You've Got Talent | Episode #059

In this episode of the Truly a Masterpiece Podcast, Craig explores one of Jesus' most challenging and encouraging teachings: the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

Many people assume this parable is primarily about abilities, skills, or financial stewardship. While those ideas are certainly present, Jesus is revealing something much deeper.

The parable exposes how comparison fuels fear, how fear leads to inaction, and how a distorted view of God can keep us from doing what He created us to do.

Craig explains why the third servant's greatest problem wasn't a lack of talent—it was a lack of trust.

In this episode, you'll learn:

•  Why God gives different assignments to different people 
•  The danger of comparing your gifts to someone else's 
•  How fear causes people to bury opportunities 
•  Why faithfulness matters more than results 
•  What it means to invest your life for the Master 
•  How to overcome self-doubt and take the next step of faith 

If you've ever felt inadequate, overlooked, or tempted to sit on the sidelines because you believe someone else is more gifted than you, this episode will encourage you.

God doesn't expect you to be someone else.

He simply asks you to faithfully invest what He has entrusted to you.

Because the goal isn't to become a five-talent servant.

The goal is to become a faithful servant.

Time Stamps:

0:16 The fear that you are not enough is one of the greatest obstacles to becoming all God created you to be

0:28 What you'll get in this talk: An identity that removes frustration and restores hope

1:29 A powerful picture of what fear will do to you and what a true identity will do for you.

2:12 Three servants: Two faithful and one fearful

3:21 Four insights about fear

3:24 Fear will rob you of your potential

3:53 Fear is fueled by comparison

4:48 Comparison caused one servant to focus not on the talent he had, but on what others had

5:25 Comparison is the act of asking another person's life to answer questions only God can answer

5:58 Comparison doesn't create confidence. It fuels fear

6:03 Fear disguises itself

6:29 Illogical logic: You are a harsh man... I did nothing.

6:51 The servant wasn't afraid of what he thought he was afraid of

7:13 How to process fear

7:32 What you think you are afraid of is probably not what you are afraid of

7:46 Fear cannot survive a servant's mindset

7:56 My fear of public speaking

11:08 What I was really afraid of

11:29 The goal of the Christian life isn't to be a five-talent servant. The goal is to be a faithful servant

11:39 The master (God) never compared anyone. I did.

12:30 The mindset of a servant explained

12:42 Rest in God's love

13:33 Isaiah 49:4 Jesus is our model

14:36 Rely on God's grace

15:35 A servant's mindset lets every Christian hear the words we all long to hear: "Good and well done My faithful servant."

Connect with Craig @CraigWalkerCaoching

Connect with Craig  @CraigWalkerCaoching
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Transcript

You’ve Got Talent

Have you ever felt like you don't measure up?

Have you ever looked at someone else's success, talent, influence, intelligence, wealth, or giftedness and thought, I could never do what they do.

Transition: If you've ever felt that way, you're not alone.

The fear that you're not enough may be one of the greatest obstacles to becoming the person God created you to be.

Transition: You are ready for a real solution?

In this talk, I'll show you an identity that removes the frustration of false expectations and restores hope that you can live a full and satisfying life doing all the good things God created you to do.

I know what it's like to live under the weight of false expectations.

For years, I wondered when my breakout day would come. I was always convinced success was just around the corner, yet I never seemed to round the corner.

The result was frustration, discouragement, and more self-doubt.

What I've learned hasn't removed my ambition. It has removed the frustration.

And in its place, it has restored a deeper hope—the confidence that, by God's grace, I can and I will do all the good things He created me to do, and far more than I could ever ask or imagine.

Transition: The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, Jesus gives us a powerful picture of what the fear that you are not enough can do to you, and what your true identity will do for you.

This story demonstrates that the real enemy isn’t your lack of potential, but your fear.

Jesus tells us of a master preparing to on a long time. He calls in three servants and gives to each “talents” to invest for him while he is gone.

The point of the story Jesus teaches us how to live in the between His ascension back into heaven and His return to earth.

The master calls his three servants and gives each talents to invest.  To one servant gave five talents. To another he gave two. To another he gave one talent. The master gave to each according to his ability.

The first two servants both invested their talent well and each doubled what they had to invest.

Jesus said the master responded to each the same, “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!’” (Matthew 25:21, NLT).

When the third servant came forward, he 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” (Matthew 25:24–25, NLT).

Why did the servant with one talent bury the talent he had?

He buried it because, in his own words, “I was afraid.”

Here are four truths about fear.

1.     Fear will rob you of the life you want to live. 

A lack of talent was not the cause of his lack of success. 

To each the master gave a talents. He gave each according to his ability. 

Fear stole the servant’s opportunity. 

If you are content to bury your desires, dreams, and passions don't lie and say, "I'm just not talented." 

2.     Fear is fueled by comparison.

When you measure yourself against others, you have implicitly agreed that performance, status, appearance, success, influence, intelligence, wealth, or giftedness determines value.

The moment you make another person your standard, fear enters the equation.

If you believe you're doing better than others, you become afraid of losing your advantage.

If you believe you're doing worse than others, you become afraid you'll never measure up.

Either way, fear wins.

While Scripture does not explicitly tell us what drove the servant to be afraid and to bury his talent, but it is not difficult to imagine that comparison was the culprit. 

He knew others had been given more. Instead of focusing on what he had been entrusted with, he focused on what he lacked.

Comparison will either drive you to strive endlessly to prove your worth, or it will convince you to stop trying altogether.

Either way, comparison places your sense of worth on unstable ground. You are only as valuable as your latest performance, achievement, paycheck, accomplishment, appearance, influence, or success.

That is a frightening way to live because there is always someone smarter, wealthier, more attractive, more talented, more successful, or more influential.

Comparison is the act of asking another person's life to answer questions only God can answer:

• Am I enough?

• Am I valuable?

• Am I successful?

• Am I loved?

• Am I significant?

The moment we ask people to answer those questions, fear is inevitable.

People are constantly changing.

God's verdict never changes.

Comparison doesn't create confidence.

It creates fear.

3.     Fear disguises itself.

Listen again to the response of the unfaithful servant:

"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 went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours" (Matthew 25:24–25, ESV).

Do you see the problem?

The servant says:

"I knew you were a hard man."

"So I was afraid."

"So I did nothing."

But that explanation doesn't really make sense.

If the master was truly as demanding as the servant claimed, doing nothing would have been the worst possible response.

The servant thought he was afraid of the master.

I don't think he was.

I think he was afraid of failing.

I think he was afraid of losing.

I think he was afraid he wasn't enough.

Fear often disguises itself.

That's why discovering what you're really afraid of takes time.

You have to process fear the way you peel an onion—one layer at a time.

You start with the obvious answer.

Then you ask, "Why?"

And when you find the answer, you ask, "Why?" again.

Eventually, you arrive at the real fear.

Here's the hint:

What you think you're afraid of is usually not what you're really afraid of.

As someone wisely said:

"The easy answer is not the real answer."

4.     Fear can’t survive a servant’s mindset.

This insight was a game changer for me.

I don’t like speaking publicly. I never have. I was a pastor for 36 years. Most of those years, I was the primary teaching pastor doing 95% of the speaking. 

I found comfort in speaking before friends—those who attended our church. I’ve never gotten over anxiety of speaking in new places. 

Recently, a friend suggested that I offer to speak at local Chamber of Commerce’s, Rotary Clubs, and groups where there are people who need what I offer.

Immediately, I thought, “I’d rather just promote my work on social where I can record my teaching in private.”

The following morning, I sensed a prompting to explore that thought. 

I asked myself: Why don’t you offer to speak?

My response: I’m not really good at public speaking. 

My next thought: Why do you think you are not good at public speaking? Did someone tell you that?

My response: No. I just think that. 

My next thought: Why do you think that?

My response: I get nervous when I speak in public and things don’t come out as good as they do when I am in private… or in a small group.

My next thought: Why do you get nervous? (I had to sit with that question overnight.) 

The next morning while reading my Bible, I had a thought come to mind.

My response: I think I get nervous because I fear being rejected.

My next thought: If no one has told you they didn’t like your talk why do you fear rejection?

My response: It is how I interpreted their silence.

My next thought: But there are always people who tell me they were helped by what I taught. In fact, I often get good feedback from my talks, not just the generic, like, “That was good.”

My insight: Oh, my goodness. I have let shame (self-doubt) interpret silence. 

Another insight: I can choose to believe what people tell me over what others don’t say. I can offer to speak publicly.

At this point, I thought I was finished thinking about it and I could get on with getting booked. I wasn’t finished.

I had another thought: Is the fear of rejection the real reason you don’t like to speak publicly and why you get nervous?

I don’t know how long I sat with this question, but I do know that the Lord prompted me to read the parable of three servants.

Through reading this parable, I suddenly saw it.

I wasn't afraid of public speaking.

I wasn't even afraid of rejection.

I was afraid of comparison.

For years, I had compared myself to five-talent speakers.

Instead of focusing on using the talent God had given me, I was focused on the talents He had given them.

And that's when I realized something:

The goal of the Christian life is not to become a five-talent servant.

The goal is to become a faithful servant.

The master never compared the servants (GO SLOWLY). . . I did. (PAUSE)

The master gave each according to his ability, and when the first two servants were faithful, he rewarded them exactly the same.

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

When I saw that, I felt completely free.

I offered my talent back to the Lord—not for comparison with others, but as His servant.

I have talent.

I may not be a two-talent, three-talent, four-talent, or five-talent guy, but I've got talent.

And if I'll simply be faithful with what He has entrusted to me, He will take responsibility for the results.

That removes frustration.

That restores hope.

Transition: Here is the mindset of a servant I’m asking you to adopt.

It does two things:

1.     It rests in God’s love.

When I rest in God’s love, I realized that I’ve got talent. He gave talent to each, according to each one’s ability.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s masterpiece.” You are a masterpiece, not a misfit, or a mistake.

You are not even ordinary. Have you ever seen an ordinary masterpiece?

When I rest in God’s love, it’s not about comparing myself to others, it’s about trusting that who He created me to be is enough for me to live a full and satisfying life.

If I just use the talent I have, I won’t look back think, “What a waste!”

This is the servant’s mindset.

In Isaiah 49 I came across something that underscores this mindset perfectly.

Isaiah 49 is a prophecy of Christ. These prophecies are called, “Servant Songs.” Isaiah wrote a conversation between Jesus and the Father. The Father called Jesus, “My servant.”

“He (God the Father) said to me, “You are my servant (Jesus, God the Son), and you will bring me glory.”

Now pay attention to Jesus’ reply:

 “I replied, ‘But my work seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward’” (Isaiah 49:3–4, NLT).

That removes frustration, “I leave it all in the Lord’s hands.”  That restores hope, “I will trust God for my reward.”

2.     Rely on God’s grace.

Maybe you're a one-talent servant. Maybe you've spent years wishing you had someone else's gifts. Maybe you've buried a dream, a desire, a calling, or an opportunity because you were afraid you weren't enough.

Hear me:

The goal is not to become a five-talent servant.

The goal is to become a faithful servant.

You are not enough because you are smarter than everyone else. You are not enough because you are more talented than everyone else. You are not enough because you outperform everyone else.

God's grace makes you enough for everything He created you to do. 

You are His masterpiece.

God is for you.

The Master has entrusted something valuable to you. Stop focusing on the talents He gave someone else. Invest the talent He gave you. Leave the results in His hands. Trust Him for your reward.

And one day, by His grace, you'll hear the words every servant longs to hear:

"Well done, good and faithful servant."