God's Generosity Flowing Through You Series

This is ministry month and we’re in the series on teamwork. The message today is going to conclude with an opportunity for you to let us know which ministry teams on which you believe God is calling you to serve this coming year.

We’ve been looking at a paragraph from the Apostle Peter’s first letter to the early church. The last few weeks we’ve looked at chapter four, verses 8 and 9: Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

Today we’re going to receive God’s Word from verses 10 and 11.

1 Peter 4:10 (NLT) – God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. 11 Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen.

I want to talk to you today about God’s generosity flowing through you. Circle that phrase in verse 10 if you would please - "God’s generosity flowing through you."

No one is more generous than God. He’s the greatest giver of all time. And here the Bible says there’s a way to have His generosity flowing through you! That’s absolutely incredible and exciting! The great Creator and Savior of the universe offers to channel His charitableness through you! You have an opportunity for God to do His work through your life!

You have the prospect of your hands becoming God’s hands! You have the chance for your works to be His works! When you speak you could be speaking for God!

So what are the conditions for all of this happening? The Bible tells us what we need to do.

1. Manage your spiritual gifts well.

Look at verse 10 again: God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.

God’s Word teaches us that every individual that believes on Christ receives spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (NLT) A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church.

God gives every Christ follower Supernatural endowments in order for His generosity towards others to flow through them.

Most people who come to Christ actually receive more than one spiritual gift. But I’m not going to get into a lengthy explanation of spiritual gifts right now. I just want you to think about how you’re handling the spiritual gifts God gave you.

[If you’re not yet a follower of Christ I want to make you thirstier for becoming one. This is one of the many blessings that come into your life when you make a faith commitment to Christ! You get to have God working through you – and He even supplies the tools – spiritual gifts!]

How do you "manage your spiritual gifts well?" If God gave you Supernatural abilities, Supernatural tools to allow His generosity to flow through you, how does this work? The Bible tells us how.

Look at the first part of verse 11 again: "Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you."

If you have the God-given gift of speaking, for instance, then good spiritual gifts management calls for you to "speak as though God were speaking through you."

Now Peter is only giving an example of one spiritual gift but the application is for all spiritual gifts. The point is to let God do the talking through you. Not as if you are a marionette, a puppet on a string, not as if God were a ventriloquist, but by yielding yourself to Him.

That’s how you manage your spiritual gifts well. You yield yourself to God. No matter what spiritual gifts you possess, they won’t do anyone any good unless you’re yielded to God!

If you don’t yet know your spiritual gifts then ask God to help you discover them. Seek the counsel of mature believers. Read some reliable literature on the topic. But even before you do that, make sure you have yielded yourself to God. Then remain yielded to God as you use your gifts. One of the greatest joys you will experience in life is when God’s grace flows through you because you yielded yourself to Him!

Yielding yourself to God is a personal decision, and it’s not something God makes you do.

Isaiah put it this way when he yielded himself to God’s generosity flowing through him, he said to God, "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah 6:8) God said that He was looking for someone to do His work and Isaiah said, "I’ll do it."