There’s future accountability.

A Sermon Delivered on Wednesday Evening, February 19^th 2025, by
Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH,
Live on MZ Radio London, London UK.

Life is a gift, and with it comes responsibility. Every talent we possess, every opportunity we receive, and every resource entrusted to us is not by chance – it is given by God for a purpose. But one day, we will stand before Him and give an account of how we’ve used these gifts. The Bible reminds us in First Peter Four Ten that we are stewards of God’s grace, called to serve others with what we’ve been given. And in Matthew 25, Jesus teaches us through the parable of the talents that faithfulness will be rewarded, while neglect and complacency will lead to consequences.

Are you using what God has placed in your hands wisely? Are you living with eternity in mind? In today’s sermon titled “There’s future accountability,” Evangelist Paul Acquah explores the sobering yet powerful truth of future accountability – a call to live faithfully, serve diligently, and prepare for the day we will stand before our Creator.

Be blessed as you listen!

1 Peter 4 verse 10 says, ^“As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (NKJV). ^“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms” (NIV).

If something is given to you, it’s your responsibility to use it, to watch over it, and to have an accountability when it’s requested back. God has given us grace to take charge and serve Him and our generation excellently for His glory. 

I want to bring this out in a parable that Jesus used in Matthew chapter 25.  We can say the parable of the stewards. We can use the principles out of this parable for our lives today. Jesus says inverse 14 that, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them”.  He gave them to stewards.  

Verse 15 says, “And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one”. If you just read that, you would think well, maybe he liked the one that got the five more than the one that got two, but we know the Lord is not a respecter of persons,but here we find out that one got five, one got two and one got one.  

But we’re going to read on in this verse and we will see a standard by which the master gave the talents.  It says, “And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability;” That was the standard by which he gave. One had an ability to hold five, the other one only had an ability to hold two, the other one only had the ability to hold one. That just brings out the fact that the Lord gives to your capacity. So, if you want to receive more from the Lord, what needs to happen? Your capacity needs to grow.  In verse 19,it goes on to say, After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. My friend, there is future accountability because they were stewards. 

Verses 20 and 21: “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them. ²¹ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’. That’s what I want to hear. Iwant to hear “well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things I’ll make you ruler over many things, enter the joy of the Lord”.  We always start out with the least but we have to be faithful with that to get much. 

Verses 22 and 23 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ ²³ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

Then the next few verses say, “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant”

You don’t want the Lord saying to you that you are a wicked and lazy servant ‘you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. ²⁷ So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest’. 

Verse 28says ‘So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. The first two received the talents and did something with them and gained more.  The one who received five got 10 and the one that had two actually ended up with four.  Let’s go back to the standard by which the master originally gave the talents.  Originally what was the standard that he gave the talents to start with?  According to their ability to hold it.  The one who received five, that was all he could handle but guess what, in the end he’s holding ten. He could only hold five at the beginning but after a long time, now he has ten.  What happened to his ability? What happened to his capacity? It grew.  How did that capacity grow?  He used what he had been given, and if you’ll use what you’ve been given, if it’s a small thing and you’ll use that and keep using it, it will grow.  Your capacity will grow and so it says you’ve been faithful over a few things, now you have the capacity over many things.

The first two actually took ownership of what was given to them. They acknowledged to the Lord that you delivered it to me.  Let’s look at verse 20 again. This is the one with the five talents.  “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them. He acknowledged the talents, took them, owned them and did something with them. Then the one with the two said in verse 22 “Lord you delivered to me two talents”.  He owned them. but look at the third one, the third servant didn’t own it.  He never claimed it. “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. ²⁵ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’  He never took ownership of it. 

Friend, there’re many Christians that the Lord has given a gift to, but you’ve never owned it. You’ve never said Lord I receive it. I have it, you’ve delivered it to me and now I’m going to use it. There’re some out there today, you need to own what God has given you. You know you have a gift but you never fully owned it and you’re not using that gift.  You’ve hidden that gift, you need to pull that gift out and own it and say I have it, you delivered it to me, I’m going to use it. You need to use it because there’s going to be future accountability.

God has given us gifts. You’ve been justified, sanctified, you’ve been saved, you’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit, but what are you going to do with these now?  You’re still here. When you got saved, God didn’t take you to heaven.  You were left here with an assignment to serve other people, reach other people, be an advertising figure for Jesus.   Romans 12:3 says “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith”. First thing that’s brought out is that you’ve been given the measure of faith, and that’s a grace gift. Verse 4 goes on to  say,⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: Having then gifts. How did we get those gifts?  The Lord has given those gifts to us.  When you got born again, you got a gift and it’s to be used.  You’re going to be a steward but first of all, you have to acknowledge it’s been delivered to me.  I have it, thank you Lord, I own that now, and I’m going to use it.  

Here it says Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: What does that mean?  I’m just not saved and I’m going to heaven, thank God that I’m in right standing with God, but I have been given a gift to reach out to other people and I’m going to get out of my comfort zone.  I’m going to go out and serve, use my gift and serve someone else. That’s being a faithful servant, but your flesh doesn’t want to go out and serve other people.  Your flesh wants to stay home, eat and drink and watch TV, but you’re called to arise and use the gift, to start getting involved with other people and that’s sometimes uncomfortable, and here it says you have some gifts.  You are to use those gifts because there’s future accountability.