21 May Last Days | Part 4 “Good and Faithful”- All Locations
Announcements:
All announcements and the Waters Event Calendar can be found at: waterschurch.guide
Team Night: Grow in your faith by serving others! Join us for Team Night at all Waters Locations and find your place whether you are presently serving or just wondering how you can start putting your faith into action. Tuesday, May 24th from 6:00-8:30pm. Dinner and childcare will be available. Please help us plan by registering for the Waters Location near you.
JJ Weeks Concert: Waters North Attleboro is hosting Christian artist JJ Weeks, known for hit songs such as “Let Them See You“, “Sound of Freedom” and “Alive In Me” on Friday, June 10, 2022, from 7:00-9:00pm. Tickets may be purchased through Fuse Christian Concerts. LIMITED TIME OFFER FOR WATERS CHURCH MEMBERS: Use promo code ‘WATERS’ for free General Admission or ‘WATERSVIP’ for 50% off VIP/Early Entry with Q&A. (offer good through Sunday, June 5th)
Engage: STAY TUNED FOR A NEW GROUP – ENGAGE – for the not so young adults (36 and up). Scavenger hunt on July 30 from 12-3! More info coming soon!
Alpha: New ministry – conversation style Small Group called Alpha that Mehdi and April will be leading.It is for seekers, those on the fence about faith, or disenfranchised from faith.It is to reach lost people. Join the conversation today @ waterschurch.org/alpha
Relay for Life: Check out what relay for life is, join the Waters Team, or donate to Waters for Life: RelayforlifeGreaterAttleboro
Location Text Alerts:
- Apollo Beach: text ‘waterschurchab’ to 81411
- Woonsocket: text ‘waterschurchws’ to 81411
- North Attleboro: text ‘waterschurch’ to 81411
Tuesday Cafe: Join us for Tuesday Cafe at Waters North Attleboro, anytime between 10am-1pm 
open to the public for fellowship and complimentary coffee and pastry!
Pastor Tim has 3 podcasts: The Deep End, the Deep Dive Bible Study on Romans, and 10 questions with Tim only available on timhatchlive./live. Be sure to like and subscribe to the channel to be notified of each new podcast.
Because of inflation there is a gap for our buildout in Tiverton.If you can, please consider going above and beyond your regular tithes and offerings to help cover this gap.We need about fifty to sixty-thousand dollars to cover this gap.
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We know about His first arrival, but are we ready for His second coming? The Lord told us to be fully aware of what will happen toward the end of the age. What does the Church of the Last Days look like? Jesus knows what it will look like and He tells us in Matthew 25.
He tells us, not to scare us but to prepare us. Nothing about the Last Days is intended to strike fear in the hearts of God’s people but to give us an anticipation that He could come at any moment. Last week we discussed that as with the “Parable of the Ten Virgins”, the “Last Days Church” will be READY, FILLED the the SPIRIT, FULL of God’s Word, and INTIMATELY walking with the LORD. This week we study the “Parable of the Talents” and second quality of the “Last Days Church“: GOOD and FAITHFUL.
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is constantly separating the frauds from the faithful and in the last days we are going to see that not everyone in the Church is actually part of the Church.
Ice-breaker:
Q. What do you think it means to be “faithful”?
What does a LAST DAYS CHURCH look like?
Answer #2: FAITHFUL.
Jesus teaches the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Ten Virgins back to back because faithfulness has everything to do with readiness. There’s more to being ready than just showing up to church and being aware that Jesus is coming again. Jesus doesn’t want you to just be awake to the fact that at any moment He could come back; He wants you active in the mission. Being ready is not passivity. It’s not just going to church, thanking God, and then leaving. No, there’s activity to be had in your life.
Q. There will always be people who will question, judge, or criticize us. What trials or struggles are you going through right now that are interfering with how you live out your faith or serve the Lord?
There’s a difference between being at church and being ready to be at church. There’s a difference between believing in Jesus and being ready at the end. Jesus says the one who’s ready, the one who has done his job well, is the one whom the master finds working when he returns.
Faithfulness does not just mean we keep believing, faithfulness also means we keep actively working.
For the Last Days Church:
1. FAITHFULNESS understands: I am God’s SERVANT, I’m ENTRUSTED, I’m EMPOWERED.
Matthew 25:14 (ESV)
The “man” in this passage represents God who has entrusted His property to His servants. This passage is so important because there is a big quest in our Country right now about finding one’s “identity”. The reason it has gotten so crazy is because people are completely cut off from God. When you are not tethered to Truth, you will fall for lies and deception.
Fortunately, we as Christian don’t have to ask what’s our identity because God has unpacked it for us in His Word. The first thing that every Christian should embrace as their primary identity is that they are a servant.
James 1:1 (ESV)
Philippians 1:1 (ESV)
Romans 1:1 (ESV)
Q. In what ways are you serving or supporting the work of the Kingdom? (Whether you are presently serving or just thinking about it, come to Team Night this Tuesday!)
1 Chronicles 29:2 (ESV)
1 Chronicles 29:16 (ESV)
2 Chronicles 5:10 (ESV)
David was a man after God’s own heart even though he made many mistakes. At the end of his life he became very prosperous and set up his son, Solomon, to build the Temple. However, he didn’t boast in his own works. David says, “God all this abundance that we have provided for building You a house for Your Holy Name, comes from Your hand. Everything we have comes from You.”
All of our gifts and blessings come from the Lord. They are His and He is giving us opportunities to use them. It is a test. One day God will judge how we used our gifts.
For the Last Days Church:
2. FAITHFULNESS focuses on my CALL and not COMPARISON.
Matthew 25:15 (ESV)
Matthew 25:16 (ESV)
Matthew 25:22 (ESV)
Matthew 25:23 (ESV)
If we account for inflation, one talent is worth approximately $1.9 million dollars in today’s money. We think, “Wow look at all that money!” but in the economy of God it’s nothing. God freely scatters His gifts. The difference between the five, two, and one talent servant is that the one talent servant spent his time looking at what the other two servants were given and did nothing with what he was given.
God is not a socialist, He does not practice equality for all in all things. Each of the servants in the parable were given different amounts of talents and each person we read about in the Bible such as Peter, John, David, Jotham, Samson, etc. had different opportunities. The sooner that you get over obsessing about what everybody else has, the faster you can get busy with what you have been given.
Exodus 4:1-2 (ESV)
Moses had many excuses as to why he couldn’t serve but God said He would use what was in Moses’ hand: a stick. It doesn’t matter what you have or do not have; it matters what you do with it.
Matthew 25:18 (ESV)
We have to stop comparing ourselves to other’s highlight reels or you will bury yourself in the ground of other people’s gain.
Q. Have you ever felt “unqualified” to do something or serve because you thought others seemed so much more talented than you and why?
PRO LIFE-TIP: There’s always someone who is BETTER/MORE GIFTED than you. Get BUSY anyway.
Don’t obsess where you are in the hierarchy of life. The number two talent servant didn’t let his disadvantage based on the other servants gifts stop him, he got moving!
Ephesians 5:15-16 (ESV)
The word “careful” in Greek can be translated as being “strategic or circumspect”. You are God’s ambassadors, the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a royal priesthood, citizens of heaven, and servants of the most high God! Paul is saying do not play it safe. The world is full of evil so get busy with your opportunities.
God’s ECONOMY operates in the realm of OPPORTUNITY not OBLIGATION.
We need to change our mindset about using our opportunities. They are not an obligation but a joy, an honor, and something we should be thankful for. Pastor Tim gave the example of his dogs and that it could be easy to resent the fact that he has to take them for a walk every day but then he considers that by walking them he gets exercise and some of his best ideas. He has a choice to look at those dogs as an obligation or an opportunity. We have that choice with everything we are facing right now too.
Q. What are some of your “dogs” right now?
Matthew 25:24 (ESV)
The servant with one talent blames his master for why he did not get busy. It’s not about where you are it’s about what’s going on in your heart.
FACT: Wrong THOUGHTS about God can be more DESTRUCTIVE to faith than not believing in God.
If you don’t see God for what He truly is, it will stall out your life– it will pause you in your purpose.
For the Last Days Church:
3. FAITHFULNESS believes God BLESSES those who make the MOST of their OPPORTUNITY.
Matthew 25:21 (ESV)
We don’t just have to take the opportunity, we have to believe that God is going to bless us as we get active. God longs to bless you as you are faithful in your opportunity. This parable comes on the heels of Matthew 24 where Jesus talks about all the end times realities. In the midst of all the craziness in the world, Jesus says He is looking for a church filled with people who get active and put to work what He has given them.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)
Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV)
This parable is also a story about how we manage God’s money or “talents”. Money yields opportunities. Some of you are missing out on the blessing of God because you refuse to trust Him with your money. Just three verses after Proverbs 3:5-6 where we are told to “trust the Lord with all your heart”, it says to “honor the Lord with your wealth and firstfruits”. We take the first 1/10th of what God gives us and bring it to the House of God to preach the Gospel. It is an act of faith to say to God, this is not my money but Your money. When we honor God with our wealth there is a blessing on the other side of that testing. You are you saying to God this job is from You, this family is Yours.
Sermon in a sentence:
FAITHFULNESS is not PASSIVITY, it’s ACTIVITY in the OPPORTUNITIES God gives me for which He will REWARD me.
God is looking for a faithful church. The great separation of the end will be between those who put to work what God gave them and those who dug a hole and hid it because they compared themselves to others, or they didn’t believe God was generous, or they had the wrong thoughts about God, or they just refused to act on what they knew. Don’t be that person, get active and get rewarded because God is in the business of blessing!
Challenge: Get active and start giving God your “firsts”!
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