David Diga Hernandez - How to be Used by God

I want to read to you a portion of Scripture from Matthew chapter 25. We’re going to read verses 14 through 30; it’s a parable, and I want you to hear this. The Scripture says, «Again, the kingdom of heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. He gave five bags of silver to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last, dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip. The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more. The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money. After a long time, their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, 'Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.' The master was full of praise. 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! ' The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, 'Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.' The master said, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! ' Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, 'Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back! ' But the master replied, 'You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it! ' Then he ordered, 'Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with ten bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' So here we see a parable, and I believe that this is a parable of the final judgment or the Lord giving to people lives that they are to steward. But from this parable, we can also glean basic principles about the Lord. For one thing, we see that the Lord left, and you’ll notice that he left without giving them specific instructions about what they were to do. Also, you’ll notice about the Lord that he gave to each servant in proportion to their own abilities. Each one of us is given something. Now you may say, 'I don’t feel I have any gifts. I don’t feel I have anything specific that one could pinpoint to say that right there could be used for the glory of God.' But you definitely have time, you definitely have energy, you definitely have a voice, and you definitely have some influence, whether it be big or small. So the question is not, 'Have I been given anything? ' The question is, 'How much have I been given? ' And the follow-up to that would be, 'What do I do with what I have been given? ' So the Lord has given something to you, whether you believe that or not. In fact, some people say, 'I haven’t been given anything by God' because they’re hiding in fear and don’t want to step out in faith. So they’d rather remain inactive and comfortable, telling themselves, 'God hasn’t given me anything.' But the truth is that God does not sympathize with our excuses necessarily. Fear, shyness, and lack of confidence in self are not collectively an excuse to deny the call of God on your life. You have been called by God. He gives in proportion to your abilities, and he holds you accountable for what you know and what you are aware of. Based on what you know and what you’ve been given, God will measure you against that standard. Now the Bible tells us that the master left and did not give any instructions to the servants. This tells me that God has given you abilities in proportion to each individual, and he trusts that you will choose what to do with those gifts. Now I believe that God does place specific calls on people’s lives. I believe that God has destined you for something, but I don’t believe that the call of God is held hostage to fragile specifics. In other words, I don’t believe that if you make one wrong decision, everything is derailed, and therefore you miss the call of God. That, 'Well, I wasn’t supposed to take that class, but I took that class' or 'I wasn’t supposed to go to that church, but I went to that church' or 'I wasn’t supposed to take that job, but I took that job' or 'I wasn’t supposed to marry this person, but I married this person.' I don’t believe that the call of God gets removed from your life based on those kinds of decisions that maybe you feel could have derailed it.