We need to have an increase-profit mindset. Let’s translate that to the Gospel. If you don’t have a profit orientation—a prosperity orientation—about the things of the kingdom (healing, discipleship, etc.) it will hinder you actually serving people.
In Luke 19:11-27, the master delivered a mina to each of His 10 servants. He said to them “Do business till I come.” The first two servants recorded here were faithful and profitable, but then we read about the last servant! Oh no.This servant came back with one mina in the handkerchief claiming he was afraid his master, but he was not afraid. That was not the problem. The master said “It wasn’t because you were afraid of me that this is what you did! If you were afraid of me you would have at least done this…” The issue was that the servant was disobedient. The one mina servant was deliberately disobedient. God had told him “do business till I come.” Did the servant listen to his master’s orders and do business? No, instead He was disobedient with the mina that he had been given. That is why the Lord called him wicked. He said to the wicked servant “you weren’t fearful, you weren’t anxious, you weren’t unequipped. You were disobedient.”
This servant may have even convinced himself that his inactivity was due to his master being a tough man. He may have believed his own lie. Proverbs 26:13 says “the sluggard says ‘there’s a lion in the street.” If we will do business with the mina that we have, we will be profitable. We will prosper! God has given us a mina in this body. He has given us our purity and knowledge of Him as a gift. Remember, this message is NOT a rebuke, just a gear the Lord is wanting us to shift into. Remember the word from the beginning—that’s the heart! We need to get in business with the mina that we’ve been given! Many of us are already in business on some level. But, as a church, we are supposed to grow in numbers. Look at Acts. Our church has not been growing in numbers so we are missing something.
If a church did not have a powerful, life-changing message…if a church did not have a product that was amazing, you could see how it might not grow. But if a church has a tremendous product, a life changing message that it’s members have experienced—if we know and have experienced that God is completely GOOD and we are willing to carry this message to others that “you too can experience His Goodness”, then the only hindrance to that message taking off is it getting in front of PEOPLE!