Let’s imagine you’re listening in on a Sunday school class. The teacher reads a passage of Scripture. The teacher then asks one of the students—we’ll call her Amber (for no readily apparent reason), “What does that Scripture mean?”

Amber, a thoughtful woman who is known to everyone who knows her as a strong Christian, replies, “What it means to me is …“

Wait! What just happened here? This could happen in most Sunday School classes and everyone would listen to what Amber said but not hear what Amber really said. Did you catch it? “What it means to me is …“ Amber, like most people today, would claim to believe in absolute truth—and would probably also claim to believe that the Bible is the #1 written source of that truth. But Amber’s answer shows that she filters truth through her own feelings first.

Genesis 7

I brought up the story of Amber because many people claim faith in God and in his word yet still read a story like this and doubt. As I mentioned last week: many of the Bible’s detractors have a vested interest in the story of Noah not being true. So when we’re fed information from all sides about the flood just being local or just being a myth, it’s hard not to listen.

I like answers. I was only mediocre at math in school, but one thing I liked about it was that there were answers. I didn’t always get the answer, but I knew there was an answer out there—and just one answer! Sometimes in other classes, though, the answers were vague. “What caused WW1?” Well, the big event was the assignation of Archduke Ferdinand, but that wasn’t the only cause … In math, though, there were answers. And I want that in Scripture and in my faith, too. Sometimes, though, I have to come to the point where I’ll say, "I'll trust God. I may not understand it all, but I'll trust God."

I have a Bible study on-line every Tuesday and Thursday morning with a friend of mine from high school who lives in Austin. Lately, we’re going through the book of Luke and this Tuesday we were discussing John (the Immerser). John gets one of Scripture’s great tributes when Jesus says, “There is no one greater than John born among women.” (Luke 7:28)

Maybe Noah and John scare us because they both did what they were asked to do and what they were asked to do was weird. I think of people I have known whose complaint against church was that they weren’t asked to do anything. I knew a guy that wanted to do big things … or so he said. But he came to dislike doing little things.

In 2 Kings 5, we read another story we’ve heard over and over since Sunday School: the story of Naaman. Remember him? He was a mighty man in Syria and a warrior, but he had leprosy. An Israelite servant girl he had captured told her mistress (who told Naaman) that there was a prophet in Israel who could cure Naaman’s leprosy. Naaman heads to Israel with a large treasure from the Syrian king and, eventually, he finds Elisha. Elisha sends to word to Naaman to go bathe 7 times in the Jordan and he’ll be cured. Naaman stomps off mad, but then one of his servants asks him if he would’ve done what Elisha asked if Elisha had asked him to do something big. Elisha listens, goes and bathes 7 times in the Jordan, and comes up healed.

How many of us, though, would gladly build an ark but won’t invite our next door neighbor to church? How many of us aren’t being asked to do big things for God because we haven’t proven ourselves trustworthy in the little things?

Matthew 25:14-29
"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, '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.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (ESV)

Now, I could make this a real hell-fire and brimstone “Watch out lest ye be flooded, too!” sermon. There are plenty of warnings here for all of us.

On the other hand, look at the flip side: God doesn’t just take care of the faithful, he rewards them!

He gave those first two servants great responsibility here on earth and, then, let them enter into his “joy”; Naaman was cured of his disease and allowed to return home, secure in the knowledge of the one true God; and Noah not only got saved physically, he was given the whole earth!

Verse 5 repeats that great epitaph for Noah: Noah did everything the Lord commanded him. (NCV)

What do I DO with this?
Remember Amber, from the beginning of this sermon? To one degree or another, we’re probably all guilty of doing what she did and filtering Scripture through our own feelings. If we have the least little inclination that Scripture might actually be God’s written word and that it might be the truth, then hadn’t we better live accordingly?

Ephesians 2:10
God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do. (GNB)

Are you faithful in doing what God has called you to do—big or small? If your reason for answering “no” is that you don’t know what God has called you to do, what steps have you taken to find out? Have you petitioned him in prayer and sought guidance in his word and the counsel of wise Christians?

Do it now. Start doing what you’ve been called to do, or start taking the steps right now to find out what your calling is!