PASTOR’S CORNER: Well done, good and faithful servant

Community, I just want to encourage all Christian believers to be faithful. These are the words that every Christian should want to hear at the end of life’s journey. It is the crowning moment for a lifetime of service devoted to doing God’s will here on earth. When all is said and done, when the final analysis has been calculated, when we stick our sword in the sand and the battle has been fought and the victory has been won, we don’t want our work to be in vain.

Somebody once said, “Payday is coming after while.” When you’ve done all that you can do and have gone the last mile of the way, this is what we want to hear from our Lord and Savior. Let this be an encouragement to those who are on the battlefield and on the front line who actively engage in doing the true ministry of what we have been called and put here to do.

To faithful Christians, keep on keeping on. Use the gift that God gave you. Put to work what God has put in your hand and don’t sit on your gift for there will be a day of accountability. After the preaching is over, after the singing is over, after coming to church week after week, after the last “Community Day,” after we have shared our faith with others, after the fat lady has sung, we must give an account of what we have done.

Paul said to the church of Corinth in II Corinthians 5:10, ”For we all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ to give an account of the things done in our body according to what we have done whether they be good or evil.”

Today is the week after our Community Day outreach. Heaven took notice of what we did on last Saturday, and a record has been kept of all of the hands on deck that was a part of this outreach mission. I believe that God was well pleased with our effort, for there is a crown for soul-winning, the crown of rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 2:19; Philippians 4:1).

For if you want to make God smile, become a soul winner for him. If we want to please him, become a soul winner.

We find Jesus on the Mt. of Olives talking privately to his disciples. Here, he gives the parable of the stewardship of talents (Matthew 25:14-30). He said, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling into a far country who called his servants and delivered unto them his goods. To one he gave five talents, to another he gave two talents, and to another he gave one, and he took his journey.”

He who received five talents went and traded and made them another five talents. He who received two gained two more. But he that received one talent went and dug in the earth and hid his lord’s money. After a long time, the lord of those servants comes and reckons with them.

In other words, he called them to account. Please note that each servant in this parable was given money (a talent was worth about 20 years’ wages) according to his ability. The man with much ability was given five talents; the man with average ability received two talents; the man with minimal ability received one talent.

The talents represent opportunities to use our abilities. If five talents were given to a person with minimal ability, he would be destroyed by the heavy responsibility. But if only one talent were given to a man of great ability, he would be disgraced and degraded. God assigns work and] opportunity according to ability. We have been assigned our ministries according to the abilities and gifts God has given us. It is our privilege to serve the Lord and multiply…multiply His goods.

The three servants fell into two categories: faithful and unfaithful. The faithful servants took their talents and put them to work for their Lord. They exercised their gifts. The unfaithful servant hid his talent in the earth. Instead of using his opportunities, he buried them! The two men who put their money to work each received the same commendation (Matthew 25:21, 23). They were faithful with a few things, so the Lord trusted them with many things. They had worked and toiled, and now they entered into joy. The unfaithful man was dealt with by the Lord, he lost his opportunity for service, and he gained no praise or reward.

Community, all of us can be a soul winner. We may not have the gift to sing; everybody can’t be an officer in the church. Everybody is not a good speaker or can-do administrative work in the church. But all of us can tell somebody what Jesus has done for us. We all can witness about his saving grace. It will be a sad day when we meet our savior at the Judgment seat of Christ in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:10) and bring nobody with us.

So, Christians, let all of us keep on, keeping on. Somebody said in a song “Sometimes the work we do seem so small; sometimes it seems like nothing at all; but when we stand before our God, we want to hear him say well done; make the work we do speak for us!” When we give an account for all the services that we do, like the faithful servants in our scripture, we want to hear him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”