(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Go to Matthew 25. Matthew 25. Because, you know, I'm talking a little bit about preachers who are afraid to preach the whole Bible, but what about this? What about men who are just afraid to preach in general? You know, the preaching night rolls around. I think you guys have a preaching night where there's an opportunity to get up and preach, right? You know, I bet there are a lot of men that God could use at that preaching night and maybe use down the road to become pastors and preachers of the next generation that we desperately need, but I think fear is stopping them from getting up behind that pulpit and doing that 10-minute sermon. They're afraid of being mocked or they're afraid of making a fool of themselves. They're afraid of getting up here and messing up, but here's the reality. You know, if you fear failure, you end up doing nothing, which is failure. Now look down at this story. This is a perfect example. Matthew 25 verse 24. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strong. And I was afraid. Look, whenever you see that in the Bible, bad things are going to happen to these people. I was afraid. I'm afraid. I was afraid and when it hid thy talent in the earth, lo, there thou hast that is thine. Now in the Bible, the talent was a type of money. You know, it was a measurement of weight or a measurement of monetary value of coin, but we have a word talent today, right? And when we talk about someone having talent, what do we mean? Skill, right? If we say, hey, he's talented at the piano or he's a talented speaker or he's talented. Why do we call that talent? It actually derives from this word because the Lord gave them money. He gave them a talent. It was actual money that he gave them. It was a measurement of how much money he gave them and he said, I want you to do something with the money that I give you and when I come back, I want to see fruit from it, okay? Well, when God gives us skills and ability, the reason we call those talents is because they came from God and just as we call them a talent because of this story, we should apply this story that God wants a return on his investment. He says, thou wicked, verse 26, his Lord answered and said to him, thou wicked and slothful servant, slothful means lazy. He says, you wicked and lazy servant, thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strung, thou oughtest therefore to put my money to the exchangers and then in my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents for unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shall be weeping and asking of teeth. Now this scripture is about, you know, basically the Jews are the unprofitable servant and then the Gentiles are the one who ended up taking the gospel and so forth and the Jews are cast out. That's the theme of Matthew 21 through 25. All of those chapters deal with that subject of basically God turning from the Jews unto the Gentiles and all these different parables and so forth, but what we can take from this as an application tonight is that when God gives you talent, you need to use it for the Lord and if not he might even take it away from you because that's what he did with this guy. Well, you know, you're not gonna use it for me. I'll take it from you and think about the talent that goes to waste today and that's why you see a lot of the most talented people don't serve the Lord and a lot of people that are not as talented but they're willing, God uses them more just because they're willing to at least bring what they have to the table and be used by God, but think about this. People are talented musically. They're able to play the piano. What good is it to sit there and become an expert in classical music at the piano, but how much are you really gonna be able to use that realistically in life versus if you learn how to play the hymns you could actually be used by God three times a week playing the piano and so forth or playing an organ or playing whatever musical instrument and the Bible says God wants to be praised on musical instruments, you know, or a talent of singing. You know, oh, you become a great singer. You're gonna be the lead singer of some rock band and then we'll hear about you strung out on drugs and we'll hear about you, you know, making an idiot out of yourself because the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. Hey, if you have a talent for singing, learn how to lead the singing. Come to church and sing out with all your heart unto the Lord and worship God. That's a good use of your talent. If you have a talent to get up and speak, you need to get up and preach the Word of God and use that talent for the Lord, but you know a lot of people are just afraid to get their feet wet. They're afraid to come to that preaching night and get up here and preach the sermon. You know, the hardest part about learning how to preach is just getting up and doing it the first few times, just getting up and doing it. And look, this guy in this story, he said, I was afraid I didn't want to lose the talent so I went and hid it. Okay, so what was he afraid of? Failing at the mission, but his fear paralyzed him and he ended up doing nothing and that is failure. So when God looks down at your life and you're doing nothing with your life, He sees you as a failure and He says you're wicked and slothful.