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ATTENTION
The New York Times reported the following story in 2006:
On a weekend day a few years ago, a rural Georgia couple brought their 4 year old son to the children’s hospital in Atlanta.
He’d been sick with fevers for several months that just were not going away.
The doctors who were on duty ordered blood tests which shoed the boy to have leukemia.
Still, a few symptoms didn’t add up.
There were some light brown spots on his skin which didn’t fit the diagnosis, but the doctors had their blood test and scheduled a strong round of chemotherapy to begin on Monday.
After all, fighting against leukemia in one so young is always a race against time.
While they meant well, and they followed their protocol, they had committed an error which is very easily committed.
As Dr. Bergsagel, a senior oncologist at the hospital later said, “Once you start down one of these clinical pathways, it’s very hard to step off.”
What Dr. Bergsagel, nor the other doctors realized at the time was that this 4 year old boy had been misdiagnosed.
He actually had a form of leukemia which the strong chemotherapy does not cure.
It makes the symptoms go away for a month or so, but they soon return and each round of chemotherapy brings a serious risk of death because the body is in such a weakened condition already.
If only this error was rare.
In fact, autopsies reveal that doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20% of the time.
Literally millions of patients are being treated for the wrong disease.
The most shocking thing about that statistic, however, is that, according to the New York Times, that percentage has not changed since the 1930's.
A big part of the reason for this situation is that, while we have made advancement in the treatment of disease, the emphasis on treatment has not been matched with an emphasis on diagnosis.
Jason had his little girl misdiagnosed in 1999.
The doctors called his daughter’s case of flesh-eating infection, chicken pox.
When her organs began to shut down, the doctors realized their mistake.
Jason was so shaken by the experience that he quit his finance job and founded a company to create software that would help doctors diagnose disease.
He named the software “Isabel” after his daughter.
It was that software that Dr. Bergsagel used on Monday morning when he entered that 4 year old’s symptoms into his computer.
As a beta tester of the program he was immediately presented with a number of diagnostic options.
At the top was the rare form of leukemia that Dr. Bergsagel had never seen before.
Now here’s the tragic part.
Even though this program is available, and even though it’s 750.00 price tag per physician is a bargain given the life it may save, at the time the article was written, most hospitals had not purchased the program.
The reason: Hospitals get paid to treat illnesses, not diagnose them.
They have to way to recoup the money they spend on programs like Isabel.
The point?
Well, in medicine misdiagnosis can be fatal.
Only the proper diagnosis can lead to the right treatment.
And that doesn’t just apply to medicine.
It applies to your spiritual life too.
Really understanding where you are spiritually is the result of the proper diagnosis.
You’ve got to see yourself like you really are.
Every believer needs a copy of “Isabel” to really understand what’s going on inside their heart.
NEED
You see, it’s possible for you to really believe that you’re a Christ follower, when you’re not.
It’s easy for you to think you have faith because you mentally assent to some facts about Jesus.
But faith isn’t just thinking the right thoughts, it gets actualized in doing the right deeds.
That’s why I want you to hear this message.
You may actually learn about the state of your own soul and that lesson could really be a revelation.
It could change your eternal destiny.
And others of you really must listen because this message could change your eternal reward.
You’ve been drifting along, content in the knowledge that you are on your way to heaven, but you’ve never really stopped very long to think about how things will be for you in heaven when you get there.
This I know: The Bible is clear that genuine believers stand before the Lord to be rewarded according to their faithfulness.
That can mean a lot of things, but there’s one sure thing it means: What we do now with the resources we have will impact how we are rewarded then.
You might say, “That’s all well and good, but what do you mean by that, Rusty?
What does my money say about my heart?
Well, I am convinced after reading the parable I am preaching on this morning, that your money management is a diagnostic tool.
If you’ve been to the shop lately with your car, you’ve seen some pretty sophisticated diagnostic equipment.
Onboard computers have revolutionized car engine repair.
Instead of having to listen to the engine like a mechanic did in the “old days,” now the diagnostic machine hooks into your car’s onboard computer and spits out a sheet that tells the mechanic exactly what’s wrong . . .
or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Stewardship is like that sophisticated diagnostic machine.
Your money management gives you a detailed read out on your soul.
It diagnoses you.
Read about this diagnostic tool with me in this little story Jesus gives us here in Luke 19:11
Now as they heard these things, He spoke another parable, because He was near Jerusalem and because they thought the kingdom of God would appear immediately.
12 Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
13 So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’
14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’
15 “And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
16 Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’
17 And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ 18 And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.’
19 Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’
20 “Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.
21 For I feared you, because you are an austere man.
You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’
22 And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.
You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
23 Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’
24 “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’ 25 (But they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas.’)
26 ‘For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
27 But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’
”
Now I know you’re probably saying, “Well, I don’t see where you get a diagnostic tool out of that passage.”
I understand, but it really is there.
Let me show you.
This parable tells us three diagnoses that our money management makes on our lives.
First:
DIV 1: STEWARDSHIP DIAGNOSES THE DEPTH OF YOUR COMMITMENT
EXPLANATION
Now if you grew up in church, this parable sounds familiar to you.
That’s because it resembles the parable of the talents that Christ tells in Matt 25.
But there are some significant differences which, I believe, make a difference.
First, in this parable, the Owner gives each servant the same amount, regardless of their ability.
It says: So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.
You see, each one received the same thing: a “mina.”
A mina was worth 100 drachmas and represented the three month salary of an average worker.
What’s the point of this difference?
One commentator writes:
If Matthew describes how different opportunities were equally used, Luke describes how equal opportunities were differently used by successful servants.
That difference shows up in their results.
The first servant gains ten more minas, the second gains five and the third gains zero.
The question becomes, why the difference?
Why did one of the servants gain 10 times his investment.
From what I have studied I believe it is because one of the servants was wiser, worked harder, was more committed.
You see, he took his master’s investment and determined to make it count and the results came.
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