Wise Servants and Kingdom Investments
Part Three
In this final article based on the Parable of the Talents, I want to look at the perceptions of the Master that each of the stewards held. All three were given talents according to the master’s perception of their abilities. The opportunities he was giving them were open-ended, giving them the possibility to increase their abilities in a way that would also bless him as well. The first two stewards held a different view than the third. They perceived their master to be generous and were grateful and excited for the opportunity to show their abilities. But the third steward, possibly because of his own insecurities, thought the master harsh and viewed the opportunity through the lens of fear. He acted as if the master were testing him with the purpose of seeing him fail and fail, he did. His perception of the master determined the outcome of his risk/success plan. How do you perceive God? The way we perceive God not only affects our personal relationship with Him but also filters down through everything else we do including our business practices. The heart of the matter goes to our security as human beings. If like the third steward, we see God as harsh, judgmental, and waiting for us to fail, our insecurity will limit the full use of our potential. I have met a lot of believers who live this way. Their perception of God is that He is mostly mad, sad, or disappointed with them. No matter how hard they try, how high they jump, or how much they pray or read their Bibles, they feel it will never be enough to satisfy God. As a result, they either work harder, hoping to win His approval or give up because they have no hope of Him ever approving them. The truth is, God has already approved them, approved you. Our security in Abba as our Father will never rest on what we can do. That’s why Jesus went to the cross. If we could do it all on our own there would have been no need for Christ’s death. Abba loved you before you were even born and you will never be able to talk Him out of loving you. When my first child was born, the only thing she contributed to the household was noise and poop. It never would have dawned on me to only love her when she wasn’t making a mess. I never told her to go out and get a job or chided her because she wasn’t proving herself worthy or being productive. I loved her because she was my child and for no other reason. That is the foundation of security Abba wants us to live in with him. Knowing that, means that I am already a success and my security is rooted in the depth of His love for me. This gives me great freedom because I know that succeed or fail, He is bigger than all of it and His love will always embrace me. This frees me to take risks in seeking to live out my calling and dreams whether in the Church or in the Marketplace. It doesn’t mean that I don’t train, grow in my craft and plan wisely. But it means that I understand my security is rooted in the Kingdom of Heaven, not earth, and in that, I have the ‘X’ factor, the leadership of Jesus, and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. From this perspective, I know in faith and experience that God is for me, and even if I fail, it’s not the end of the world, just the beginning of learning something new. As the author of Hebrews says, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”. He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, who trust Him, and who, under His leadership, do the preparation and take the risks necessary to succeed and build the Kingdom.
Wise Servants and Kingdom Investments
Part Two
In the first article based on the parable of the talents, I spoke of living out of gratitude. The talents that each of the stewards received were given to them by their master. They had nothing of their own, but he chose to invest in them. We brought nothing into the world and we will take nothing out. No matter how much of our own effort has gone into working toward our success, we all start with the gift of life and the skillsets and talents God bestowed on us. For that, we should always be grateful. The Lord reminded Israel to remember, when she entered the promised land and lived in houses she did not build and ate the fruit of vineyards she did not plant, not to think that it was by her own works she accomplished this, for she was the smallest of nations. It was the gift and blessing of God’s favor that got her there. So we too, remember and live with gratitude for the gifts God has given us.
The focus I want to touch on today is highlighted by the investments the servants made. We don’t know the nature of their investments but we can be sure that the servants would have considered investments that their master would approve of. They had served him long enough for him to trust them, which also indicates they would have some idea of how he thought and what his expectations might be. Have we seriously taken this idea into consideration in our giving back to the Lord? When I was a young pastor, I had a narrow view of those in the marketplace. I very much viewed marketplace people as an important resource in sustaining the ministry of the church through their tithe and offering. Indeed, I think this is still the lens through which many pastors view the bussiness people in their churches. I have come to appreciate the fact that bussiness people have a calling on their lives that is as special and sacred as that of those called to ministry. Along with this call is the responsibility to invest their resources wisely in and out of the church in ways that are pleasing to the Lord. How do we know what those ways are? The prophets and Jesus made some of these things pretty clear. Neglect of the orphans, widows, the poor and the oppressed, were all reasons for God’s displeasure with Israel and were, along with their idolatry, primary reasons why God’s judgment sent them onto exile from their land. Solomon wrote, “Whoever increases wealth by taking interest or profit from the poor amasses it for another, who will be kind to the poor.” Proverbs 28:8. As God blesses us with resources, we have a responsibility to release those blessings back into our communities, both in our tithes and offerings and also in where we are investing for retirement, (are we considering companies and resources that are giving back and helping people when we think about the stockmarket?) What ministries in your community are taking care of children, feeding the poor, caring for the widow or the elderly, or are being a voice for oppressed people groups? Scripture indicates that these are all investments that the Master approves of. What stocks, bonds, etc. are exploiting any of these groups and are to be avoided? I think it’s time for us to think outside the church traditional church boxes that have defined giving for years. I’m not saying don’t give to your church, but be a voice for giving that affects people’s lives beyond the four walls of our buildings. Let’s consider giving beyond our finances. What are some ‘hands on ways’ we can be involved in building kingdom love in our communities? Can you teach someone a trade? Can you be a voice in City Hall to change policies that may be harmful to particular people groups? Can you mentor a young person? Sometimes we hold ourselves back because the problems we are trying to solve seem so big we don’t feel like we can make a dent. I was driving through a shopping area one morning and I saw a homeless lady pushing a cart filled with her belongings. I had recently been meditating on the feeding of the 5000 and I whispered a simple prayer of blessing for this woman. The Lord spoke to me and told me to buy her breakfast. There was a McDonald’s nearby so I bought her breakfast. I parked my car, walked over to her, and gave her breakfast. She was overwhelmed and immediately began to weep, which moved my heart to weep as well. “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you”, she kept saying. “I was praying for something to eat.” As I walked away, the Lord whispered to me, “I didn’t ask you to solve the homeless issue, I just asked you to feed one person”. We don’t have to fix the big issues unless God places us in the position to do that. We just need to do what’s in front of us. Figuring out ways to invest our resources in the kingdom in ways that transform lives and change our communities may require a bit of work on our part, but I believe the rewards of investing in ways that bless the Master will lead to changes in our perceptions of extending kingdom love.
Wise Servants and Kingdom Investments (Part One)
It is often said that you should write about what you know or are learning. This next set of articles is a reflection of things I have long believed but currently have the opportunity to grow in first hand. The end of 2020 brought me many new changes and challenges. Through various circumstances I won’t detail here, my assignment as the Director of Voices House of Prayer, a prayer ministry on California’s central coast, came to an end and the prayer room was closed. I entered 2021 with a blank slate, so to speak, and I found myself in a position I had never been in before. I didn’t know what was next. I have served the church and worked in the marketplace for fifty years. I have pastored, planted, and given myself to various ministries. I always had a sense when one assignment was ending and another was beginning, but this time was different. Though the Lord was gracious and gave me a heads up that my assignment was ending, there was no sense of what was next. I purposed to take 2021 as somewhat of a sabbatical to seek and wait on the Lord while building and pursuing some things that were on my heart. In that time I have launched two websites, including this one, (Forward Perspectives), and Jeff Eggers Ministries, where I offer mentoring courses as well as free resources for spiritual growth. Both of these are in infant stages and are slowly picking up steam. I have written my second book, “Welcome to Dreamland”, which focuses on the subject of dreams and interpretation of dreams, and I’m doing the first revision prior to publishing. I have also worked part-time in construction while taking on a few side projects of my own as well as doing “Instacart”. The last two activities have been intentional in keeping me in the place of rubbing elbows with the world and holding a place of witness. All this to say, I have been on the journey of pursuing my dreams while living in the tension of also making ends meet and paying the bills. Sound familiar? In the parable of the three stewards, I see a lot of parallels for marketplace people today. How do we build our dreams while maintaining kingdom focus? How do we live contented, full lives in the tension of making ends meet? I see some great insights in this parable and will use it as the focus of this three-part article. The takeaway I want to hit in this article has to do with living in gratitude and promise. I hope you can relate.
Jesus said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return. So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’ When he returned home he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it. “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’ “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’ “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’“Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’ “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” Luke 19:12-26
My first takeaway here is that each of the three stewards was given the money to invest. They had earned the trust of their master and were not investing their own resources, but those of their master. Isn’t this the place we all begin? God has entrusted us with gifts, skills, and talents. There are no self-made people, everyone needs someone in their corner even if it is only in some small way. Life is a gift rooted in Abba’s love for us and that is our starting place. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians;
” For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?”
The extravagance of God’s gift to us is seen in the truth that He gave us His very own Son, to die for our sins and restore us to joyful intimacy with Him. Gratitude and thanksgiving for what we have received are foundational to both success and joy in the marketplace. Abba has invested in us. That isn’t to say that nothing is required of us. There will always be a ceiling on our gifts if we don’t develop them. As we grow in both experience and knowledge, we are capable of increasing our income and having more impact, followed by the possibility of having more to invest. But throughout the process, it’s important to recognize all of our blessings, from the front end to the back end, are rooted in Abba’s generosity. Embracing this idea helps us live from a place of contentment in all the stages of our growth and success, and guards our hearts against greed, fear, and anxiety. We are already successful in life simply because we love God and God loves us, and in the end, that’s all we take with us. Because everything originates from and belongs to Him, we can trust Him to sustain us in every season, despite what market indicators might be telling us. We have access to wisdom from above, which is pure, peaceable, and teachable, (James 3:17). Jesus pointed out that the lilies neither toil nor spin, but are beautifully clothed by our Heavenly Father. How much more will our heavenly Father care for Us? When our lives are lived in the center of his love, our contentment isn’t dependent on what we have. “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, without painful toil for it.” Proverbs 10:22. “Painful toil’ indicates worry, stress, and anxiety. When we root our hearts in Abba’s goodness, leadership, and purposes for our lives, life becomes bigger than just making ends meet, (though of course, that is important). We can begin to see that He created us to dream, and as we seek him and work towards those dreams we can trust Him to supply what is needed to get there. Solomon wrote;
Our ‘lot’ refers to the gifts, skills, dreams, and resources we receive from God, and our toil refers to how we walk it out with Him in the journey of our lives. It’s a partnership, and Abba is definitely the ‘Senior Partner’. One last thing to leave us with here. In the above parable, Jesus used the word ‘Master’ in relationship to the stewards and their gifts and responsibilities. I will elaborate on this further in the part three of this article, but there is one point to be made here. In John 15:15, Jesus spoke of a transition that was taking place between Himself and the disciples. Basically He told them that no longer would He call them servants, but now He would call them friends, because He was bringing them into His confidence and would lead them in understanding the Father’s ‘business’, the business of building the kingdom. Whatever our call in the marketplace, Abba wants us to understand that we labor from the place of security in His love for us. He’s not the harsh taskmaster the third steward took Him for. He’s the Abba who gives good gifts to those who ask, (Matthew 7:11), which brings us back to our main point. Abba is good, and He has invested in us with His very best, His own Son. The marketplace needs people who are living out their dreams and labor while demonstrating gratitude, thanksgiving, and contentment.
In a world that measures success by productivity, merit, self-sufficiency, power, and the bottom line, Christmas is often about ‘how much’. How much did we get? How much did we give? How much did it cost? Did they deserve what we gave them? Were they naughty or nice? Did they really ‘need’ this or that thing? Are we filling ‘holes’ that say ‘more’, ‘more’, ‘more’, or are we blessing those that are truly content by giving them a little extra? But the economy of God is quite contrary to the world’s standard. While the world wants to make the rich ‘richer’, the ones God initially came to, were the poor. A closer look at the Magnificat demonstrates this upside-down view of God’s economy. Note Mary’s words from Luke’s gospel, chapter one.:
“My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.”
We see this trend continue, through the birth of Christ. God Incarnate, the Savior of the world, is born in a stable, far from the palaces of kings. Furthermore, the first appearance of the Angels in announcing the birth of the Savior is to the poor shepherds living in the fields among the sheep. The only wealthy ones to show up at the event are the ‘wise men’. Perhaps it was because they had enough wisdom to know their need of the Savior and to humble themselves, bowing at the babe’s feet. All this is to say that the poverty of the human heart was a magnet for the blessing and grace of God.
The economy of God demonstrated in Christmas, runs contrary to the world’s view. Jesus didn’t come to Mary or the shepherd because of their productivity. They had very little means by which they could produce anything. No one can attract God by the works of their hands and the productivity of their labor. But he is attracted to contrite hearts and humble spirits. The shepherds didn’t attract God by their merit. They were on the bottom of the totem pole in terms of their socio-economic times. The ones God came to at Christmas were aware of their lack of merit, of having anything at all that God needed, and nothing of value to offer except hearts that welcomed Him. Nor was God attracted to those who boasted in self-sufficiency and power. As Mary said, “He has pulled down the mighty from their thrones, and the rich he has sent away empty”. And the bottom line in God’s economy is spelled out in the gift of the Christ child, the gift of grace. Jesus is the bottom line, His birth, death, and resurrection have paid the price for all to come, the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. His bottom line is mercy, not merit. We don’t get what we deserve, we get more, we get forgiveness, mercy, and grace.
In transferring these thoughts to the marketplace, I think it is about learning to lead out of the heart of the Father. Learning to invest in people as much or more than productivity. Learning to develop and equip people in ways that not only enhance the business but also enhance their own personal lives. And learning that what attracts God to human hearts, humility, gratitude, the recognition of our own needs, may be the same traits that will attract Him to our businesses.
From Forward Perspectives, Merry Christmas!
Bless You,
Jeff










Living a Productive Life
Jesus had a few things to say regarding our treasures, possessions, and views on ‘making a living’.
Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15
And Jesus told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16-21
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
The point Jesus was making in all these stories wasn’t about whether we should or shouldn’t have possessions or own things. ‘Things’ in and of themselves are neither evil nor good. The point Jesus was making was about ‘what’, or even better, ‘who’, controls our lives? He is speaking less about what we own, and more about what might own us. What determines the quality of how we live? The three statements I italicized and underlined serve to underscore the focus of what I am saying.
Life does not consist in the abundance of what we own, and contrary to the popular phrase, the ‘one who dies with the most toys’, doesn’t win. We are all headed towards death, and we will all leave something behind. I’ve yet to see a Hearst pulling a U-Haul trailer. Will our legacy consist only of material possessions, or will we be more known as having lived a life that was ‘rich toward God’? Jesus pretty much nailed it when He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. There is a quality of life to be enjoyed in both prosperity and contentment, but this contentment is not dependent on our prosperity. The Western mindset very much breaks things down and separates them into compartments. Work is a compartment. Family is a compartment. Recreation is a compartment. Financial responsibility is a compartment. The problem with living in a compartmentalized way is that we often define success as all compartments doing well and failure is when even one compartment is falling behind. The Hebraic view of life was more holistic. Life, work, family, are all connected. Contentment isn’t the result of all the compartments running smoothly, but rather all compartments being centered on and in the kingdom of heaven. Everything flows and is connected to the life of God in the center. We love God, God loves us, we are already a success. Everything now functions from the perspective of inner contentedness. My success becomes not only about taking care of me and my family but being rich toward God in learning to also be radically generous. Our work doesn’t exist simply to put food on the table, (though no doubt we all want that), but it also tells a story of purpose, honors those who contribute along the way, and enables us to give back something that adds to our treasure in heaven. It becomes tied to our eternal treasure while being an expression of kingdom diligence, creativity, and life in the here and now. This is where the quality of life grows from a treasure that is rooted in the grace, love, wisdom, and kingdom of heaven. I find that this perspective fuels my passion to allow God’s glory to show through whatever skill He has gifted me with and called me to develop. It adds grace and purpose to even the steady and mundane labors it takes to make my business or job a place that reflects His presence and goodness. It enables us, when all is said and done, to live productive and purposeful lives here on earth while at the same time being ‘rich toward heaven’. And that’s a legacy, a testimony worth leaving behind.