6) All three servants are judged solely on their works, not on their position or status. When you get saved, you become a child of God - you have a position, a status as a child of God. What is evaluated is not your status, but what you did, once you had that status - it's your stewardship, as a servant.
In the Parable of the Minas, you've got three servants. Then, the next group of people are the citizens who refuse to let the master rule - and he deals with them differently. You've got His servants; and then you've got those who refused his rule. The ones who refused his rule are clearly unsaved - people who have rejected Christ; Jews and Gentiles, and they're dealt with differently to the servants.
The servants are all called to give account for stewardship, all at the same time. The citizens who resisted Christ, and rejected His rule over them, rejected His kingdom - God deals with them differently, and on a different basis. So very clearly, the servant is a Christian.
Now we're going to look a bit further at the third servant, and I want to look at: how did he fail? What's the lesson we need to learn?
Here's how he failed... He did not place value on what God had entrusted him. He undervalued what God had given him. Think about it. Many people look, and they see: I'm not as gifted as someone else, haven't got as much education, I'm not as smart as someone else. I haven't got the training someone else has, I'm not a good talker like someone else is… We make other people the focus, and we compare ourselves unfavourably and then undervalue what we do have. That's a big problem for Christians.
God is not interested in what you have. He's interested in what you do with what you've got.
For example, with Moses, He said: what have you got in your hand? He said: I've just got a shepherd's rod. God said: okay, I'll use that - I will deliver a nation, with a shepherd's rod.
The lady that Elijah visited, she said: I've got nothing, we're about to die. He said: what do you have in your house? She said: I've just got a little pot of oil. That will do, and the power of God came on that, and the whole house was fed for a year!
You find constantly, the stories where people looked down on the ‘little’ they had, but when it was yielded to the Lord it became very powerful and very effective. What about the feeding the 5000? How do we feed 5000 people? Well, has anyone got anything? One boy has got a little bit of lunch, some bread and some fish. He said: that will do. Let's bring that, and make that available, and that can then minister to a crowd.
Every one of us must look at how much I have, or what I could do, and not be limited in our thinking and contain ourselves. We should take what we have, present it to the Lord and let Him bless it, so the blessing and anointing comes on what we have, when we make it available to Him. Then He can do far more, through one little act of kindness, than you could ever imagine.
It's very easy to look and think, I haven't done anything, and then find that actually, the little that you did carried on, and had huge impact.
I remember hearing a story of a guy in a church, and he was only casual in his attendance at church, he would come just once a month. The pastor discovered he just loved vehicles, loved cars, and so he approached him and said: there's a lady just not far from where you live, and you pass her place on the way. How about you take her to church next Sunday when you come? He said: yeah, sure, I can do that – it’s a very little thing. He picked up the lady and took her to church. Anyway, the pastor asked him the next month… would you do that again? So, he did it again, and then he decided he'd like to do it a bit more often, so he started to take her every fortnight, and then he took her every week. Soon he's bringing her every week, and the pastor just kept encouraging him, and appreciating what he had. Eventually, the guy ended up in charge of the whole transport ministry, for the whole church. It's a big church, 5000, and he got such a passion and a joy out of just - it started with just picking up that first person, and he had a huge impact with it.