Deal Or No Deal: The Choice Is Yours - It's Not My Talent . . . It's His

Deal or No Deal? The Choice is Yours!

It’s Not My Talent…It’s His!

We come to the sixth and final sermon of our series entitled Deal or No Deal? The Choice is Yours! And for six weeks, we have talked about making the choice to obey God and not waver from His ideal for your life in the following areas of your life: Your Time * Your Treasure * Your Temple * Your Testimony!

Our theme verse for this series is a verse that summarizes this so clearly and profoundly:

I Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

There is even a more succinct verse that captures the same theme:

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

And I want you to make the BEST CHOICES…not just “ok” choices or “good” choices – but the BEST Choices. This series is all about making a CHOICE on how to use this life of yours. And today, our LAST theme is: “It’s Not my Talent…It’s His!”

Today is a sermon about how talent alone can never bring eternal reward and it can never make an eternal impact, but with God empowering you to do His will with your talents, He can receive great glory in and through you!

Regarding talents - A good two summary verses for today’s lesson is found in

I Peter 4:10-11 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We use our talents to minister to God and serve others! Even if we feel we have no talents! There is no better passage that depicts the picture of how inadequate and feeble our talents are apart from God’s power to sustain us and bless our efforts than the picture of Moses in Exodus 3 & 4.

Exodus 3 & 4 describe the conversation God had through a burning bush to Moses – telling Moses that he was to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to free God’s people from slavery.

We are going to look at a picture of God telling a normal human being (Moses) “that amid ALL your excuses, ALL your reasons, ALL the rationale you give me as to why I shouldn’t use you to free my people out of the bondage in Egypt…I am still going use you! Because I am going to show you that, “YES, apart from me, you can do nothing…but with me, all things are possible.” In fact, aren’t these the very words Jesus Himself shared in:

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Isn’t that a great encouragement! Regardless of how you feel about your level of ability – God can still use you – IF you relinquish your goals for doing everything for your own glory and allow him to take over and do all you do for His glory!!

If you try to bring about eternal, God-glorifying impact in your life and in the world you live in, then you must TOTALLY rely on the Lord to empower your talent – otherwise your efforts are fleeting and futile. But, God promises that He will sustain you if you desire to live for His glory! He will extract out of you God-given abilities and impact – IF you desire to use your talent for His glory!

So, let’s look at Four Excuses for not using our talents for the Lord – and Four Responses from our Lord to encourage us to conclude that “It’s Not my Talent…It’s His!”

1) Excuse #1 – We feel UNWORTHY!

Exodus 3:10-11 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

In other words, Moses was saying, “I’m not worthy, God! Do you not know what I’ve done? I used to be the one to oversee the slaves while I was considered a ‘son of Pharaoh!’, I brought about hardships upon them, I killed a man and had to flee, I’m not worthy to be used in this capacity!”

God’s Response – “I will be with you!”

Exodus 3:12So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”