“Be Careful With What God Gives You”
By Joe Mack Cherry
I. Intro
A. God doesn’t always call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
1. Have you ever thought you were qualified for a job and found out you weren’t?
a. Me: the first time I got on a minibike. Up the side of our house, I went.
b. We’ll see in a minute that the Children of Israel did by demanding a king.
c. There are consequences for all of our decisions, good or bad.
2. Have you ever been charged with a task that you felt you were not qualified to do?
a. Most parents do at the start of parenthood.
b. For the most part, parents and their children survive and thrive.
c. How? Through a lot of prayer, study, and hard work.
3. Remember how it felt when you succeeded?
4. It happens to God’s children, also. Two examples of Him calling men for service:
a. Moses at the burning bush; tell Pharoah, “Let my people go!”
i. “Lord, I’m slow of speech”/who made your mouth?
ii. Ex. 4:12 God said, “I will be your mouth and I will teach you what to say.” We have the same assurance that God will be with us!
b. Gideon – Jud. 6:11 – 8:32
i. Jud. 6:12 – The angels says, “Go, you mighty man of valor.”
ii. My clan is the least in Manasseh and I am the least in my clan.
c. God doesn’t always call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
i. Just because He qualifies us, doesn’t mean the task will be easy.
ii. We have to use what He gives us in the way He intended.
B. King Saul Credentials
1. I Sam. 9:2
a. From an upstanding family
b. NIV labels him impressive. NKJV calls him the most handsome man in Israel.
c. He was a head taller than any of the others.
2. I Sam. 9:20 Samuel tells Saul the desires of Israel has turned to you. Read vs. 21 – sound familiar? I’m the least of the least and I am not capable of doing what God wants me to do.
3. I Sam. 11:5 – Saul’s vocation
a. He was coming in from the fields behind a pair of oxen.
b. He also had to know something about animals because Kish sent him to retrieve the runaway donkeys.
c. He was an agriculturist even after he was anointed, not a politician/ruler.
4. I Sam. 8 – Saul, as well as his predecessors, would do these things as king.
a. Take young men and make them warriors.
b. Take young ladies and make them bakers and perfumers.
c. Take slaves and servants at will.
d. Take the best land and livestock for himself.
e. Hosea years later speaks of the punishment of the Israelites, “where is your king, now?” Even if he were here, he could not save you.
II. King Saul fails in epic proportions.
A. Remember God qualifies those for duty.
1. I Sam. 10:9 – As Saul turned away from Samuel, God gave him a new heart.
2. God did not do the first physical heart transplant!
3. As we learned earlier, Saul was an agriculturist; he was not lent to governing.
4. It did not change his nature; it changed his focus. He was the same man before and after.
B. Saul didn’t keep God’s commandments in mind as he utilized what God had given him.
1. God gives us something, ultimately it is for His glory.
2. The things that Saul did
a. I Sam 11:6-11 – He threatened to kill the oxen of all those who did not turn out for battle against the Ammonites. Refer back IB4.a.
b. I Sam 13:12-14 – He took it upon himself to do the duties of a priest when Samuel arrived late for a pre battle meeting. This costs his lineage the kingship which later went to David.
c. I Sam. 15 – Saul is commanded to totally destroy the Amalekites.
i. He saves king Agag
ii. He saves cattle and sheep
iii. Samuel tells him, “It is better to obey than sacrifice…”
iv. This was the final straw, the kingdom was taken from Saul and Samuel never saw him again, even though he repents and kills king Agag.
d. Saul always tried to justify his bad decisions. Refer back IIB2b
e. Notice that Saul was not immediately removed as king.
f. His life became a living hell.
i. God sent an evil spirit to torment him. I Sam 16:4
ii. David’s life was also affected because Saul became very jealous after he defeated the Amalekites; henceforth Saul was constantly trying to kill him. I Sam. 18:10 (Another evil spirit took over Saul.)
iii. Saul’s final error was to consult the Witch of Endor. Samuel was brought up and Saul was told that he and his sons would die the next day.
III. Application
A. Spiritual Gifts - I Cor. 12:4-11
1. In the early church there existed those who received Spiritual gifts.
a. Message of Wisdom
b. Message of Knowledge
c. Faith
d. Gifts of Healing
e. Miraculous powers
f. Prophesy
g. Speaking in tongues
h. Interpreting tongues
2. I Cor 12:11 – The Spirit determined who got these gifts.
3. They were to use these as the measure of their faith allowed.
4. Obviously, the time for these gifts have passed.
B. Rom. 12: 6-8
1. These gifts more align with us as 21st century Christians and given by the grace of God just as the ones we just discussed.
a. Prophecy – to expound on scripture, exhort through scripture, or preach.
I Cor. 14:3 – This is different from the way prophecy is used in the O.T.
b. Serving – not directed only to deacons
c. Teaching – not only in a church setting
d. Encouraging – not everyone can be a cheerleader but God needs them.
e. Giving – use this gift generously
f. Leadership – refers to elders and those elders may assign specific task
g. Mercy – extending mercy is not an easy gift to use sometime.
h. I want to add two more to this list:
i. Pray – we can all pray
ii. Be at Church
• It isn’t easy for us as we grow older to get out.
• It always encourages me when I see others make a conscience effort.
2. We should take pride in our talents.
a. Every day we ought to thank God for the talents He’s given us and what they allow us to do for him.
b. We should never forget the source.
c. We must keep things in perspective as Christ instructed the 72 disciples when they returned in Luke 20:10. Paraphrasing He said, “Don’t gloat in your abilities; rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
3. Paul uses the analogy of the church as a body.
a. Our individual talents are part of a grander scheme.
b. There are things you do that others cannot or won’t do. A little toe may not be an eye but it takes both to make a whole body.
C. We must grow our talents.
1. God gives us all talents so that we can glorify Him.
a. He does not bring us into this world talentless.
b. Just as he gave Saul a new heart to serve the Children of Israel, he will give us what we need to serve Him.
c. Remember what He did for Gideon and Saul for that matter?
2. Mat. 25 – The Parable of the Talents
a. Heard it a million times.
b. Although each servant was given a different amount of money, what they did with what they were individually given is the lesson.
c. Fear seems to be a resounding theme when God calls on people to step up.
3. Mk. 16:15 – “Go ye into the world and preach the good news to the whole creation…”
a. We don’t have to be a preacher to proclaim the good news.
b. Our actions can proclaim the goodness of God.
4. We need to realize that the results of us using our talents may be combined with the talents of others in order to achieve God’s ultimate goal.
a. I Cor. 3: 6-9
b. Paul planted, Apollos water, and God gave the increase.
D. Use it
1. This is a normal progression in both directions.
a. Muscles – without exercise deteriorate.
b. Musical talents – for several years I played six night a week, I grew into a decent piano player but after I quit, I didn’t play for years. Tina bought me a beautiful baby grand piano several years ago so I sit down and play once in a while and get angry at myself for not being where I was 25 years ago.
c. When it comes to growing our Christian talents, we must stay the course.
2. If we use them to God’s glory, we will be blessed with more talents.
a. Mat 25:19-23 – Both were profitable and therefore received more.
b. We must be faithful with our gifts.
E. Or Lose it!
1. Taking our talents for grant is the first step in losing them.
2. I can get to heaven if I never play the piano or guitar again. The consequences are that I have cheated myself out of enjoyment but it is not a matter of salvation.
3. The same goes for staying in shape physically.
4. What happened to Saul?
a. His heart (which God gave him to lead the people) was overridden by reckless, personal decisions that separated him from God, which ultimately affected the Children of Israel. We also must remember here that God was not pleased with the Children themselves for wanting a king!
b. I Sam. 28:16 – The Spirit of Samuel reminds Saul that God became his enemy after the battle with the Amalekites.
c. Saul lost the kingdom because he did not use the heart God gave him to His (God’s) glory.
5. When it comes to Christianity the consequences have eternal ramifications.
a. What happened to the one talent man?
b. Mat. 25:30 – he ended up in darkness where there were weeping and gnashing of teeth, which was where? Hell
6. We can get tired but we must not give up. Gal. 6:9 …in the proper time we will reap our harvest.
IV. Closing
A. God can get fed up with our lack of obedience or service.
1. It happened to Saul.
2. Look at all the evil kings that led Israel.
B. We will all give an account of how we used our talents.
C. It is scary to think what will happen if we do not use them wisely.
a. II Pet. 2:21 – It is better to have never known the way than to know the way and depart from it.
b. In hell, there is an eternity to recollect all the sins of commission and omission.
D. This week, consider your talents and how you are (or are not) using them then look for a way to use them to God’s glory.
