and pray. Loving Heavenly Father, first I want to thank you for allowing us to be able to

assemble peacefully, wanting, and waiting for your word eagerly, and we know that you will deliver.

So I pray that you would bless us with your word and lay it upon our hearts for our understanding and that we may be able to go forth in this world and utilize every word that you present here today and we thank you in advance for that which only you can do and the mighty name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

So tonight, we're going to be looking into what is often referred to as the parable of the pounds.

And this is captured in the book of Luke. But don't turn there now because we have to make a quick detour before we get there and it's going to be very, very critical for our understanding.

So I want to make sure that we have the deepest learning that we can in the scriptures.

So the part that we go to first is going to be germane to understanding the whole meaning of this parable.

First of all, the parable itself, most of you know, not all, is defined as an illustration that teaches.

That's the simple definition.

You can find other ones that are pages long, but there's no need to go there.

The simple one is an illustration that teaches.

Throughout the teachings by Jesus,

he would often use parables as a way of making a point,

making a critical point.

In fact, parables will make up some 35% of all the recorded writings of Jesus.

35%.

So that's one third.

My math is right.

So that's a lot in parables that the Lord spoke.

So it's important for us to understand what parables are, what they're for,

to have that deeper meaning because Jesus used them for a reason

and for our learning. And unlike the ways of the world, even then, as the Greeks came out with all

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