11-15-2026

“READY WITH WHAT GOD GIVES”

Text: Matthew 25:14-30 – Pentecost 25

Sunday November 15th, 2026

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 25TH Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel lesson – Matthew 25 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that we are prepared for your return or our death by remaining in what keeps us ready, your word and sacraments which also enable us to share this eternal wealth with others. Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

Some people—even people who don’t play the lottery—fantasize about what they would do if they won all that money. What would you do?

In November 2022, the Powerball lottery awarded the largest jackpot ever won in a lottery here in the United States: $2.04 billion. The previous high, in January of 2016, was $1.586 billion. Hardly worth playing that time, though, since the prize was split among three people, so each of them got a measly $533 million before taxes.

The recipient of the third-largest lottery prize was more fortunate. In October of 2018, the Mega Millions prize of $1.537 billion was won by a single person in South Carolina, and in July of 2022 the Mega Millions jackpot of $1.32 billion was won by another single winner in Illinois. But there was still that tax problem.

I suppose that most people—even people who have never played the lottery—have mused from time to time about what they would do if they won such a prize. Quit their job? Buy a new car? Take a vacation? What would you do?

We have a greater treasure—to be used (Mt 25:14).

         Imagine, then, how the slaves Jesus mentions in his parable, our text, must have felt. Their master entrusted each of them with a fortune and left it to them to decide what to do with it. One was entrusted with an amount equal to about eighty years’ wages, the second with over thirty years’ wages, and the last with about sixteen years’ wages.

Dreaming of such things might be a pleasant way to pass a few minutes, but it doesn’t help us actually live our lives today.

  3. How we are to live our lives today is what this parable is really all about.

a.  In last Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus told the parable of

the ten bridesmaids waiting for the bridegroom

to come.

(1) Five of them were prepared with lamps and oil to wait out the night.

(2) Five were unprepared and ended up missing out on the wedding feast.

(3) Jesus used that parable to teach us to watch for his coming and be ready at all times, since we cannot know the day or the hour he’ll come.

b. That parable leaves us with an admonition to watch and be prepared, but it also suggests an unanswered question: How should we live our lives in order to be prepared for Jesus’ coming?

(1) In our Gospel for this Sunday and next Sunday, Jesus answers that question and gives us two important things to do as we wait and prepare for the day of his return.

(2) Today we look at the first thing Jesus teaches us to do as we wait for his return (vv 14–15).

c.  Some of the parables of Jesus can be difficult to understand, but not this one. The story is simple, and the message is clear (vv 16–30).

(1) Two of the servants took what they had and invested it. When their master returned, they were able to give him back twice what he had entrusted to them. And he commended them for their efforts.

(2) The third servant was afraid he might lose what he was entrusted, so he hid it away and kept it safe. When his master returned, the third servant gave his master back what he had received.

But his master condemned him for failing even to try to increase what he was given.

2. This parable teaches us the way we should live using the very special treasure God has given his Church.

a.  Quite often in sermons on this text, the preacher emphasizes how we should use all the gifts we have received from God—our intelligence, our skills and abilities, our relationships, our wealth—in a God-pleasing way. That is, of course, true as far as it goes.

b. But that is not the point here. You see, God gives those kinds of gifts to everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. This text is about how we use the special treasure God has given alone to his servants, the Church, for the building up of his kingdom.

(1) And the most valuable of the riches that God entrusts to us is not any material or intellectual or emotional blessing.

(2) It is the message of the Gospel.

c.  Here is where the connection between the parable and our lives ends. The parable is a story, and it invites us to fantasize about what we would do in that situation.

d. God has entrusted you with an even greater treasure than a lifetime’s wealth to do with what you will. The riches that God has given to you are real. There is no fantasy here.

(1) Christ really died on the cross and paid for the sins of the whole world, your sins.

(2) Christ really rose from the grave, declaring that God has forgiven you all your sins and you will rise forever too.

(3) You actually have the riches of the Gospel. And not just as a temporary trust like the servants in the parable. God’s riches are really yours, today and forever. You know what he has done for you.

(a) Each day you awaken to a new life in Jesus.

(b) Your sins washed clean in his baptismal flood.

(c) Your conscience freed from the burden of guilt.

(d) You live each day in the certainty of his love for you.

1. The question the parable forces us to face is, “How will we respond in faith by using all these riches of the Gos­pel God has given us?”

a. Some in the church tend to respond to the hostility that the world shows to the Gospel by trying to protect it and keep it safe.

(1)    They know God is a righteous judge who demands that we keep the Gospel pure and unpolluted.

(2)    In their desire to keep the Gospel safe, they feel they have to hide it away from the world.

(a) We do that by withdrawing from contact with the world into our own secluded and protected communities.

(b) We bury ourselves, and the Gospel with us. That way we can ensure that neither we nor the Gospel will be corrupted by the influence of the world.

b. But you understand what the parable means:

God Desires That We Take the Riches of the Gospel into the World and “Put It to Work.”

c. God has promised to bless that work, so that on the day of Jesus’ return we can give to him the fruit that the Gospel bears in the world: lives saved by the proclamation of the saving love of Jesus Christ.

In that day, you who share the love of Jesus will not only know the joy that comes with sharing his love with others, but you will also receive his blessing: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.