Buried Treasure
From the Series—The Ministry Matrix
August 27, 2003This evotional begins a new series titled The Ministry Matrix.
While on vacation last week we walked the Rehobeth Beach boardwalk one evening after most of the swimmers and sunbathers had called it a day. There was a lone beachcomber with a metal detector looking for buried treasure in the sand. It brought back memories of boyhood vacations. My Uncle Allen had a metal detector, and when you’re eight years-old, that easily qualifies your uncle as very cool. I remember shadowing him as he combed the beach looking for buried treasure. We found old pop cans and bottle caps. We found lots of rusty metal and a few old coins. To an eight year-old, all of it was buried treasure. There’s something about buried treasure that never loses it’s storybook charm.
A few nights ago I was reading to Parker and Summer before bed. We picked up a book on Pirates on vacation. It told the story of Captain Kidd who was captured and executed by the English, but not before he buried his treasure. Legend has it that his treasure may have been buried on Oak Island off the coast of Canada . In 1795, a hundred years after Kidd died, a young boy found a 150 foot shaft that became known as “the money pit of Oak Island.” Over the last few centuries treasure seekers and divers have lost their lives trying to uncover the treasure because the shaft was booby trapped. The last sentence said, “For all we know, it may still be there today.” I’ll be honest. I wanted to tuck my kids into bed, pack a suitcase and head off to Oak Island.
I’ve always been captivated by buried treasure. I think that’s why I love pastoring. There isn’t a person reading this evotional that doesn’t have some buried treasure: a gift that no one knows about, a passion that no one knows about, a talent that no one knows about, a dream that no one knows about. No one knows because it’s buried. There is untapped potential lurking beneath the surface of your life!
Talent
In the parable of the talents, Jesus tells a story about three servants. Two of them are good and faithful --they double their money and have a 100% ROI (return on investment). The other servant is lazy and wicked --he buries his talent in the ground.
Let me share a few thoughts about the good and faithful servants. In both cases the master says, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.”
There is a pattern in this passage and it’s the pattern throughout Scripture: when we are faithful in a few things God expands our responsibilities. God doesn’t give big jobs until you do the little jobs. The little jobs are proving grounds that reveal character. And if we are faithful with a few things, God gives us more things to do.
It doesn’t say, “You have been faithful with a few things, retire.” “You have been faithful with a few things, go on vacation.” “You have been faithful with a few things, delegate.” It says, “You have been faithful with a few things. I will put him in charge of many things.” In the kingdom of God , the reward for good work is more work.
Easy Street
To be perfectly honest, pastoring National Community Church was easier a year ago. And it was even easier two years ago. It’s just a lot easier leading a church of 200 or 400 people than it is leading a church of 600 people. And the truth is, leading a church of 600 people is a lot easier than leading a church of 1200 or 12,000 people. Why? It’s more work! More responsibility is more demanding!
Here is what I blogged online just a few weeks ago:
The bigger the vision the bigger the price tag. Leading a growing church versus leading a stagnant church is the difference between a leisurely walk on level ground and climbing a sixty-degree slope. Growth is breathtaking and exhausting.
But if we have a choice between “taking it easy” and reaching more people for Christ we’ll never choose “taking it easy.” I just had to come to terms with the fact that doing what God has called us to do isn’t easy street. Maybe you should read that twice! When I read Scripture, never once do I see God giving someone a vision to do something easy! Never! What I’m trying to say is this: when you are faithful with a few things it doesn’t get easier. It gets harder. You don’t have less to do. You have more to do!
But I love what Margaret Thatcher says, “Look at a day when you were supremely satisfied at its end. It’s not a day when you lounged around doing nothing. It’s when you’ve had everything to do and you’ve done it.” I’d just take it one step further. Look at a life that is supremely satisfying. It’s not a life when you lounged around doing nothing. It’s when you had everything to do and you did it.
I think some of us live our lives as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. When I die I want to crawl across the finish line with nothing left to give.
The image that comes to mind is a story that I heard Jim Collins, author of Good to Great , tell a few weeks ago. His wife, Joanne, competed in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii and actually won the event. She swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and then ran the 26.2 mile marathon. After completing the swimming portion and biking portion of the race she was way ahead, but she started to lose her lead during the Marathon. She was ahead by 9 minutes with 9 miles left and she started to cramp up. Every mile she lost a minute. 8 miles 8 minutes. 7 miles 7 minutes. Finally, at the 3 mile mark, she stopped. Jim Collins was watching at the finish line on the NBC monitors and he thought it was over with. But Joanne started pounding her legs with her fists. And then she started running again. 2 miles 2 minutes. 1 mile 1 minute. She won the competition by 26 seconds!
In II Timothy 4:6, it’s almost as if Paul has reached the three-mile marker. He says, “I am being poured out like a drink offering.” In other words, “I’ve given it everything I’ve got.” He’s pounding his legs, screaming at them to give him three more miles. Then Paul approaches the finish line with nothing left to give. “The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
I had a thought this week. I want to live a long life, but I’d rather live a full life. And there’s a difference. In all honesty, I don’t think I’m a good candidate for a long life because I’ve got issues! I’ve had asthma since the age of three and have less than half the lung capacity of a normal person. I also have a foot less intestines that most people. A few years ago I almost died when my intestines ruptured. One reason it happened is that hardly anyone under sixty gets diverticulitis. The doctors totally underestimated how above average I am!
I want to live a long life, but if I had to choose between a long life and a full life I’d choose a full life. Jesus died before his 34th birthday! He didn’t live a long life, but he lived a full life. At the end of my life I want to be driving on bald tires with no tread left. And I want the gas tank to be on “Empty.” I want to sputter across the finish line with nothing left to give. I want to give God everything I’ve got because that’s all that counts. And that’s what stewardship is all about.
Potential
Let me switch gears and talk about the servant who buried his talent. Here is what Jesus says to him. “You wicked, lazy servant! You know that I harvest where I have not sown and gather there I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”
I’ve read the parable of the talents countless times but I read it differently this week. Jesus calls this servant lazy and wicked. If we’re being candid, the word “wicked” seems a little harsh doesn’t it? All of us would call him ‘lazy.” He just buries his talent. He doesn’t do anything with it. That’s a no-brainer. No one flinches when Jesus calls him lazy, but Jesus doesn’t stop there. He calls him “wicked.” It made me flinch this week. And I’ve learned to take a deeper look at passages of Scripture that make me flinch. Or to use Morpheus terminology, since we’re in the Matrix series, it was a “splinter in my mind.”
When I think of the word “wicked” I think of terrorists. Wicked is pretty extreme language. If he hadn’t buried the talent, but used it for some evil purpose I wouldn’t have a problem calling him “wicked.” But he actually returned exactly what was given to him. He was given one talent and he gave one talent back. And Jesus calls that “wicked.”
Is it possible that God’s view of human potential is very different than our view of human potential? Is it possible that our understanding of righteousness is wrong or at least incomplete? Is it possible that the word “wicked” needs to be redefined?
When we think of talent, Erwin McManus says we tend to put it in the category of “value added.” So when someone doesn’t use their talent there is no gain and no loss. We consider it a waste, but we don’t consider it wicked. Maybe it’s because we have a one-sided view of righteousness. We think of holiness as the elimination of sin. And when you view righteousness as not doing anything wrong instead of doing something right, this servant is a-OK. But maybe what we consider a waste Jesus considers wicked. Maybe God isn’t just concerned with the elimination of sin. Maybe God is ultimately concerned with what we do with our God-given potential. Erwin McManus says it like it is. “When we neglect our God-given capacity, when we refuse to maximize our God-given potential, it is wickedness in the sight of God.”
Potent
When you’re young, one of the greatest compliments you can receive is “you’ve got potential.” I loved hearing that whether it was in the classroom or on the basketball court. It meant someone believed in me. It meant someone saw who I could become. Telling someone they’ve got potential when they’re sixteen is a huge compliment. If you’re sixty-five and someone comes up to you and says to you, “You’ve got potential.” It’s not a compliment. It’s a huge insult.
In his book, Seizing Your Divine Moment, Erwin McManus says, “What once was a statement of promise is now an assessment of lost opportunity. There is a point where you’re not supposed to be full of potential; you’re supposed to be full of talent, capacity, productivity. Potential is a glimpse of what could be, yet there must be a shift from where we have potential to where we are potent.”
H.G. Wells said the only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have been and what we have become. John Maxwell put it this way. “Potential is God’s gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God.”
I’ll never forget sitting in a Sunday School class at Lakeshore Church in Chicago . I can’t remember what the lesson was about, but it was a eureka moment for me. I was in Seminary, and for the first time in my life, I summarized my life in a single sentence. It has evolved over the years, but I’ll never forget what I said. It’s going to seem anti-climatic to you. But it was an epiphany for me. I said, “My purpose in life is to help people reach their God-given potential.” To be honest, I didn’t think it was all that spiritual. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s at the epicenter of what God wants to do in each of us. He wants us to use the talent he’s given to us.
The Red Pill
You have a choice to make: use it or lose it. That’s the big idea in the parable of the talents. You can bury your talent. Or you can invest it.
There is a scene in the Matrix where Neo meets Morpheus for the first time and they have a philosophical discussion. Morpheus says, “No one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” Then Morpheus gives Neo two choices: a blue pill and a red pill. Morpheus says, “You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.”
That’s what happens with too many evotionals. You’re inspired and motivated and excited, but you go to bed and wake up the next day and the story ends. You took the blue pill.
Then Morpheus offers Neo the red pill and says, “You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
The goal of this evotional is simple: enter the ministry matrix. This is not about “filling slots.” Emmanuel Kant said the first imperative of human behavior was to never treat another human being as a means, but only as ends. You are not a means to an end.
That doesn’t mean we don’t need you. We do. But this isn’t about church growth. This is about your spiritual growth. You will never experience the fulfillment and fruitfulness you were designed to experience until you enter the ministry matrix.
Disclaimer: if you’re looking for excuses you’ll find excuses not to enter the ministry matrix. “I’ve got too many classes this semester.” “I’m just in a busy season in my life.” “I’m out of town too much.” If you’re looking for excuses you’ll find excuses.
And the truth is: the larger we get as a church the easier it is to hide. It’s easy to sit back and say, “ Someone else will do it.” But church is not a spectator sport. The irony is: the larger we get the more we need you. Someone else won’t do it. One of our core values is everyone is invaluable and irreplaceable. You are not part of this church by accident . You are part of this church by divine appointment.
Quit making excuses. Take the red pill.