COMMUNION SUNDAY SERVICE
11/02/2025 10:00 am
“Faithful in God’s Service”
Sermon by: Pastor Joy Matos
SUMMARY:
The sermon focuses on the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25:14-18, a scripture passage that Pastor Joy admitted was difficult to understand for a long time. In the context of the parable, “talents” did not mean ability but a large sum of money—either approximately $1,000 in contemporary terms or what a laborer might earn in half a lifetime—leading to modern versions of the Bible replacing the word with “bags of gold”. The master entrusted his property to three servants: one received five talents, one two, and one a single talent, each according to his ability. The first two servants invested their money and achieved a 100% rate of return, gaining five and two more talents respectively, and both were commended with the exact same words: “Well done good and faithful servant”. The third servant, however, saw his master as a “hard man” with “high standards” and, out of fear, hid the money in the ground, returning exactly what he had received. Although burying the money might have been the safer alternative to entrusting it to potentially dishonest “money changers” (the equivalent of bankers at the time), the master called him “wicked lazy” for failing to generate interest. Pastor Joy’s revelation came years later while reading 1 Peter 4:10, when the light bulb went on: the talents fundamentally represent God’s grace and immeasurable gifts bestowed upon each individual. The theological insight is that when we bury the gifts God gives us, “we are stopping the flow of God’s grace through us”, meaning God expects believers to be faithful in utilizing all their gifts and opportunities to serve others, as they must eventually give account of what they have done with the grace entrusted to them.