Reaching Our Full Potential in Christ Jesus: Stop Burying What God Gave You

I was praying for people last week. Not in some big, organized prayer line at a conference - just throughout the day, one person here, another there. You know how it goes. You run into someone at the store, they share something heavy, and suddenly you've got your hand on their shoulder in the parking lot asking the Lord to move.

But something kept happening that day. Over and over, the Lord kept showing me the same thing about each person I prayed for: they were not reaching their full potential in Jesus Christ.

There was this one lady in particular. I'm standing there praying for her, and the sense of potential energy coming off of her was almost overwhelming. I could feel it. She had so much stored up inside - gifts, callings, words God had spoken over her life - and none of it was being released. Think about that for a second. In physics, there's potential energy, which is energy that hasn't been spent yet. Then there's kinetic energy, where you're actually using it, actually moving, actually doing something with it. This woman had mountains of potential energy in the spirit, and I almost felt like saying, "Lady, you should be praying for me."

That moment wrecked me. Because it forced me to ask a question I want to ask you today: are we reaching our full potential in Christ Jesus? Or have we buried what God gave us?

I want to talk about this. I want to dig into the Parable of the Talents and see where we fit. Because I believe a lot of us - maybe most of us - have gifts and callings sitting in the dirt somewhere, and we've convinced ourselves that's normal. It's not. And Jesus had some pretty strong words about it.

The Parable That Should Make Us Uncomfortable

In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus is in the middle of a long discourse with His disciples. They've been asking eschatological questions back in Matthew 24, and now Jesus is describing the kingdom of heaven. He tells this story:

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. 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. (Matthew 25:14-15 KJV)

The guy with five talents went and traded with them and made five more. The guy with two did the same and doubled his. But the one who received a single talent? He went and buried it in the ground. When the master came back, two servants heard the words every believer should be chasing: "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." (Matthew 25:21 KJV)

The third servant? He got called "wicked and slothful" and was cast into outer darkness.

Now here's what hit me about this parable. There are some common denominators that I want you to notice. All three of the servants called Jesus "Lord." They said it with their lips. But only two of them actually served Him with their lives. There's a massive difference between calling Jesus Lord and living like He is. And I think a lot of us in the church today are in that gap. We say the right things. We show up on Sunday. But our talents? They're still in the dirt.

Fear: The Talent Killer

So what happened to the third servant? Why did he bury what was given to him?

He tells us himself. He says, "Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth." (Matthew 25:24-25 KJV)

He was afraid.

Now, I want you to think about that for a moment. Fear is of the devil. I'll say that plainly. The Lord has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, and of power, and of a sound mind. That's 2 Timothy 1:7. And perfect love casts out fear - that's 1 John 4:18.

Let me put it this way. If your grandchild is about to be hit by a speeding bus, are you standing there frozen in fear? No. You love that child. You're moving. You're risking yourself. Fear is not even a factor in that situation because perfect love casts out fear. That's the kind of love we're supposed to have for God and for our neighbor. If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and we love our neighbor as ourselves - the first two commandments - then that love should keep us from burying our talent.

Because what does the servant's excuse sound like to you? It doesn't make sense, does it? "I knew you were a hard man, so I was afraid." That's nonsensical. And I've learned something over the years: if 2 plus 2 doesn't equal 4, there's usually a demon in there. The devil doesn't make sense. This nonsensical discourse, this twisted logic that keeps us paralyzed - that's not from God.

Think about the fear of man. If God gives you a word, a revelation, something to share with a group of people, and you let the fear of man - what you're going to look like, what they'll think of you - keep you from delivering a message that could save their souls... does that make sense? That's exactly what this servant did. "Oh, I knew how you are, Lord, so I was afraid." He feared something that didn't make sense instead of fearing the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Fear and unbelief. Those are the very first two things on the list in Revelation 21:8: "But the fearful, and unbelieving..." They're listed first for a reason.

Moving Toward Jesus, Not Away From Hell

Now, I want to be careful here. I'm not trying to motivate anyone by moving away from hell. If you follow my podcast or my blog at ConradRocks.Net, you know that's not my style. I don't think scaring people away from hell is a very encouraging tactic.

Let me give you the picture I always use. You've got the Father, and you've got Jesus. Look at those as two dots on a line. No man can get to the Father but by Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Now let's add a third dot and call it hell. Put it off to the left, or anywhere else.

Here's the thing: if you move in any direction away from hell, you are not necessarily moving toward Jesus. You can move away from hell in 360 degrees - north, south, east, west - but there's only one direction that gets you to the Father, and that's through Jesus Christ. This is why you don't hear me hammering hellfire every five minutes. Our primary motivation should be to love and seek Jesus, because when you have an encounter with Him - a real encounter - your whole life changes. You fall in love with Him. You love people. You want to do things for Him. And suddenly, you're not running away from something anymore. You're running toward someone.

That's the secret to not burying your talent. It's not about fear of punishment. It's about love for the One who gave it to you. You look forward to the day you hear Him say, "Well done."

How We Bury Our Talents

So we've established that fear buries talent. But fear isn't the only way to put your gifts in the ground.

Think about Joseph. We were talking about this in Bible study recently, and someone mentioned the progression: pit, prison, prince. Joseph was given two dreams when he was young. God sowed a word into his life - a destiny. And that word, like a seed, fought to get to the surface over the years. Joseph didn't know how it would happen. He got thrown in a pit. He ended up in prison. But that word was working the whole time.

I find it interesting that Pharaoh had two dreams. I believe that's a prophetic representation. Joseph had been given two dreams, and here's Pharaoh with two dreams, and Joseph is like, "I believe God touched that." God was in that moment. And Joseph's talent, buried through years of suffering, finally broke through to the surface.

What about the woman at the well? Jesus sowed a word into her life: "You've had five husbands." Does that sound super prophetic? Does that sound like some kind of deep spiritual revelation? On the surface, no. But it was anointed. He just said, "You've had five husbands," and she got on fire perceiving that He was the Messiah. She got a whole town saved. A prophetic word that didn't even make sense to the natural mind activated something in her that changed an entire city.

Now here's what we do as we grow older. We start burying our talent with sin. We bury it with iniquity. The cares of this world choke the word, and we're throwing dirt on it, and then we start living like the world. It might not be fear that buries our talent - it might be unbelief. We go from a place of fearful wonderment and respect for the word of God to all of a sudden letting the world have its way with us. That's burial. That's talent in the dirt.

How to Discover What You've Buried

So I've been pondering this. How do we dig up what we've buried? How do we find our talent again?

You cannot find your talent by sitting on the couch. I'm going to say that again because I think we need to hear it. You cannot find your talent by sitting on the couch.

Instead of burying our talent with five hours of TV each day and only sowing five minutes of the word each week into our lives, let me ask you: who's really your Lord at that point? If that's your schedule, TV is your Lord.

Get off the couch. Do stuff. Get out and do things.

Let me tell you about my friend Kyle. Back in 2004, Kyle and I were roommates. It was Halloween, and we were sitting around at this Christian coffee shop in Houston - Revival House - trying to find something to do. A church was having a service, and we thought, instead of doing the whole Halloween thing, let's just go to church.

So we're sitting there, and the pastor gets a word for Kyle. He tells him, "You're going to write songs." Just like that. A prophetic word dropped right in the middle of a Halloween night church service. And something ignited in Kyle. He got on fire for learning music. He wrote a lot of songs. Shortly after, he actually began leading worship. 

Now think about that. There was a talent inside Kyle that he didn't even know he had. He got a prophetic word, and it was activated. But what would have happened if we'd stayed home that night? What if we'd just sat on the couch? He might never have discovered what God had placed inside him. Get off the couch.

Sometimes just following biblical instructions can help you discover a talent you didn't know you had. Jesus talks about visiting widows and orphans in their affliction - that's James 1:27. And He says, "I was in prison, and ye came unto me" in Matthew 25:36. You may find that visiting those in need is your ministry.

I keep hearing story after story from people who got involved in prison ministry. They didn't really want to go. They weren't excited about it. But they went. And once they got inside those walls, they started operating in words of knowledge, in spiritual gifts, that they didn't know they had. Every single person who does prison ministry and talks to me says the same thing: "I didn't know I could operate in these gifts."

And it makes sense, doesn't it? God's got to get inside the prison, and He lives inside of us. When we show up where He's needed, we operate at a higher level.

Another thing: your neighborhood is your ministry. It's the easiest way to make disciples. Think about the early church in the Book of Acts - those people were together all the time. Guess what? You're not too far from your neighbors all the time either. Start praying for your neighborhood. Ask people if they need prayer. Talk about Jesus to the people next door. You never know what's sitting right next to you.

Personal Reflections

I want to be real with you for a moment. When I was praying for that woman and I felt all that potential energy in her, it convicted me. Because I started asking myself: what have I buried? What promises has God given me that I've covered up with excuses, with busyness, with the cares of this world?

I was given a talent for music. I worked at it, and I played for the world for a while. But then I made a decision: I'm going to use this talent for the Lord. That shift - from playing for the world to playing for Him - that's when everything changed.

And Susan and I have made it a practice to go to Christian events. It doesn't really matter what kind. We just go. And you never know when God's going to show up through something that doesn't even make sense in your natural mind. I've been to events I didn't really want to attend, things that seemed boring to my carnal mind, and suddenly God drops a word or an idea - something prophetic, something to do - and I followed through with it. And man, God touched that situation. I was blown away. If I'd stayed on the couch, I never would have participated in what God was doing.

David is another example that fires me up. When David was about to be stoned by his own men - when everything looked lost - it says in 1 Samuel that he encouraged himself in the Lord. What was he doing? I believe he was rehearsing the promises of God for his life. "David, you were anointed to be king. You're not king right now. This talent is buried. This word has not come to fruition." But he started rehearsing that word, and God empowered him to go get his family back.

Sometimes you've got to dig up the promises. You've got to remind yourself what God said. You've got to rehearse the word until it breaks through the dirt.

Biblical References

The scriptures woven throughout this message all point to the same truth: God has invested in you, and He expects a return. In Matthew 25, Jesus makes it clear that the kingdom of heaven operates on the principle of stewardship. Every servant received something. No one was left empty-handed. The difference wasn't in what they were given - it was in what they did with it.

2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that fear is not from God. When we bury our talents because we're afraid - afraid of failure, afraid of rejection, afraid of looking foolish - we're operating in a spirit that the Lord never gave us. Perfect love, as 1 John 4:18 says, casts out that fear. If we truly love God and love our neighbor, we cannot sit still while our gifts gather dust.

Revelation 21:8 places the fearful and the unbelieving at the top of a list nobody wants to be on. That's a sobering reminder that unbelief isn't just a minor inconvenience - it has eternal consequences.

Matthew 10:28 puts it in perspective: "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The only fear worth having is the fear of the Lord, and paradoxically, that fear is rooted in love.

And then there's the promise that echoes through the entire parable: "Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things." We shall rule and reign with Christ. We shall even judge the angels, the Bible says. When we're faithful with little, God gives us more to do. We're not just sitting up in heaven on some divine 401(k) plan. There's work to be done, and God is looking for people He can trust with it.

Key Takeaways

• All three servants called Jesus "Lord" with their lips, but only two served Him with their lives. Saying it and living it are two different things.

• Fear is of the devil. God has given us a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind - not fear. Perfect love casts out fear.

• Our primary motivation should be moving toward Jesus, not away from hell. There's only one direction that leads to the Father.

• You can bury your talent through fear, unbelief, sin, iniquity, or just the cares of this world choking the word.

• You cannot discover your talent on the couch. Get out, do things, follow biblical instructions, and let God activate what's inside you.

• Rehearse the promises God has given you. Like David, encourage yourself in the Lord when things look impossible.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Here's what I want to leave you with today. God has given you something. Maybe it's a gift you've known about since you were a kid. Maybe it's a word He spoke over your life that you've almost forgotten. Maybe it's a talent so buried under years of busyness and distraction that you're not even sure what it is anymore.

It's time to dig.

The parable isn't just a warning about what happens when you don't use what God gave you - although it is that. It's an invitation. It's an invitation to hear those words: "Well done, good and faithful servant." It's an invitation to enter into the joy of your Lord. It's an invitation to rule and reign with Christ.

Don't let fear stop you. Don't let unbelief steal what God has planted in your life. Don't let the cares of this world choke the word before it can bear fruit.

Move toward Jesus. Fall in love with Him again. And watch what happens when you start using what He gave you.

If this message has touched your life, I want to encourage you to share it with someone who needs to hear it. Visit me at ConradRocks.Net where we're lighting and stoking the fires of revival in America. You can also check out my podcast, Coffee with Conrad, where I talk about walking after the spirit of God and wax prophetic about all things Jesus.

If you want to go deeper, I'd love for you to grab a copy of my book, OPEN YOUR EYES: My Supernatural Journey, and if you're dealing with spiritual warfare in the night, check out Overcoming Night Terror: Making the Demons Leave. Both are available on Amazon.

Dig deeper. Go higher. And whatever you do, don't bury what God gave you.

Action Items

1. Identify your talent. Spend time in prayer this week asking God to show you what gifts and callings He's placed in your life - especially anything you may have buried through fear, unbelief, or the cares of this world.

2. Rehearse God's promises. Like David encouraging himself in the Lord, go back to the words God has spoken over your life. Write them down. Speak them out loud. Let those seeds fight their way back to the surface.

3. Get off the couch. Replace passive consumption with active obedience. Cut down the hours of entertainment and invest that time in the word of God, in prayer, and in serving others.

4. Start in your neighborhood. Your neighbors are your easiest discipleship opportunity. Pray for them. Ask if they need prayer. Talk about Jesus. You don't need a platform - you need a front porch.

Show up to Christian events and follow the Spirit. You never know when God is going to drop a prophetic word or an idea that activates a talent you didn't even know you had. Be present. Be available. Be obedient.