Invest

Before Chapman names the sermon, he reads Paul’s instruction in 2 Timothy 2:2. Timothy had heard truth from Paul in the presence of witnesses; now he was to commit it to faithful people who would be able to teach others also. Chapman does not handle that as a verse for preachers alone. It establishes a chain of trust. Somebody carried truth to us, and faithfulness requires that it keep moving through us.

That makes investment personal. A man may have received sound teaching, patient correction, prayer, access to ministry, and the steady example of elders. Those gifts are not keepsakes. Chapman asks men to recognize the people God used and then accept responsibility for the next person in the line. The first movement of the sermon is gratitude becoming duty. Hear this movement at 43:34.

Matthew 25:13–30 gives Chapman the governing picture. The master entrusts talents according to ability. Two servants trade with what they receive; one digs into the earth and hides his lord’s money. Chapman lingers over verse 18 because the failure was not theft or open rebellion. The servant preserved the talent and still answered for leaving it unused.

Chapman uses the acknowledged weight and great value of a talent as an illustration without making his case depend on an exact modern calculation. The spiritual point is weightier than money: God has put the gospel, the Holy Ghost, calling, influence, and responsibility for people into human hands. Fearful preservation is not the same as stewardship. Men cannot bury usefulness and call the burial caution. Follow the reading from 45:16.

The buried servant speaks from fear, and Chapman refuses to let inadequacy become a respectable hiding place. He knows the assignment can feel larger than the man carrying it. The sermon does not pretend that every step is obvious or that every attempt succeeds. It argues that obedience must begin before confidence feels complete.

His answer is the next faithful step. God’s Word gives enough light to move, and a man must stop waiting for the whole road to be visible. Chapman would rather attempt something for God and come short than become accomplished at doing nothing. That is not permission for recklessness; it is a rebuke to the kind of self-protection that keeps prayer unprayed, witness unspoken, and service forever postponed. Listen at 1:01:04.

Chapman repeatedly brings the message down from the pulpit to the pew, the prayer room, and the home. Not every man will preach, but every man can strengthen the work. He can support his pastor, pray when nobody notices, serve his church, reach for another person, teach what he knows, and raise his family with purpose. The kingdom has no shortage of places where a faithful man can put himself to work.

This matters because men often admire a visible calling while discounting the responsibility already within reach. Chapman will not allow that comparison. The question is not whether a man has another person’s assignment. It is whether he is using his own strength, time, testimony, and influence for people. Souls, not status, give the investment its weight. Hear the turn toward people at 58:48.

The sermon becomes autobiographical when Chapman recounts receiving the Holy Ghost and being baptized in Jesus’ name as a teenager. He also speaks plainly about his later struggle with addiction and the point at which he turned his life over to God. These are his own testimony, not a polished hero story. They explain why he speaks with urgency about refusing to bury what grace has placed in a man.

He remembers pastors and elders who taught him, prayed for him, trusted him, and opened places for him to serve. Their investment did not erase his history; it gave him a way to offer that history back to God. The mercy Chapman received becomes evidence for his central appeal: failure need not have the final word, but mercy must not be received passively. Chapman begins this personal account around 1:13:16.

At 1 Thessalonians 2:8, Chapman finds language for more than transferring information. Paul was willing to impart the gospel and his own soul because the people had become dear to him. Spiritual investment requires truth, but it also costs time, affection, patience, and proximity. A younger man needs more than a lesson; he needs somebody willing to walk with him.

Chapman honors the prayer, leadership, church planting, friendship, and mentoring that shaped him and served the Wisconsin District. He does not let remembrance settle into nostalgia. He asks what his own investment will look like beside theirs. The men who follow should not have to start with an empty account. Fathers, pastors, elders, and friends can make a road by pouring forward what was poured into them. Hear 1 Thessalonians 2:8 at 1:16:47.