ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR TIME AND TALENTS: PASTOR HOPE OZUZUMA, RCCG JULY 2021 HOLY GHOST SERVICE (PSF HOUR)
RCCG JULY 2021 HOLY GHOST SERVICE (PSF HOUR)
THEME: GOD BLESS YOU – PART 7 (PERFECT BLESSINGS)
MINISTERING: PASTOR HOPE OZUZUMA.
TOPIC: ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR TIME AND TALENTS.
DATE: 2ND JULY, 2021
BIBLE TEXT: PSALMS 90:9-12 AND MATTHEW 25:14-30
Praise the Lord! Praise Master Jesus – Hallelujah!
I want to thank the authorities of this Mission for the opportunity given to me to Minister – It is a rare honour and a Privilege.
Daddy I want to say thank you Sir. God Bless You Sir!
Our Topic today is: ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR TIME AND TALENTS.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ACCOUNT?
- It means to give reckoning.
- It means to give an Update of what you have done with what has been given to you.
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!
Quickly, without wasting time, we are going to take some Bible Scriptures.
The first (1st) Scripture we would be taking is Psalms 90:9-12 – And it says:
9 For all our days are Passed away in thy wrath: we spend our Years as a tale that is told.
10 The days of our Years are threescore Years and ten; and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore Years, yet is their Strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11 Who knoweth the Power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
And also, we would be looking at – Matthew 25:14-30:
14 For the Kingdom of Heaven is as a Man travelling into a far country, who called his own Servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every Man according to his several ability; and straightway took his Journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the Earth, and hid his Lord’s money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou Good and Faithful Servant: thou hast been Faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His Lord said unto him, Well done, Good and Faithful Servant; thou hast been Faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard Man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the Earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful Servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the Exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one 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.
30 And cast ye the Unprofitable Servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!
First of all, we are going to be looking at Time.
WHAT IS TIME?
A lot of People seems to know so much about Time; A lot of People have what they consider Time to be.
But then:
Time is an ongoing and continuous sequence of Events that occurs in succession, from the Past, through the Present and to the Future.
Time is also that particular thing that makes it Possible for everything not to happen at once.
… It differentiates Events and Space: and that is what Time is basically about.
Now, there are some Basic Facts about Time – People talk about Time, People have some quotes they use for Time. And I am just going to say a few.
We are looking at: “ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR TIME AND TALENTS” – I am going to take a few quotes about Time. it says:
“Time is money; Time waits for no one; Time is the Most Valuable thing that man can spend; Lost Time is never found again; Procrastination is a thief of Time; Time takes it all; Time is free but Priceless – you can’t own, it but you can use it.”
You cannot own Time but you can use it. You can’t keep it but you can spend it. Once you have lost it, you can never get it back.
That is how trivial Time is! – Once it is lost, it is lost, and can never be gotten back.
Time is the reason why everything does not happen at once
One who wastes one (1) hour of Time has not discovered the Value of Time.
There is a Popular saying that: “Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today”.
Now that is how important Time is.
Time is one thing that we don’t want to joke about; but a lot of times we see ourselves joking about Time. We see ourselves making trivial of the Time (of the opportunity) that we have to spend here on Earth.
We joke with it because we don’t Value it is Preciousness. We don’t understand how important Time is. We do not understand the Preciousness of Time.
TIME IS VERY PRECIOUS.
And when you considered something very Precious, you Place a Value to it.
And that is how God expects us to look at Time – That is what He expects us to do with our Time.
… Placing a Value on Time, so that we don’t waste it.
Some things are considered Precious because of how important they are. And when you have understood that about Time, you Place a Value on it.
Now we have talked about the Preciousness of Time;
- Time is Precious because it is Very Short.
The scarcity of a Thing makes men to set a Higher Value on it.
When something is scarce, you set a Higher Premium on it! – And that is what Time is about.
Time is scarce, and it is expected that you set a Higher Premium on it.
James 4:14 says: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your Life? It is even a Vapour, that appeareth for a little Time, and then vanisheth away.
Time is like a vapour!
What is our life like? It is like that Vapour: Today we are here, tomorrow we are gone (we are no more).
That is what our Time is about. Time is about the day you were born: the Minute you were born and the Minute you die.
Now the Time between the day you were born and the day you die, is the Time you have to spend on Earth. And the Bible has likened our life to a Vapour: such that, today you are here, tomorrow it is gone – It is no more.
So, why do we waste that Time? Why do we waste our Time while on Earth (while in this world) doing things that will not yield us Eternal Glory?
… We ought to be very Peculiar about Time and how we spend it.
- Time is Precious because we are Uncertain about its Continuance.
No one has been Promised tomorrow. Nobody knows what the next Minute holds. Nobody knows what is going to happen the next Second. No one has been Promised the next Minute; how much more tomorrow.
We are not sure of its continuance – That is why we shouldn’t trivialize Time, that is why we shouldn’t waste Time. But we don’t know how short we have here on Earth.
Some of us have lived sixty (60) Years, fifty (50) Years; some even thirty (30) Years.
At times, a Day Old baby dies. How much more you and I, that we have spent some Months here on Earth and some Years.
So, we should be very conscious of the Life we live here and how we spend the Time that God has given to us – It is very important!
Psalms 90:12 says: So teach us to Number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto Wisdom.
We need to Value Time, since we don’t know how much of it we have left – It is very important we do this!
- Tme is Precious because when it is gone you cannot get it back.
The moment Time is taken away from you; once it is gone – You cannot get it back.
The Truth about Time is that; it is a Hard Worker.
Time is a Hard Worker; Time ticks! Every seconds, Time is ticking. You can be sleeping, but Time does not sleep. Time keeps working.
So, if Time itself is a Hard Worker, you ought to the hard-working as well; and make ample use of your Time.
Make Good use of the Time that God has given to you; don’t waste it! Don’t waste the Time that you have because, once it is gone, you cannot get it back!
You can lose money, you can lose job, you can lose your house; but as long as there is Life, there is hope. You can always get those things back. But any Time lost, is lost FOREVER. It can never be gotten back.
Some People who have lived seventy (70) Years and Probably have not used their Time well here on Earth. There is nothing they can do to get back those seventy (70) Years that are gone.
… Those Years are gone and that is it! There is nothing they can do to get it back.
If you have something that you cherished, that you valued; you will use that thing well; and you will be careful how you use that thing. You won’t use it in a manner you waste it.
Let’s just take for example, a case whereby somebody is being Paid money – Every Month, he receives his salary (has got a job). Every Month he receives salary, he takes his Naira Notes (let’s use Naira now) and begins to burn them one after the other.
When you look at such a Person, you will call the Person foolish.
Why will you call the Person foolish? – He is wasting his money.
But the Truth be told – That is what we do with Time! – We burn our Time doing Nothing.
We waste our Time: not doing what we are expected to do, not fulfilling Purpose, not being in the Right Place where God has called us to be.
… That is how we waste Time.
But God will help us – That we will not be Time-wasters but rather those who will use their Time judiciously, to be able to achieve their Purposes here on Earth – Amen.
AND WHY DO WE HAVE TO KEEP TO TIME?
Why is it very important to keep to Time and also be very conscious of what we do with our Time?
Because we will give account of it! – There is a Day of Reckoning; there is a Day of Accountability.
Now, before we go about looking at the Accountability of Time, let us look at Talent.
From where we read in Matthew 25: 14-30, we can see that a certain Master, who was going on a Journey gave Talents to His Servants because He was expecting Accountability from them by the time He gets back.
So He gave them an Assignment – He gave them Talents.
To one, the Bible says He gave five (5). To one, He gave two (2). And to another, He gave one (1).
How did they use their Talents? How did they spend the Time which they had, the Talents with them? What did they do with those Talents that He gave to them?
… We will find out!
WHAT IS TALENT?
Talents are Abilities, Talent are Resources; they are Skills, they are Opportunities.
All of those things that God has given to us – Including our Spiritual Gifts. Anything that God has entrusted into your hand is the Talent.
It could be your children, it could be your job – All those things could be considered as Talents, so far as God has given it to you.
They are your Talents and you are expected to Prove yourself in those things that you are doing.
They are you Abilities, they are your Skills, they are your Resources, the Opportunities that you have – All of these can be considered as Talents.
The amount of Talents that we all have might differs!
According to Matthew 25, it says: He gave to them according to their Abilities – He gave to the first Servant five (5) Talents, he gave to the Second Servant two (2) talents and then to the third Servant, one (1) talent.
He knew their Abilities, He knew their Capabilities; He knew how they could Function. He knew how they will be able to spend all of these.
… So He gave them according to their Abilities.
There is Nothing that God has put in you that is too BIG for you to use. There is Nothing that God has put in you that is too SMALL for you to handle – He knows you can handle it that is why He has given it to you.
If He has given you Triplet, He knows you are capable of taking care of Triplet. If He has given you one child at a time; he knows you are capable of taking care of one child at a time. If He decides to give you ten (10) children once, He knows you have the Ability.
So, God is not a wicked God – He cannot give you a Talent that you cannot handle. But sometimes we just joke with it, just like we joke with Time.
We trivialize our Talents; we trivialize our Years on Earth – Not using them judiciously.
The Lord will help us, in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
Romans 12:6 says: Having then Gifts differing according to the g6race that is given to us, whether Prophecy, let us Prophesy according to the Proportion of Faith.
Nobody is born empty! – God didn’t create anybody and just threw the Person on Earth and say: “Just go there and exist, live empty and sleep.” – NO!
… He has put in each and everyone of His Creatures, TALENTS.
And if you haven’t known what your Talent is yet, you need to go back to your Maker and ask: “What exactly is my Talent? Where am I supposed to Function?”
Sometimes, some of us are busy in the Talent that have not been given to us – We want to learn Skills that are not our Talents and we have allowed our Talents to die inside of us.
If you are not using your Talent it will die.
Like we read in Matthew 25 – The Servant that did not invest his Talent, what happened to him? His Talent was taken away from him
That Talent you are not using, it can be taken away from you.
That thing which you are trivializing, that Gift God has put in you that you are not using, He has every right to take it away from you.
May our Talents not be taken away from us in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
Like the Scriptures says: There is no one on Earth that has not been given a Talent or a Gift. It is in you; it is inborn! You need to find it, you need to search for it.
You need to look out for those things that you are already doing; the things that you are best at – It Probably, could be your Talents.
We have all been Uniquely designed by God – With Gifts, Talents, Skills, Abilities, Experiences, Personality Traits, Temperaments – All to distinguish each and everyone of us from the other Person.
That is why God has made us different – We are not the same!
There are no two (2) People that are the same on Earth; even Identical Twins; they have got their Uniqueness, they have got their Specialties.
… There are no two (2) Persons that are the same.
So that is how God has made us; we have all got Talents.
Having allocated these Talents and Time to us; HOW THEN ARE WE EXPECTED TO USE THEM?
There are Three (3) Things you can do with your Time and Talents:
- WASTE them.
- INVEST them.
- SPEND them.
You can either Waste them, Use (Invest) them or Spend them.
But I want to let you know this day that God would want you to USE them – He wants you to INVEST them.
… Invest in your Time, invest in your Talent.
Why would He want us to do this? – Because there is a day of Accountability.
The Passage we read – Matthew 25; says the first Servant took five (5) Talents. And what did he do with his five (5) Talents? – He invested in it!
And after investing in it, he got five (5) extra – Making his Talents ten (10).
What did the Second Servant do? – He had two (2) Talents; he invested in the two (2) Talents and he got two (2) Talents extra. Making his Talents four (4). And his master was Pleased with him.
But what did the third Servant do? – The Bible says he BURIED it. He buried his talent.
That is what most of us are doing with our Talents – We have buried our Talents.
We are not using our Talents! We are rather, functioning in other People’s Talents – Helping them achieve their Goals as they like and ours has been kept redundant!
We have kept our Talent, and we are not using it – We have buried it just like the third Servant.
… He said: “I was afraid because I know that you are a man who reaps where you did not sow.”
And he was afraid, he went and hid it; and he buried it.
Why was he afraid? Why was he burying it?
It is because he didn’t have Confidence in himself!
And that is what is happening to most Children of God – We have lost Confidence in ourselves, we have lost Confidence in what God expects us to do with our Talents.
And because we have lost Confidence in what God expects us to do with our Talents, we have gone to bury it – We are not using it!
But God will rather want us to RISK IT – Let it be that you have tried and you failed.
It is better that you tried in that Talent and then you didn’t make it. And then you go back to your Maker – The One that gave you the Talent; and ask for Wisdom on how to use that Talent. You don’t have to bury it!
That is why I like Business Men and Women (in as much as I am not one) – Businessmen take risk! And the moment they take that risk, whatever comes out of it, they are ready to face it.
… That is what we should do with our Talents – We should risk it!
When you risk your Talent by trying to see how you can go about it; how you can use it – You are actually faithing it. And whatever you Faith, you can get.
The Bible is making us to understand in the Book of James 2:20 – … That Faith without works is dead!
And then that whatever we have Faith, that we will get it.
Praise the Lord – Hallelujah!
The Lord will help us in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
We don’t have to be cautious with our Talents, we don’t have to be Conservative about our Talents. We don’t have to do all those things – What God expects is that, the more we use our Talents, we become Masters in it.
… The more you do a Particular Thing, you get to do that Thing better and you become a Master in it.
And Matthew 25:26 – The Master talking to the third servant now:
His Lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful Servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
And in Matthew 25:27 He said: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the Exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
May this not be our Portion in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
May the Portion of the third servant, who was Passive and Inactivity with his Talent, not be our Portion in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
Unfortunately, this is exactly how some of us are! But God will help us – Amen.
We try to Play safe with what God has given to us, we are scared to even try – So we bury our Talent ;we don’t Invest it, just like the third Servant.
God expects that, instead of Playing safe, we should take a risk at it. When you risk it, you are exactly faithing it.
Hebrews 11:6 says: “For without Faith it is impossible to Please God.”
When you don’t risk something, then you cannot Faith it. And when you can’t, you don’t have Faith about a thing, then you are not Pleasing God.
… For without Faith it is impossible to Please God!
God will help us in Jesus’ Name – Amen.
Why is it necessary for us to Invest in our Time and our Talents?
Revelation 22:12 says: And, behold, I come quickly; and My Reward is with Me, to give every Man according as his work shall be.
God is going to ask each and everyone of us, what we have done with the Time and Talents He gave to us – He is going to ask everyone of us!
The Servants got compensated when their Master returned – That is how we will be compensated on the Day Jesus Christ will return; depending on how we have used our Time and Talents.
The first and the second Servants got Good Rewards – They got Good Rewards!
Brethren, you can make it right today. You can make whatever wrong you have made out of Time and your Talents right today. You can change back the hands of Time!
The fact that you still have Life inside of you, is an opportunity for you to make right your wrong. It is an opportunity to begin to ask the Lord to help you.
In whatever way you have misused your Time, the Lord can help you retrace your Steps – Amen.
In whatever way you have misused your Talents; the Lord can help you retrace your Steps and begin to make them right – Amen.
As I conclude, 2 Corinthians 6:2 says: (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of Salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation.)
Start making use of your Time now – Today is your day of Salvation, now is the acceptable Time. Start making Good use of your Time now, and retrace your Steps.
And the Lord God will help you to give a Good Account of your Time and Talents by the time Jesus comes again in Glory – Amen.
The Lord help us and Bless us in Jesus’ Name – Amen!
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