Trusted and Entrusted (Matthew 25:14-30)

Week Two of “Jesus on Money” || September 14, 2025 || Glynwood Baptist Church, Prattville, AL

James Jackson, Pastor

Jesus on Money, Part 2: Trusted and Entrusted

Matthew 25:14-30

On any given Sunday morning, most of us face a few basic decisions:

•     What to wear to church.

•     Whether to talk about college football before Sunday school — or avoid it entirely.

•     Regular grits or Cajun grits with breakfast.

Last Sunday, two people — one in Texas and one in Missouri — woke up with a question they never imagined: What should I do with my half of the second-largest Powerball jackpot in U.S. history? Overnight, two ordinary people each received half of a $1.8 billion jackpot.  They became crazy rich, not because of what they did, but because of what they received. In a single moment, they were entrusted with a staggering gift.

Jesus tells a story about something very similar — not about lottery tickets, but about being entrusted with something so valuable it almost defies imagination. And like those Powerball winners, the question isn’t what they did to deserve it — the question is what they would do with it. That’s where the parable begins.”

Let’s read Matthew 25:14-30

Let’s pray: [prayer]

The Context Three Stories About the End of the World

You may remember from last week that while Jesus talked about money a good deal, it was almost never the main point of the teaching. And if you look at this entire chapter 25, you see that the main point is how we live our lives knowing that Jesus, the Master, is going to come back someday.

Jesus tells three back-to-back parables about the coming of Christ. The first, verses 1-13, tells the story of ten bridesmaids (or ten virgins) who knew a wedding was planned. Five saved the date, got fitted for their dresses, made all the plans. But five didn’t. And on the day of the wedding, they weren’t ready, and so the wedding party was basically cut in half.

The point was, be prepared.

The third parable, The Sheep and Goats, (verses 31-46) gives us a picture of judgment day, when Jesus will divide people into two categories— those who served the people around them as though they were serving Jesus Himself, and those who didn’t. 

The point was,  be merciful,

Right in the middle — where we’ll focus today — the Parable of the Talents reminds us to be faithful with what the Master has entrusted.

So let’s look closely at this middle parable — the story of a Master who entrusted His servants with enormous wealth and then returned to see what they had done with it.

The Gift — What God Puts in Our Hands (vv. 14–15)

A wealthy master calls three servants and places a fortune into their hands. He gives one five talents, another two, and another one.

And let’s be honest — at first that doesn’t sound very fair. Why not just give everybody the same? But I want to point out two things: First, even the servant who received just one talent was entrusted with a staggering fortune. One talent equaled about 6,000 days’ wages — roughly 20 years’ salary. In today’s terms, even the one-talent servant held a million-dollar check.

Second, the master gave according to their ability. It wasn’t favoritism; it was wisdom. He wasn’t setting anyone up to fail. He knew what each one could faithfully handle. And when the master returned, the five-talent servant and the two-talent servant both received the exact same commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

God’s standard isn’t equal gifts, but equal faithfulness. And that’s good news for all of us, because the Lord has entrusted each of us with different gifts — some of you are teachers, some are musicians, some are entrepreneurs, some are athletes, some are prayer warriors or encouragers. The question is not, “Why didn’t I get what they have?” The question is, “What will I do with what God has given me for the sake of His kingdom?”

So yes, there were different amounts, but the same expectation: Take what I’ve given you  and be faithful with it.

Just like those Powerball winners, these servants didn’t earn it. They didn’t deserve it. But suddenly, they held something priceless — and the real question became: What will I do with what I’ve been given?

Jesus doesn’t end the story with what the master gave. The heart of the parable is found in how the servants responded. Because what you’ve been entrusted with matters — but what you do with it matters even more.

II. The Gamble — What We Do with What We’ve Been Given (vv. 16–18)

The master goes away, and immediately two of the servants get to work. The one entrusted with five talents invests and gains five more. The one with two invests and gains two more. They take what’s been placed in their hands and put it into motion. They risk it — and it multiplies.

But the third servant — the one with a single talent — does something very different. Verse 18 says, “But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.” Instead of risking it, he buries it. Instead of investing, he hides it. And when the master comes back, he’ll still have the original talent intact — but nothing more.

Don’t get distracted by the money. Remember, when Jesus talked about money, money rarely was the main point. So the point here is not is not about diversifying your portfolio so that there are some moderate to high risk investments. The point is this: faith always involves risk.

• It means risking a gospel conversation with someone when you might get shut down.
• It means taking a mission trip even when there’s a travel advisory against the country.
• It means setting aside your tithe at the beginning of the month when you are living paycheck to paycheck.

 Obedience means putting what you’ve been given into play, loosening your grip, and trusting the Master to sustain you.

The first two servants saw opportunity; the third saw danger. The first two said, “I can’t waste what He gave me.” The third said, “I can’t risk losing it.” The difference is faith.

Most of us tend to be risk-averse. We hedge our bets, save for rainy days, buy a safe — not always because we’re greedy, but because we’re afraid. We cling to safety. We convince ourselves that the best thing we can do with what God has given is protect it, preserve it, keep it safe until we see Him face to face.

But here’s the irony: when we cling to safety, we bury the Kingdom.

Think about it — every act of faith in Scripture involved risk.

•     Abraham left his home not knowing where God would lead.

•     Moses confronted Pharaoh with nothing but a staff and a promise.

•     Peter stepped out of the boat while the waves were still high.

At some point, obedience means stepping out without guarantees. You can’t play it safe and live by faith.

The missionary William Carey once said, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” That’s the heart of this parable. The first two servants expected their master’s wealth could multiply — and they attempted something bold with it. The third servant expected nothing, attempted nothing, accomplished nothing, and received nothing.

And Jesus is telling us here: if you want your life to count for His Kingdom, you’ve got to be willing to risk what He’s entrusted to you. Not recklessly, not foolishly — but faithfully.

Beloved, what are you doing with what God has put in our hands? Are you leveraging it for eternal purposes, or are you digging a hole and burying it in the name of safety?

Jesus makes it clear — one day, the Master is coming back. What we’ve done with His gifts won’t stay buried in the ground; it will be brought into the light. And in that moment, every servant will receive a grade from the Master Himself.

The Grade — The Master Will Settle Accounts (vv. 19–27)

Verse 19, “Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.”

Side note—even the Bible itself acknowledges that from our perspective, the return of Jesus seems like a long time from now. But it is a certain promise: The Master will return, and He will settle accounts with those who claim to be his servants.

This is the hinge point of the parable. The servants stand before Him. One by one, they give an account of what they’ve done with what he entrusted to them.

The first two step forward with joy. The five-talent servant lays ten talents at his master’s feet. The two-talent servant lays four. Both say essentially the same thing: “Lord, you entrusted me with this, and I’ve gained more for you.”

And in return, they hear the sweetest words ever spoken: “Well done, good and faithful servant.

The commendation is the same for both. The one with five who gained five doesn’t get a louder applause than the one with two who gained two. The reward isn’t based on the size of the return, but on the faithfulness of the servant. The master says, “Well done” because they were faithful with what they had been given.

But then comes the third servant. He steps forward, brushing dirt off the talent he dug up from the ground. He offers it back to the master with excuses: “I knew you were a hard man… so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.”

And the master’s response is devastating: “You wicked and slothful servant.” His problem wasn’t lack of resources. It wasn’t that he didn’t get as much as the others. It was that he didn’t trust the master enough to risk obedience. It wasn’t that he tried something and failed; it’s that he never tried at all.

The faithful servants trusted their master enough to put his resources into play. The unfaithful servant didn’t trust him at all, so he buried the very thing that could have borne fruit.

There is a key nuance here: faithfulness to Jesus is an outgrowth of how you feel about Jesus. Look what the third servant says:

Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’

You see, what you believe about God is the most important thing about you. Do you see Him as a loving Father who desires joy for His children, or do you see Him as a stern, demanding, joyless taskmaster? You see how the third servant’s perception of the Master impacted how much he was willing to risk for the Master.

IV: The Gain: How We Will Be Rewarded (Or not)

And those who claim a relationship with Christ will hear one of two things:

Good and faithful, come in….

Or

Wicked and lazy, get out.

One day, for every servant who has trusted Him and invested what He gave, there will be no sweeter words than these: “Well done, good and faithful servant… enter into the joy of your Master.”

Or, there will be no more horrifying words than, “You wicked and lazy servant… get out.”

The faithful servants didn’t just hear words of commendation — they were invited into something greater. The master says, “You have been faithful with a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

•     Faithfulness with a little leads to responsibility over much.

•     Trust with temporary treasures leads to eternal reward.

•     Obedience in this life opens the door to joy in the life to come.

That’s the gain. The reward. The promise that nothing entrusted to God and invested for His Kingdom will ever be wasted.

The faithful servants step into joy, responsibility, and reward. The unfaithful servant loses even what he had.

Jesus doesn’t soften the ending. He says the servant is cast into “the outer darkness,” where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus often uses that phrase to describe the place of final judgment.

It’s a hard word, but we can’t ignore it.

Everything we invest for Christ will multiply into eternal joy. Nothing entrusted to Him is wasted. But everything we bury out of fear or selfishness will slip through our fingers.

What is “gnashing of teeth?” Have you ever thought about what your face does when you are thinking about your biggest regrets? You grit your teeth. It’s Homer Simpson saying, “D’oh…”

•     D’oh— I should never have taken that last drink!

•     D’oh— I knew better than to marry him…

•     D’Oh I should have gotten in on the ground floor of that investment.

Friends, I don’t want any of you to be making that face on judgment day. None of you need to be gnashing your teeth, saying, “Urrrrggggg— I should have responded to Jesus when I had the chance…”

Yet before we close, we can’t miss this: the hope of this parable isn’t in the size of our return, or in the grade we earn. Our ultimate hope is not in what we do for the Master — it’s in what the Master has already done for us. That’s the gospel.

V. The Gospel: What Ultimately Saves Us

Let’s be clear about one thing: this parable is not teaching that we are saved because we did all these great things for Jesus. If that were the case, then salvation would be something we earn, and the cross would have been unnecessary. We are not saved by our performance for the Master. We are saved by the performance of the Master — by the great thing Jesus did for us when He laid down His life on the cross and rose again.

Faithful stewardship is the fruit of salvation, not the root of it. When we put our trust in Christ, He gives us new life and fills us with His Spirit. And that new life shows up in how we live, in how we invest our gifts, in how we treat others. The parable is not about how to get saved — it’s about how saved people live while they wait for the King to return.

And notice what the faithful servants hear: “Enter into the joy of your Master.” That’s not just a future promise of heaven someday — though it certainly is that. It’s also a present invitation. Faithful investment lets you taste kingdom joy now. You see lives changed. You see God’s work multiplied. You see eternal results from simple acts of obedience.

So here’s the good news: the invitation to joy is not just at the end of the race; it’s on the journey. Christ has saved you, not so you can bury His gift in the ground, but so you can experience the joy of joining Him in His work today.

Response:

So let me ask you: have you trusted Christ as your Savior? Because the truth is, you will never hear ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’ apart from Him. Faithful stewardship won’t save you. Only Jesus saves. If you’ve never received His gift of grace, today is the day. Don’t bury this invitation in the ground. Receive it. Step into the joy of your Master.

And for those who already belong to Him — what are you doing with what He’s entrusted to you? Are you burying His gifts out of fear? Or are you putting them into play for His Kingdom? The Master is coming back. And when He does, He won’t ask how much you had, but what you did with it.

And to us, as a church family — in just a few weeks we’ll vote on our budget. That’s not just numbers on paper. That’s a declaration of faith. Will we play it safe and bury what God has given us? Or will we risk something big for something good, believing the Master will multiply it for His Kingdom?

The invitation is clear: whether as individuals, as believers, or as a congregation — let’s enter into the joy of our Master. Not tomorrow. Not someday. Today.”