OPEN: In 1972, NASA launched a space probe named Pioneer 10. The satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, study the planet and its moons, and beam the data back to earth. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.
But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system.
At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn.
At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus;
Neptune at nearly three billion miles;
Pluto at almost four billion miles.
By 1997, 25 years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. Earth finally lost contact with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003.
It’s trajectory is expected to take it in the general direction of the star Aldebaran, and at its present rate of speed Pioneer 10 will reach that star in a little more than 2 million years.
Before they lost radio contact with the spacecraft a NASA spokesman named Jaroff said:
“Perhaps most remarkable, those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.”
Can you imagine accomplishing that much exploration in space with only an 8 watt transmitter?
Imagine accomplish so much... with so little!
In Psalm 144:3 David asks:
“O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?”
David openly wondered how God could possibly consider using insignificant men and women for His purposes.
ILLUS: That’s what captured the imagination of astronaut Jim Lovell. He said
“At one point (in space) I sighted the earth with my thumb — and my thumb from that distance fit over the entire planet. I realized how insignificant we all are if everything I'd ever known is behind my thumb.”
Compared to God… we ARE insignificant.
We are not all that impressive.
And yet God desires to use us.
One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 2:10
“… we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
God prepared things for YOU to do.
(pause)
But many people don’t do anything for God because they don’t they are important enough for Him to pay attention to.
And I believe THAT’S one of the main reasons Jesus chose men like Peter, James and John to be His disciples. They weren’t all that important. They were just insignificant fishermen.
And yet… when Jesus got done with them, they shocked even the Sanhedrin.
“When (the Sanhedrin) saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were UNSCHOOLED, ORDINARY men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13
So, can God use you?
Well… yeah.
IF you spend time with Jesus.
The more time you spend with Jesus, the more God can equip you to be used by Him
So what we’re going to look at this morning is how God can EQUIP you to serve Him.
What does God do to make you useful in His kingdom?
Now, I borrowed the idea of this sermon from another preacher. And as I watched the video of his sermon where he presented this concept of God equipping us, I noticed he had a whiteboard on stage that he used to present his understanding of how God “equips” us. On the whiteboard, the preacher presented something I call a “character evaluation”. He used the acronym SHAPE (each letter standing for some aspect of a person’s character) and tried to use that evaluation to help his congregation to understand how they are “shaped” by God to serve.
A lot of churches use stuff like that:
Character Evaluations
Personality tests
Spiritual Gift assessments… and so on and so on…
And I enjoy those. In fact, I’ve taken several of those types of tests. And they’re ok… in so far as they go. But I have yet to have the results of those assessments do more than make me feel good about myself.
Maybe it’s just me, but I am a little suspicious of their true value in making me a better servant of God. And I suspect my suspicion harkens back to an experience I had in High School.
ILLUS: Back when I was in High School, the guidance counselor had me take a test to evaluate my potential in various occupations. It was supposed to help me know what kind of work I could be successful at when I graduated. I scored high in being a Doctor or a Lawyer or a factory management. But guess which occupation I had one of the lowest scores in…
That’s right… I bombed out on the potential of succeeding in my desire to be a preacher.
My point is: my experience with tests/ assessments/ evaluations is they’re ok, but I really don’t think they’re helpful in making us better servants. In fact, Biblically, some of God’s best servants wouldn’t have passed current tests. Not all personality tests and gift assessments can tell you what God wants you to do. For example:
• Moses’ gift assessment said he couldn’t talk (STUTTERED)
• Peter’s personality test would have said he didn’t have temperament to be a preacher
(TOO VOLATILE, DIDN’T LISTEN TO INSTRUCTIONS)
• John’s occupational assessment would have said he didn’t have the skills to be a writer (UNEDUCATED, WRITING WAS TOO SIMPLISTIC)
You see the problem with too many evaluations/tests/ assessments is that they can only tell you what you can do based upon your CURRENT abilities/mind set.
Let’s revisit a conversation God had with Moses:
God said “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10
And Moses replied: “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” Exodus 4:10
It would appear that Moses had taken one of them evaluation tests.
And you know how God responded? He said:
“Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I WILL HELP YOU speak and WILL TEACH YOU what to say.” Exodus 4:11-12
In other words: Moses, I’m not looking at your past job evaluations.
I’m not looking at your gift assessments.
I have chosen you to do MY work… and I will EQUIP you for it!!!
In fact that’s what Hebrews 13:20-21 says God will do for YOU and for ME
“Now may the God of peace … EQUIP you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ….”
That’s God’s plan
God plans to EQUIP us.
BUT how will He do that?
Well… a couple things come to mind
II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, EQUIPPED for every good work.”
God equips us through this book.
The Bible TEACHES us.
It REPROVES us when we’re not doing things right
And it TRAINS US in righteousness so we know how do things right.
And makes us competent and fully equipped for every good work.
Now how does the Bible do that?
The Bible does that by teaching us the mind of God. That's what the Bible is - the Mind of God in written form. When you read and obey the words from this book, they are God’s wisdom. All the answers you need about life… are right here in these pages.
ILLUS: Alex Trebek the host of the TV game show Jeopardy was once asked
“How many of the answers do you know?”
Trebek replied: “All of them, because I have them in front of me.”
In the same way, when you open the Bible and read its words, you have all the answers you need because they’re right there in front of you.
David wrote; I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts. Psalm 119:100
In fact: Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. Psalm 119:98
The more you know of God’s Word, the better off you are.
But WAIT – there’s more!
Just by reading God’s words… Scripture will change you.
Hebrews 4:12 “…the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
When you read the Bible, God’s words WORK on you.
They CHANGE you.
They MOLD you.
And God said almost exactly the same thing back in Isaiah 55:10-11
“…as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
If you want God to use you, work with you, and change you… READ THE BOOK!!!
That’s the first way God EQUIPS us for His purposes.
2ndly God equips us through others in the in the church
Ephesians 4:11-12 “(God) gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to EQUIP THE SAINTS for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”
Now there are many people who fill out many roles in the church but the folks listed in Ephesians 4 are the teachers they’re the people who shared God’s Word and Vision with the Church.
In any church that are people who are just good teachers..
We usually look at the preacher as the equipper.
But I visit each of the adult Bible Studies during Sunday School and they still challenge me and equip me with new ways of looking at Scripture.
Then there’s the Saturday Morning men’s Prayer Breakfast, and that equips me. I find myself surrounded by people who take their time of study each week seriously.
And there are others in the church who aren’t necessarily teachers who can EQUIP us
• Stan equips us by challenging us to be better servants of others
• Doug equips us by challenging us to send encouragement to others
• The Ladies who run the free meals and free clothing giveaways equip us by giving us examples of how to help others.
Proverbs says it this way: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
You need to pay attention to those who can equip you for ministry.
If you lack Bible knowledge, then find people who know more than you and suck em dry.
If you need to be useful to God in ministries – find someone who does something that interests you and spend time around them.
You see, that’s the whole purpose of Church… so that we can EQUIP each other.
Hebrews 10;24-25 say “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
So – to review – God EQUIPS us through His Word and thru His Church.
But equipping us is only part of the story.
Equipping us is no good if we don’t do something with it.
So let’s go back to Peter, James and John
Jesus said He’d make them “fishers of men”… how’d He do that?
Well, for a while all they had to do was hang around.
Everywhere Jesus went… they went
But when they were with Jesus, they did various things for Him.
For example:
• When Andrew first became a follower – he went and found Peter and brought him to Jesus.
• And Shortly after Matthew became a follower he held a banquet in his house and introduced Jesus to all his friends.
So the first thing we can all do is introduce somebody to Jesus
It can be as simple as inviting people to church (kind of like Andrew did).
OR you can invite your friends over to your house for food & a Bible Study. You don’t have to teach. Just be the host – like Matthew did).
Later on, Jesus sent His disciples out by twos to talk with people.
They were kind of like Jesus’ advance promotion team. They alerted the surrounding towns that Jesus was coming to their village. And they healed people and cast out demons and tell them a simple message: “The kingdom of God is near you.” Luke 10:9
Now granted, I’m not we can do the healings or the casting out of demons… but essentially they were simply meeting the needs of the people they met. You can do that. And their message was a simple one. A short sentence. You can do that. Tell people who Jesus is to you. Tell them that God loved them so much that He gave His only Son to pay the penalty for their sins. It’s not hard… but it requires that you be determined to carry Christ’s message to your own personal world.
What’s interesting about what Jesus did with His disciples though, was this: after 3 years Jesus turned them loose to preach/teach/ build up His kingdom.
THREE YEARS.
Now here’s the deal - if you’ve been a Christian for 3 years and you’re not doing anything but sitting in the pew, there’s something wrong. If you’ve been attending church for more than 3 years and you have no ministry you’re doing for Christ… you’ve got to some soul searching.
God says He’s got something for you to do.
God has invested in tools to equip you.
And God doesn’t ask much… just DO something.
Now I’m saying this because I’m complaining.
Many churches suffer from the 80/20 problem.
Do you know what that is?
It’s when 80% of the work is done 20% of the people.
That’s not true here.
Here’s it’s more like 50 or 60% doing 90% of the work.
I brag about this church ALL the time because I am so honored to serve here.
I brag about you on Facebook and amongst my preacher friends and even strangers on the street.
But even in a great church like this one there are decent and Godly people who haven’t understood that God wants them to DO something. If you can’t figure out what to do ask me, or Scott (our associate minister) or anyone whose doing anything around here.
And we’ll find something for you to do.
One more thought.
We tend to overthink the tasks God might have us do and under estimate our ability to do something for Him.
CLOSE: When NASA first started sending up astronauts into space, one of the tasks they required of them was to keep logs. That required writing things down. But they soon discovered they had a problem they hadn’t anticipated: ball-point pens wouldn’t work in 0 gravity.
So NASA spent A DECADE and $12 BILLION developing a pen that would write in 0 gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.
And yes, they accomplished that goal.
It was American ingenuity at its finest.
Now, the Russians didn’t have as much money to play with, so they came up with a much simpler solution… they used pencils.
The point is this, you can overthink the challenge of being a servant for God.
It’s not that hard.
It’s not rocket science.
It’s just a matter of letting God use you to change the world.
But in order for God to use you, you must first belong to Him.
INVITATION
