Matthew 25 and Paul

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0:00 The rest of us, this is our last week talking about vocation. And we've been talking about vocation, thinking about what should we do with ourselves? How do we know what God has for us to do in the world? And it's nice that we're not the first ones. One of our four core values is lineage, that we're not the first ones to try and be church in the world or follow Jesus with our life. The church has existed for generations and thought about a lot of the questions that we have.

0:34 And this question about how do we know what we're called to? The church has thought about and developed a system of thinking about it that we put under the heading of vocation. And then they divide vocation into three arenas so that you have vocations, plural, and they come in these three arenas of family, church, and what we're calling neighborhood, what is sometimes called your civic vocation. But you have vocation in the family, in the church, and in the neighborhood.

1:05 And this is how God works in the world. God works in the world through you. And so God has intended that you don't have to wonder in what way would God like to work in the world through you. He's put you in vocations. You can't escape them. You come into a family and then there are obligations and opportunities in that family. And then you are called into a church and there are opportunities and obligations in that church. And then you exist inside of a neighborhood, a place with neighbors.

1:38 And you have roles and responsibilities there. And we've been looking at what are the roles and responsibilities, what are the opportunities to be used by God in those three arenas. And I just want to use this week to talk about neighborhood one more time. What are you called to in the civic or the neighborhood area? And this includes two weeks ago we talked to Eliza and she talked about in her work how she

2:09 understands where sidewalks are, how traffic patterns move around cities as an opportunity to love her neighbor. It was really a cool conversation. And so this includes like being a neighbor in the world and the work that you do. And to think about it a little bit further I want to look at this parable in Matthew chapter 25 if you want to follow along. It's Matthew chapter 25 starting at verse 14. Jesus is in the middle of a teaching. He's teaching a couple of parables in a row about

2:43 how the kingdom of God operates. It's actually like these two parables about the kingdom of God how it will operate sandwiched between two teachings about the end, about the return of Christ. So it's really interesting because it's like no one knows when he's coming back at the end of chapter 24 and then a parable about how to live and then a second parable about how to live and then another

3:14 teaching about the Son of Man returning. So it's really about how do we occupy ourselves waiting for the return of Christ this parable and he teaches it by using this story. So it starts at verse 14. I'll just read through it because it's a story that's told in a couple of the gospels but not exactly the same way. And so I'll just read through it so we hear the context of how Matthew describes it and then we'll think about it together for a few minutes. For it will be like he says the kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted

3:49 to them his property. To one he gave five talents to another two to another one to each according to his ability and then he went away. And he who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also he who had two talents made two talents more but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after

4:20 a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with him and he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more saying master you delivered to me five talents here I have made five talents more and his master said to him well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little and I will make you faithful over much and turn to the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying master you have delivered me to me two talents here I have made two talents more and he said to him

4:54 well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little I will set you over much enter into your mass the joy of your master. He also who had received the one talent came forward saying master I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not so and gathering where you scattered no seed so I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground and here you have what is yours but his master answered him you wicked and slothful servant you knew that I reap

5:25 where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest so take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents for to everyone who has more will be given and he who will have an and he will have an abundance but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness and the place there will be weeping and gnashing the teeth this story I remember the first time I really heard

6:00 this story actually I didn't hear the story I just heard that like phrase well done faith good and faithful servant and the reason it always sticks with me is because it was a conversation I was having with my dad's dad my grandpa whom I really liked and it was shortly after my grandmother had died and he was thinking about death he was getting older himself and and he was thinking about the idea of the life to come and what he was looking forward to and he was saying he kind

6:34 of got teary you know old men get teary and he kind of got teary and said that the first thing he was really looking forward to is submitting Jesus and hearing well done the good and faithful servant he really was hoping that he had lived a life where he would be able to hear that and I was young and liked my grandpa and thought wow he made that up that sounds awesome right well done my good and faithful servant of course he didn't make it up I found out later it comes from this parable and so people assume and rightly that Jesus is teaching that heaven operates like this master and the

7:09 masters in the place of God and God greets servants that say this well done I good and faithful servant when they've done well and so then to figure out how we should spend our life it's worth looking at the parable to try and figure out what Jesus is teaching about it and it starts off with understanding these talents and talent is like a transcription or a transliteration from the Greek word talent it originates here in this story so we have an idea of talent you have talents you may be talented in one way or another but that is a derivation from this Greek word the Greek

7:44 word has no kind of metaphorical it's all about a weight of metal it's all about money it's not about your personal talents it's just about money and over time when we've interpreted this reading back into it the English word for talent but that's not there in the Greek it's really interesting I kind of confirmed that this week looking through a couple of things a talent is a lot of money actually one talent is equal to x number of denari like they do some like math

8:19 you know the best guess is a talent is about what it would take a regular laborer to earn in half a lifetime one talent so this master calls together these three servants and gives one five talents what is that how many lifetimes is that i can't do the math two and a half thank you two and a half lifetimes of money for a regular day labor five then he gives the next guy

8:55 two then he gives the next guy one gives these talents out and you don't presume that he gives away all of what he has maybe he did maybe divided up everything he had to these three servants but he doesn't say that just as he gets so this guy is like doing fine maybe you know something like that who's doing just fine who has a couple of lifetimes worth of money Jesus tells us parable and he uses says the kingdom of heaven operates

9:31 like this and when i realized that Jesus is using a parable telling a story about money and not a little bit of money this isn't a widow's might story this is a lot of money he's using a parable uh saying the kingdom of heaven operates like this commerce situation first time ever thought about that holy cow he takes for granted that we know that the best thing you can do with money is make more money out of it or that what would be expected of money is to make more money

10:05 out of it really interesting before we get there we're going to pull that apart just a little bit but before we get there the other thing that i caught in this that i hadn't caught before he gives away the talents it says he gave five two uh talents two and then to another two and to another one to each according to their ability well that's interesting isn't it he says the heaven operates like this that people are given different amounts of stuff in life

10:38 not according to their worth or according to their value but definitely according to their ability it says that each of these three people were unique and given something based on that uniqueness in the end then of course he doesn't expect the guy with two talents to return five talents he just expects him to return an extra two like to to return with proportionate to what he's been given but definitely uh he expects different things

11:16 from the different servants and i think this is important too like um if heaven operates like this you have you're you're not the same it's not a um everybody it's not what's the word like uh yeah it's not like we're all standing at the same place it's like the difference between um oh my brain stopped but you know the picture where it's like you put different people on boxes

11:51 so they can all see over the fence equity instead of equality or something we're not all the same we're different but in that difference is creating the opportunity for all of us to achieve and move forward so you don't have to be the same as everybody else you're distinct but yet you're still expected in your distinction to produce something when we get down to uh this last part the part so we get the premise he's giving out this money

12:27 a different amount of money to each person though it's a lot in every case more than you would expect if you're a servant working for this guy taking care of things and he gives you this two and a half lifetimes worth of money to manage one whole lifetime worth of money to manage the amount of money it would take you half your life to earn what an opportunity you have

12:58 he didn't he doesn't put stipulations on it though they say they know what kind of duty is but he gives them this thing and it's like okay i'll be back later do something with it i wrote in my notes like um to get in the game like the great value the virtue of the guys that produce something and the vice of the one that didn't seems basically like the one that didn't just didn't do anything

13:38 i was reading a little bit and sticking it in the ground there's a little bit of grace you might give him like um bankers weren't like uh they were kind of sketchy at the time like in first century like it's not like bankers now where it's fdic insured and you know everything's going to be protected right like at the time it was basically like giving it to money lenders and based on who you picked their credibility or or integrity might be different so you had a little bit of sketchiness but it seems like the greatest virtue is actually get out there and try something

14:13 he's like wanting them to do something like i gave you two and a half lifetimes worth of money go get in the game and do something and i think this is really important for us as we think about vocations is god has given you like i mean you're his creation he he brought you into the world but as if that weren't enough he's given you assets and resources and capabilities and networks and opportunities and the intention is just that you would not just coast through

14:49 or exist but that you would lean in and get in the game and do something right that you would get in the game and do something and this is like the the trap that the guy falls into so the last thing here before we get to it it's conspicuous to me that the master knew the abilities of the three of them isn't it that he like he's like this dude i'm going to give

15:22 him uh five two and a half lifetimes then the next one i would think maybe like you would split the difference and you'd go three right or something but he gave this guy two and then this guy one and he was right to do that you know if he'd have given the guy that he gave one if he didn't know them all very well and and just was kind of arbitrary and guessing and gave the guy that he gave five and only gave him one he'd only make one right and if he gave the guy that he gave one if he gave

15:59 him five he'd have missed out on five talents two and a half lifetimes worth of money because he could have given it to this guy i'm saying that he knew his servants well the problem with the guy that wanted that with just one is he thought he knew the master well but he actually he didn't right like um because he said uh

16:33 and let's see he also who had received the one talent came forward saying master i knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed so i was afraid and i hid your talent in the ground you don't get any sense of fear from the other guys

17:03 they don't say this like preamble about you're a jerk who rips people off like i think that the problem is that the guy with one actually didn't really know the master he thought he did but he he didn't really know him and these other guys had spent time with him knew how he operated knew how he made this multiple lifetimes worth of money so when he gave them they jumped in and did what he would have done in their own capabilities and they didn't have the

17:38 whole thing they had a smaller amount but they knew how to do it because they knew him and so like with what they had been given they mirrored what they had seen done in their own way and it worked and so the opportunity for us i think is to assess what god has given us and imagine what he might do with it

18:08 assess what christ has accomplished for you given you and imagine what he might do with it based on what you know the last thing here is the reward is crazy if you look at the reward as master said him well done good and faithful servant you have been faithful over a little i will set you over much enter into the joy of your master like uh the commentary i was reading was like if he uh had gotten five talents two and a half lifetimes worth of money now he's managing

18:44 ten talents five lifetimes worth of money that's a lot of money and and now the master's like oh good job you did it with that now i'm going to put you in charge of a lot good night what's a lot and then he also is like not like hey uh go off and do your own thing but come in and enjoy with me uh let's build together let's create together

19:17 now the big driver for me in my life like i can relax in my relationship with god if i feel like i've been responsible with what i got if i've done what is expected then god will do what is expected of him or he'll take care of me like if i can i can rest if i've been responsible and i

19:53 was encouraged to um read what's translated often as faithful well done good and faithful servant in context a lot of theologian think it should be translated responsible servant well done good and responsible servant the thing about the your vocation in life whether you're telling stories or building websites or

20:28 or selling something or healing something body whatever you're doing a god has given you an opportunity to do it like him in the world to leverage it for the greater good of the people around you to take advantage of each of the

20:59 opportunities to get in the game of making new things serving the folks around you and then as you do that you kind of graduate into the joy of the father I liked this parable because it reminded me that there's not like holy sanctified work and everything else that even just turn in five talents into 10 it's about getting into the game into the game

21:33 into the game that god has given us and that our master knows us well enough to give us an opportunity that matches us and that when we take advantage of it he welcomes us into his joy let's pray that we could be people who find the joy of god hey lord thank you for the opportunity to be your people gifted with with skills and abilities and

22:06 networks and resources teaches how to take advantage of those opportunities together in Jesus name we pray amen just as we have been doing I invited Paul to come and share of answer a couple of questions to think about his vocation thanks Paul for doing it just because like I said I can be kind of idealistic so it's nice to make it practical and Paul's pretty you're pretty practical guy right that can be yours yeah let's see here I'm going

22:39 to pull up a couple questions because I did give you those ahead of time see actually yeah Paul um just so folks know do you want to share just a little bit about what you do and how you got into it yeah so I'm the CEO founder commercial which is a company that started here in Orlando 20 years ago which is crazy yeah next year will be our 20th anniversary and

23:11 you started it when you were 20 I started when I was 20 yeah good work I wish I so wish but we're a commercial real estate firm so we are we provide commercial real estate services brokerage property management construction management we are also an investor and a developer so we are out there building buildings and investing in real estate and so today it's just you know you talk about

23:42 we'll probably talk a lot about provenance and gods and but I mean this business has gone far beyond it's we also have a business now that we launched three or four years ago that is in the senior living business and so they are toning and operating um team living so cool so it's now that's 5 000 people in it jesus yeah it's a lot of responsibility yeah uh tell us one thing that you really love about the work that you do Paul you know um one uh I was part of

24:13 the group that founded it so that's just fun right then working with partners and friends but I think the one if you're in commercial real estate you you're involved in creating jobs I mean that's a lot of what we do we create places of commerce office buildings industrial buildings retail buildings entertainment centers we help companies with their space where they create jobs so you're

24:46 in kind of the middle of creation right like and sometimes literally creating jobs out of nowhere yeah and we've done it within the company but also pretty much everything we do is somehow involved in creating economy and creating jobs in the south east and the southwest yeah you love that that's fun I mean giving people work to do you mean yeah I think I think too I mean we've created you know I gave it a high level view of what we do but we've created businesses inside of our

25:18 business because people can come there they've got an idea we know how to figure things out and capitalize things and so they're creating enterprises even within our own enterprise yeah I like that you obviously like making new things you started your own company and then found a way to keep doing that over and over again right inside of the existing yeah that's what you find that is fun is making new things yeah it's cool yeah it's cool kind of like a day one kind of attitude yeah talk about in what way do you feel like your work is about loving your neighbor

25:53 yeah so I think I think we've talked about job creation yeah I mean that in and of itself you know we're in 12 different communities across the US you're creating opportunity within that I think we talk a lot about so in that case then the love in your neighbor would be the people you're actually employing or creating space to employ yeah yeah cool I think too is the we you know we have a business that is about creating wealth I mean a lot of the aspects of what we do

26:28 our investment business is creating wealth for people yeah but we talk a lot about that you know within that form of capitalism that we believe that that actually creates a greater responsibility to invest back in the community so you've seen our serve week yeah you know when we go out into the communities and serve across an entire week that's about giving back capital into the communities but we also we also talk about it on an individual level like you know there's the corporate level

27:00 we have to give back but an individual level when you've been given a lot like you're we believe that's the responsibility to kind of reinvest that capital into what you're giving to yeah so you're like one you're like making jobs for people it's like loving and serving them like here let's come and do this with us and then another is encouraging those folks to join you in serving broader around community yeah yeah I think I think the last thing is and you know

27:35 a handful of our folks I mean the the culture that we've tried to create inside of it we're very intentional about it and you know my my favorite story about it is you know I have 60 partners in the business and I you know I have one in Raleigh that is as uber conservative christian as you can get you know he's maybe he's has across the line but he's close yeah I have a partner in Orlando and

28:09 she's gay and she's very liberal like they don't see the world the same at all like every aspect of what they view is different and we go on a partner retreat and I watch both of them come up and they hug and they talk and they care about each other so we talk about creating this place where people of different worldviews different temperaments different talents can come together they may not see things the same yeah but if we can create an environment where they can actually still

28:41 care about it I think the interesting thing is is when those two go back to their communities what happened is kind of frowned upon but they talk about stuff they talk about issues they talk about things and and like that to me and that happens at a micro level so yeah and my view if the you know one of the greatest is kamminus to love your neighbor as yourself yeah if you can't love everybody inside of your workplace then you're not going to be really good yeah trying to hit so we want to create that that's great not always that's not always the case people don't usually

29:12 take the time to be concerned about that no and and you're not perfect at it either right right I've seen the opposite yeah talk a little bit uh Paul just because I know how did you end up working with coalition for the homeless yeah so it uh it found me it's probably the best way that I know I've described it I have the problem and um I was actually in the season where I was getting off of boards because I was like I don't if I'm going to be involved in something I want to really have an impact I want to so I was kind of winding out and a friend of mine in the city

29:47 Trix Stevens who's in the real estate space was rolling off the homeless coalition and he took me to lunch he said you're going on this board um I trust Trix but I know him well and and so I I listened but I said you know can I have an impact if I go on this and he said like you can I don't know how but you can and we'll talk about the project um yeah um but um that what that wasn't around when I joined the board many years ago uh until I was touring the first year board members

30:21 you tour you go and tour the the coalition and kind of go see what it's about yeah and I was touring with Brad Butterstein who was also a first year he tells the story because I didn't remember it and we're walking through the center for women and families which is the 70 almost 70 year old building and I was walking through with Brad and I said like we gotta we gotta fix this this is this is not a great it's not a great environment it's not a great situation um fast forward

30:53 over a lot of I mean a lot of providential things that have happened that have made this success there was you know Brad has now transitioned to he was the chair of our board and then he actually stepped into the CEO role now he is actually working um this uh leading this organization and doing a phenomenal job I led the real estate committee that acquired the site next to us um and we're going to we're raising capital now um to build a new center for women and children

31:29 that will be something that I don't think the state has ever seen in terms of we're really trying to design something these are I mean for those of you don't know what the the coalition does for the center of women and family these are families that are fighting to stay together um they are um they're often working three jobs and they lose one or you've got domestic abuse and this is a safe place for them and we have us we have a 60% success rate and finding permanent housing this will be

32:02 the stage housing when they come into it um and so we're gonna but oftentimes when you walk into the facility they're in it doesn't really project dignity it doesn't really project safety and so we're gonna build a really fantastic brand new building um we're gonna have a health care center on site that will hopefully reduce ER visits by 50% into this community um and it's it's it's it's just been amazing to watch because I can't tell you how many times over the

32:35 six years we've been working on this that you know okay this isn't gonna work and then somebody would show up the city really supported this effort and solved the equation so it's pretty cool because the other thing I believe you know there's I'm sure we'll talk about the faith based aspect of why but from a city based aspect if you know what what I've said to some of our folks in cities and if you want to be a world-class city part of that is how you care for the most moment yeah yeah because we can do great down on high drive yeah um and leave a whole section behind yeah totally that

33:12 project is taking a couple of talents to build that building yeah yeah yeah well but say just a few words about what polls what's most effective in pulling you into that kind of action like leveraging what you do for that a project like that yeah so um you know you asked me what motivated me to yeah not ironically the next chapter in Matthew 25 is the final judgment

33:44 and I gave a talk at my former church about that my statement to the group was that that that that that parable scared the hell out of it because you see Jesus standing before the nations and he's judging and he's not reading a list of behaviors he's not saying you know then you're a good Christian right he's going he's judging on one thing and how you take care how have you

34:18 responded to the most vulnerable people in your community if you walked past them or did you so and so that was a final you know that was a motivating thing yeah not there's a fear base aspect of that yeah yeah if you really spend time in that that's a scary scene yeah if you will but then there's also there's a clarity to that yeah right because there's stuff you know right in front of us every day yes and like a story like that you can take and make it just okay

34:54 I'm gonna do the right thing and do exactly what it says to do or you can read that story and go I'd like to be that kind of person who actually responds in that way lord help me become that kind of person let me take the opportunities in front of me and try and be that person genuinely rather than just performatively or something yeah I got so a friend of mine you know again this all happened over the last couple weeks a friend of mine who's actually a partner in her business he's unemployed business he's one of our partners and he had good friends and and he's a believer

35:28 and he had reached out to me and he asked he was asking about giving like you know globally ignition trip I mean they kind of the classic what do I where do I go to spend my time yeah and the coalition from it from example was one of those things where it's like from my view everything lined up right I'm a real estate developer I raise capital for a living we have a real estate solution we have a knee I mean like yeah and I'm already involved yeah not only you know our talent but our personal capital is yeah into this but I sent him this

36:04 because I thought it was appropriate I'm a I'm bannos a huge hero of mine yeah and I said this to him for what it's worth this I did advice from bannos I said don't let religion get in the way of God and stop asking God to bless what you're doing find out what God is doing because it's already God is always with those situations where suffering is more suffering is so in other words don't over think it there are probably plenty of things right in front of you big and small just aren't

36:35 moving towards them give to many and find somewhere to serve deeply and likely give deep so to your action kind of standpoint and my point of up to was you know the coalition is not a Christian organization right and I've actually had this discussion with folks that are giving money yeah that they're like well it's not a Christian organization so I'm not going to give money but it's doing exactly what we're being told to do and and and I think sometimes people get hung

37:07 up on it but it's not got the the christianese label on it yeah I can't get my money to it yeah I mean they're doing more work inside of this vulnerable community than any christian organization I know and they're going to do it with a lot of support and a lot of infrastructure and so my point to him my point to everybody is that there there are there are things that we walk past every day you don't have to search for areas to get involved and get engaged in from a talent standpoint yeah I like that and that's for me is kind of the heart of the

37:40 thinking vocationally is we don't have to like wonder the work God has put in front of us it's right in front of us and so if we want to know how to spend our life meaningfully lean into these three arenas and begin to do what God would do in those spaces Paul thanks for sharing just dim a little bit let's now go into some worship together I did put out our little worship packets on the back if you want there's a confession there which is a really helpful thing to read through or if you're feeling praise and you want something to put your eyes on the day dam is on that

38:13 clipboard too which is a nice prayer of praise but let's take some time and worship together now