be able to say that. The second truth or biblical principle is this.

[20:09] It is seen, let me see again in verse 15. To one, he gave five talents. To another, two. To another, one.

[20:21] To each according to his ability. Then he went away. The point I want to take here is just one. He gave each of these servants talents according to their abilities.

[20:37] And so, without even wasting out of time, I want to say this second principle is that. God knows our abilities and our resources.

[20:49] He knows. Praise the Lord. God knows. You know, our abilities and our resources. If you want, our gifts.

[21:01] Everything that we have. And he does not ask anything more than what he has given us. He knows that. And he is not asking us for more than that.

[21:13] The master knew the abilities of each of these guys. And he knew one can only handle five. Another one can handle two. Another one can handle one. Because he knew them. It's very clear in this passage.

[21:30] The one who was given five, he went immediately. I like the way it is said that he who had received the five talents went at once. That's verse 16.

[21:42] And it trended with them. And he made the five talents. Immediately. He did not waste time. Wow. Began his work.

[21:53] They did the business. And what happened? He was able to bring what? Ten. He was able to bring ten back.

[22:07] Or hundred more. Five talents. So also, verse 17. The one who had two talents. Meant two talents more.

[22:20] Verse 17, the same thing. But verse 18. But he who had received one talent went and had done in the ground and ate his master's money.

[22:31] Money. Stalin. Verse 19. Now, after a long time. Again, I told you, look at the long time here. The master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

[22:44] That is a language of accounting. You know, you come and you do the accounting. You bring everything. They do the calculation. And the idea of long time here. You know, sometimes when we serve the Lord, we get tired.

[22:56] I say, I've been serving the Lord since I was a young person. Since I was in Sunday school. What is happening? I don't see anything that is happening. And you know, that can happen to us even today. And we get tired.

[23:07] We just quit. You know. I think this long time. And you know, Jesus said, I'm still coming. And I'm coming soon. We know he is coming.

[23:18] His one day may be so many days. And again, we also know that our days, he may call us to himself anytime. And so, the idea of long time, we need to take it and say, you know, for me to live, for this time that God is extending for me to continue living, it is for his grace.

[23:39] And it's for me to continue serving the Lord. Instead of seeing, I see which is just, you know, delay that does not make sense. These people are discouraged.

[23:49] And I think the same thing with the story of the virgins. Because for them, they just laxed, you know. They laxed. We are out of lax. Even if it goes, even if it's not coming soon.

[24:01] We are supposed to be up there. So, the one who was given one talent, I like his language. It's very interesting. It says that, and he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you have delivered to me five talents.

[24:24] Here I have met the five talents. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful of a little. I will set you of a much.

[24:36] Enter into the joy of your master. He who had the two talents came forward, saying, Master, you have delivered to me two talents.

[24:48] Here I have met two talents more. Verse 23. His master said to him, the same comments here. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful of a little.

[25:00] I will set you of a much. Enter into the joy of your master. Verse 24. He also who had received one talent came forward, saying, Master, I knew you were a very hard man.

[25:16] Reaping where you did not sow. Exploiting. That's the idea. Yeah. Exploiting people. That's what he's trying to say here. And then gathering where you scurried no seed.

[25:29] Wow. So, I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.

[25:40] Here you have what is yours. He never did anything with it. And there, the story continues. So, in this, I gather key points.

[25:56] First, I've just said, God knows each one of us. And he shall not give us tasks or expect us to do beyond our abilities and our resources.

[26:13] For he has given us, he knows what he has. And I can agree with this. From the Bible, when you read 1 Corinthians 10, 13, and I'm going to turn that soon. I'll read that.

[26:24] 1 Corinthians 10, 13. Let me see whether I can just read that quickly. 10, 13 is a verse that we know very well.

[26:39] No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful. And he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with temptations, he will also provide the way of escape.

[26:54] That you may be able to endure. Although this particular passage is talking about, you know, how God takes care of us. How God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our strength.

[27:05] The point that I see also here. The Bible says that God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

[27:16] That means God knows our abilities. Praise the Lord. He knows what you are capable of doing. He knows what you can endure. Although we are not talking about temptation.

[27:28] He knows what you are able to do. He knows what I am able to do. And therefore, this guy should not have excuse. And so, as we serve the Lord, be reminded.

[27:39] Let us be reminded that he knows our abilities. And he will not ask us to do things that are beyond our own strength and resources.

[27:50] Principle number three. Principle number three. When I look at verse 21 and 23.

[28:03] And I look at the comments that he makes. Because I mean these two guys who did a good job of trading with the talents.

[28:15] I see he says his master, verse 21. His master said to him, well done. Good and faithful servant. I want to say here.

[28:27] Yes, good is there. Well done is there. But the emphasis is on the faithfulness of this man. Who did this. And the same words are repeated.

[28:41] To the person who also. Or to the servant who brought to. I like the language. They were faithful.

[28:56] Faithfulness. You have been faithful of a little. You have been faithful of a little. That means they worked hard. When I look at this particular comment.

[29:09] It helps me to understand the faithfulness that God expects from us. And so I can say that God requires faithfulness.

[29:24] Regardless of how many more is our abilities and our resources. God requires faithfulness. Regardless of how many more we can say our abilities and our resources are.

[29:38] It doesn't matter. He requires faithfulness. Faithfulness in that little thing that we have. Therefore. What does it mean to be faithful? I was trying to think.

[29:50] What does it mean to be. How do we demonstrate faithfulness? And we know faithfulness has to do with honesty. People who are honest in their own dealing.

[30:01] That as God's servants. We are called to be honest in whatever we do. I was also thinking of transparency. That people have to be transparent as God's servants.

[30:12] In whatever they do. I was thinking of obedience. Obedience to our masters. Also is part of that faithfulness. The Bible talks about slaves obey your masters.

[30:25] You know. That is still part of the faithfulness. And also. If we love our masters. We are also going to try and seek to live righteous.

[30:39] Righteously. Or uprightly. Before them. Uprightness. Good servants. Who want to be blameless. Before their boss or their masters.

[30:52] But again also. A good servant works hard. That is why. He tells them. Look. He tells them. Well done.

[31:03] But the other guy. He is told. Lazy. And wicked. So. A faithful. Servant. Is supposed to be upright. Not wicked. If we combine all this.

[31:15] We come up with all these ideas. That there is uprightness. In terms of faithfulness. Righteousness. Hard work. All these things are here. Expected of our faithful servants.

[31:27] I see them there. Honesty. Transparency. Obedience. Uprightness. Okay. Hard work. All these. Are really.

[31:37] Things that demonstrate our faithfulness. Before the Lord. As his servants. Are we faithful? Are we faithful? Are we faithful?

[31:50] To our God? In this way? There is a challenge to us. That is the challenge. That is before you. And. Before.

[32:01] All of us. The last point. In this passage. I want to say. I want to say. That. God. I want to say. I want to say. I want to say. I want to say. God.

[32:11] That. As. God. A. See. A. Mark. Here and in the life to come.

[32:23] God rewards his servants. I owe you to what they have done here and also in the life to come. When you look at the response of God, he tells them, you have been faithful of a little.

[32:38] I will set you over much. I will give you more responsibility. And I want to say this. Sometimes this and other passages in the book of Corinthians, where it talks about, you know, that God will give us more.

[32:55] Some people tend to think we can be playing games with God of what we are calling nowadays prosperity gospel. You give as much as possible so that God can give you as much as possible.

[33:08] This is not the idea here. You know, we give to God because he saved us. We are servants. Not just because we want him to give us more to enjoy or to show that we have.

[33:21] But because God is able to give us more so that we can continue glorifying him and serving him more.

[33:33] That is the whole idea even in the book of Corinthians where he's talking about he loves the cheerful givers and all this. Although the passengers has been misused by the prosperity gospel preachers, try to bring the idea of it's like we give as much as possible as if we are bribing God so that he can give us more.

[33:49] And then you can continue enjoying and living that abundant life. That's not the whole idea here. It is adding responsibility. So the God, the more God blesses us, he is adding more responsibility to us.

[34:03] To us. So that we can serve him more. That is the whole thing here. And that's why he gave him more. He gave them more. And then he also says that come and enjoy my king.

[34:18] Enter into the joy of your master. We know at the end of the day. We as Christians, we shall enjoy our life with Christ.

[34:29] When he appears, we shall be like him. We shall live with him forever and ever. And he shall reward us according to our deeds. According to what we have done. How he's going to do it?

[34:40] He knows. I know there will be no enemy in heaven. But we shall not be all equal. We shall not be all equal. I think there is something there. Because he says he shall reward us according to what we have done.

[34:53] But God is so amazing. That he's telling you and telling me. You know what? God will come. And he will reward us. Those who are faithful.

[35:04] He rewards the faithful servants. Here and in the life to come. How he does it? Something that we don't know. Revelation. Revelation.

[35:17] 22 verse 12. I think I can read that quickly. Revelation 22 verse 12. It's a good verse. Allow me to read that.

[35:29] 22 verse 12. It says, Beyond I am coming. Bringing my recompense with me. To repay everyone for what he has done.

[35:40] I am the halver and the omega. The past and the last. The beginning and the end. Jesus is coming. He will repay us. And sometimes.

[35:51] I want to say. He begins to bless us. And to repay us. Even in this world. So. That we can serve. Him. As for the weekend servant.

[36:03] As for the weekend servant. We know it was not good. We know that he was told. You are less.

[36:15] You are less. Even what you have. Will be taken. Was taken. What he had was taken. And given to the one. Who had 10. And so sometimes. I want to say.

[36:26] That God may give us resources. And depending on how we use them. I do not know. They may be given to other people. They may be given to other people.

[36:40] This was not a good thing. For this servant. Because what he had. Was given. To the one. Who had more. And therefore. It was not good.

[36:51] One. Bible commendator. Commending on this verse. Said this. Grace never condones. Irresponsibility. And lessness.

[37:03] Even those. Given less. Are obligated. To use. And to develop that. They have. Grace. Never condones.

[37:14] Irresponsibility. And lessness. We have God's grace. Yes. But it doesn't call us. To be less. And to just compromise. We have to work. With what God.

[37:26] Has given. Us. It's my prayer. That. We will keep in mind. These points. That we have established.

[37:38] Number one. Number one. It is that. God. We are God's servants. And everything that we have.

[37:49] All our resources. All our resources. Are trusted towards by God. And number two. Number two. God knows our abilities. And our resources.

[38:01] It doesn't matter how little they are. God knows them. And he is not asking anything. Anything more than that. Number three. God requires faithfulness. Faithfulness. Regardless of how minimal.

[38:12] Our abilities and our resources are. And the faithfulness means so many things. Honesty. Transparency. Obedience. Uptightness. Hard work. And the like.

[38:23] Number four. God rewards his servants. How do what. They have done. Here. And in the life to come. So I thought of this.

[38:37] I thought of some practical examples. Just practical examples. To help us understand this a little bit. And cement it a little bit. So you can include.

[38:47] I remember the story of Saul. King Saul. Write it down. And you can read it later. Samuel 15. Only one.

[38:58] The story of Saul. It's a very good illustration. Of unfaithfulness. Saul. Was given instruction. Very clear instruction. Go and strike Amalekites.

[39:11] Destroy all of them. Devote them to destruction. We know the story. He goes. He looks. After defeating the Amalekites.

[39:24] He is attracted by sheep. And auction. That are good. And they take some of them. When Samuel approached him. He says.

[39:35] You know. People are also trying to find excuse. You know. The men you gave me. The people. Have taken the best. Sheep. And auction. To offer.

[39:47] To your Lord. You know. Even not to. To offer to your Lord. That's what he said. We know the story was not good. As a result of that. Disobedience.

[39:58] And unfaithfulness. He was rejected. He was rejected as a king. It's a long story. It was not good. Because he was not faithful.

[40:09] To what God. Had given. Him. There is also a story. Of. Of. The time of Joshua. The time. Also in the time of Joshua.

[40:20] A man called. Akan. Akan. When they went. And they were fighting. At. Ai.

[40:32] Ai. And the man. A man called. Akan. Akan. He went. They were taught again. To destroy everything. But this guy. He saw gold. And the silver.

[40:43] And the other good cloths. He took them. And hid them in his tent. As a result. The Israelites were defeated. Like nothing. So Joshua goes to the Lord.

[40:55] What is this happening? And God reveals to Joshua. And he tells them. There is a man there. A man who has done. What is not good.

[41:06] And as a result. God is allowing them. To defeat them. It was not a good thing. Akan and his family. And all what he had had. Were taken.

[41:17] And they were burnt alive. So that God will continue. Working with Israelites. I thank God. Because today. We have God's grace. God's grace.

[41:28] Even when we don't meet. His standard. He is giving us grace. So that we can realize. Where we can improve. And move on. But there is a story.

[41:39] Of two people. That I love. In the Bible. The story of Joseph. It's a wonderful story. This man was so faithful. Even to a king.

[41:49] He would never knew the Lord. To the point where. The king did not know anything. In his house. He was faithful. And when his. Waiver approached him.

[42:00] We know. To a relationship with him. This man stood. And said. How can I do this. Again as my king. Who has given me everything. Authority of everything.

[42:11] But now. Here you are. And he said. I can't do this sin. Before the Lord. A man who was faithful. To God. And faithful. Even to the earthly kings.

[42:24] And because of that. God. Was with Joseph. Even during hard times. Sometimes. When we are faithful brothers. I'm not promising that. It's going to be bread and butter.

[42:36] It's going to be hard. It's going to be hard. When you are faithful. Even where you work. People are going to think you are stupid. You don't take things from people. But you know what?

[42:46] God is seeing you. And he's seeing me. And he's telling you. Be faithful. Regardless of the situation. And God. Knows what to do with you. And he'll protect you.

[42:57] Even when people are against you. He'll give you the grace to endure. That. Even that boss. That you doesn't care about you. And your faith. My friends.

[43:08] It has to be so strong. To be faithful before the Lord. And this is what God is calling us to do. I remember the story of. The story of Caleb. You know.

[43:18] The man who was faithful. He did what God. Wanted him to. And he prolonged his life. He gave him the strength. My friends. It doesn't matter.

[43:29] What you do. Even in the church. It does not matter. Reminds me of a old man. In one local church. In the rural areas. Where they had no toilets.

[43:40] Like flush toilets. We have here. They had pit latrine. And this man. Somehow. He just realized. It was good. To have a clean. Pit. Toilet.

[43:51] And they would wake up. Very early in the morning. Every Sunday. And they go. And they clean the toilet. And they put ashes. You know ashes. Like a sanitizer. Because there was nothing. You could do.

[44:02] You would use. That hood ashes. Hush. And they put it there. And they make sure. That it's very clean. For some reason. He did not even want people to know.

[44:13] Who used to clean. Those toilets. The kids. After Sunday school. They would come and mess them. But you still go. And they clean. So when this man passed on.

[44:25] The pastor and the leaders. Of the local church. Found that the place was so bad. It was clean. Until they realized. And they realized.

[44:35] The old man. What he used to do. Cleaning that toilet. I know of another local church. Somewhere. In the city. Where there is dust. Because our roads are not good sometimes.

[44:46] And this woman. Young woman. Offered herself. To be cleaning the peels. On Saturday afternoon. Or evening. Early evening. Or on Sunday morning.

[44:57] And she would come. And pack her car out there. And clean the peels. One day. This man came.

[45:07] With his own car. And he found this woman. Cleaning the peels. And she was. He was thinking. She was an employee. A very poor woman.

[45:18] Who was just employed. To do the work. Of cleaning the peels. And when she finished. Cleaning the peels. The man said. Sister. Can I give you a ride. To the place.

[45:28] Where you live. This lady said. No. I'm okay. And as. She walked out. They walked outside. This woman took her keys.

[45:39] And got in her car. And she went off. This man was like. What? This woman. Has even. How many cars. She has everything. And yet. She is doing.

[45:50] This very low work. In the church. My friends. It does not matter. What we do. It is God's faithfulness.

[46:01] I believe. That is so important. Those who are going to preach. Those who are going to organize. This mic. So that you can be able. To hear what I'm saying. Those who are going to take care of the kids.

[46:13] Those who are going to organize finances. Because not everybody is gifted in organizing finances. God is just telling us. All the abilities. And the resources that we have.

[46:25] Are given to us. By God. And God wants faithfulness. I have been moved by faithfulness of many people. One church.

[46:37] In the Boston area. Where we did our masters. It was a very small church. And one day. We visited the local church. This church.

[46:47] Many of the people there. Were retired people. My friends. Old women. Retired. And as I talked with the pastor. This was our fourth year. As we were finishing our masters.

[46:59] At Gordon Coney World. Theological Seminary. In New England. I just went there. To say thank you. To this local church. With my wife. And as we listened.

[47:09] To the story of the pastor. And the mission. Committee there. They said. We committed ourselves. To you. When you came. And although our congregation. Has not been increasing.

[47:21] And we have been struggling. Pastor told me. The mission said. They will continue supporting. The missionaries. That they had committed to. And the pastor.

[47:34] Even he was. Forced to do attend making. And his wife was working. For them. To support themselves. But yet. They were there. Supporting us. I want to say this.

[47:48] These are some of the things. That moved me. Within my wife. Even when we finished. Our school here. We never stayed. One year. Of practical. We had to go back.

[47:59] Because I looked at. The faithfulness. Of men and women. Who support us. In different places. Some in Kenya. Some here. I mean. It was time for us to go.

[48:10] As of the Lord. When you look at. The faithfulness. Of the people. What do we do. In Kenya. Of traveling. To different places. And reaching pastors. Training them. On how to preach.

[48:20] Biblical mass messengers. And teaching. In different seminaries. That have no money. To pay us. We. We are not. About to do it. Without. Also men.

[48:31] And women. Few churches. Men and women. Who have stood with us. So. As the Lord. Will be rewarding us. For what we have been doing. I know.

[48:43] They shall be rewarded. For we could not do it. Without them. May the Lord. Be with us. And whatever gift. He has given you. My brother. And my sister.

[48:53] My mom. My dad. Use it. For God's glory. As we are in defense. The kingdom of God. Let's pray. Our father.

[49:08] And our God. This morning. We want to thank you. For you speak. To us. Through your word. And your word. Is so clear to us.

[49:18] We thank you. For your grace. And for your mercy. Because many times. We do not. Measure.

[49:28] To your standards. Maybe many times. We don't use the gifts. The resources. The abilities. That you have given us. To serve you.

[49:40] I pray. And I thank you. Because of your mercy. And your grace. May you cause us. To evaluate. Ourselves. And our abilities.

[49:50] And the resources. And cause us. To move. To be quickly. Not to waste time. Like the man.

[50:01] Who was given. Five talents. To go immediately. And begin. To serve you. And find opportunities. To serve you. As we continue.

[50:12] Cause. Building the body of Christ. Because all together. We are supposed to serve you. To build one another. To identify one another.

[50:23] And also. To advance. Your gospel. Because there are many. Who have not heard the gospel. Thank you. For this local church. Thank you. For the pastors. Thank you. For the elders. Thank you.

[50:34] For each member. And I ask you. To bless them. And I continue. Abholding them. With your gracious hands. We thank you. In Christ's name we pray. And ask.

[50:45] Amen.