Why GOD HAS MADE YOU
Psalm 139:13 & Selected
Jeff Seaman
You don’t have to travel too far around the world until you discover very quickly that God loves variety. He loves variety! He’s made all shapes, sizes, colors, intensities, incredible variety in our world. God has made over 300,000 species of beetles. Would you call that creative overkill? Don’t you think the world could have got along with just 50,000 species of beetles? Why did He create 300,000? He loves variety.
In one cubic foot of snow there are 18 million snowflakes and not one of them are alike. Nobody else is going to see it but God. He loves variety.
He likes variety in people too. Have you ever had to wait for an airplane and watch the parade of peculiar people walk by? God loves variety. And He made every single one of those individuals. He made you.
Psalm 139:13 (Good News) "You (God) created every part of me. You put me together in my mother’s womb." v. 14 (LB) "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous." Job 10:8 (Good News) "Your hands formed and shaped me." Circle "shaped."
From these verses we learn three foundational truths that are going to be the foundation of the series we’re beginning today and be in for the next several weeks.
Three important truths about you:
1. I am unique. You’re unique. There’s not anybody in the world like you. There never has been. There never will be. When God made you He broke the mold. God does not create carbon copies, He only creates originals. You’re unique. If you were to search the whole world, you wouldn’t find two people who had the same footprint or fingerprint or voiceprint. You are unique. Why did God make you different from every person who’s ever lived? Why did He go to all that trouble? Because He wants you to know how special you are, how much you matter to Him. You are unique.
2. I am wonderfully complex. How many of you married somebody who is wonderfully complex? The fact is, you are so complex many times we are a mystery to ourselves. Have you ever acted in a certain way that surprised you? Have you ever said something and later thought, "What was I thinking when I said that?" Have you ever felt a certain way and later thought, "Why do I feel this way? What’s happening to me?" We are mysteries to ourselves. Have you ever been in a group and everybody reacted one way to a circumstance and you found yourself reacting in the exact opposite way to everyone else in the group? Inside you’re thinking, "What’s wrong with me?" There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just unique.
In this series we hope to shed some light on the mystery that’s you. You are complex and you are unique. Sometimes you just have to admit, "I don’t know why I feel this way. I don’t know why I said that. I don’t know why I thought that." But God does. You are unique and you’re wonderfully complex.
3. I was shaped for a purpose! God created everything in the world for a purpose, the Bible says, including you. You’re not here by accident. You’re not just taking up space. God made you for a reason. You were designed by God and it was His idea. It’s not a mistake. You were planned before birth. God did not simply sit down at a computer and randomly access a bunch of components and throw it all together and out came you. The bible says every clearly that you were purposefully, personally, orderly planned and designed by God. His loving hand made you exactly the way you are. You’re not an accident. God had a plan in the genetic codes of your life. He didn’t just throw it all together. You are you because God wanted you to be you. Your uniqueness is what God wants you to offer to the world.
We’re going to begin a new series this week that I’m calling "You Are Shaped For Significance". Today I just want to overview the five factors of your shape and how that shape influences your life. In the succeeding weeks we’ll go into detail of each of these five components.
I. THE FIVE PARTS OF MY GOD-GIVEN SHAPE
In our class 301 we talk about how God has shaped you for ministry. But in this series we’re not going to talk about ministry, we’re going to talk about how your shape affects every other area of your life -- your relationships, your career, your finances, your retirement, your enjoyment, your hobbies, your recreation -- how God uses your shape in every other area of life.
The Bible says you’re a combination of five different factors.
S - Spiritual gift/gifts
The Bible says 1 Cor. 7:7 b "Each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that." There are at least twenty listed in the Bible. We’re going to look at them in detail. Every believer has at least one and your gift is to be used to benefit others. Every time you do something and you do it well, you do it and you enjoy doing it, you are revealing your giftedness. God says every believer has a spiritual gift. We’re going to look at how that impacts your work, your life, your job, your career, your family, all of that.
H - Heart
It’s what drives you, what motivates you. All of us have different motivations, different drives, different interests. Would you agree there are some things you care about very deeply and there are other things you couldn’t care less about? That’s revealing your heart. This causes a lot of conflict in marriage. We have different hearts. The Bible says, Rev. 17:17 "God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose."
The Bible says, Phil. 2:13 "For it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed, for his own chosen purpose!" God puts desires in your heart. The way you discover what your heart is, your basic motivation in life, is ask yourself: What do I love to do? What do I really love to do? What is it I think about when my mind is able to think about anything? What do I really dream about? What does my mind automatically turn to?
You cannot not get away from a basic interest that God has implanted in your life. You are unique in that. He’s given you gifts and He’s given you a heart, inborn interests. He says those are for a chosen purpose. It’s not by accident that you have certain interests and other people have other interests. God wants different kinds of motivations in life to accomplish different things.
A - Abilities
I Cor. 12:6 "There are different abilities to perform service." A lot of people think they don’t have any abilities. Yes, you do. You just don’t recognize them as abilities. Researchers have shown that the average person has between 500 and 700 different kinds of abilities. That’s just an average person. If you can raise your hand that’s an ability. You have many, many different kinds of abilities. God says that this is part of how He shapes us. Some of you are interested in computers. Some of you are scared to death of computers. Some of you have a natural ability with mechanical things. Many are good with numbers. Many are good with words. Many are good at speaking. We all have different abilities. Some people have the ability to work with people. Some people have abilities in music. Some people can think great ideas and abstract thoughts and put them all together. Some people have mechanical minds, engineering minds. God gives you those abilities. You may have an ability to entertain. Other people fall flat on their face when they try to entertain. You may have an ability to cook. You may have an ability to draw, to speak, to recruit, to research, to landscape, to build.... We all have different abilities. Those abilities are not by accident. God gave them to you for a purpose.
"I (God) have given him skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts." Exodus 31:3. 2 Cor. 3:5 "Our competence comes from God."
He’s given you gifts, He’s given you a heart (basic motivations in life), He’s given you abilities (natural talents and skills).
P - Personality
Some of you have personality with a capital P. Personality refers to three things: the way you act, the way you feel, and the way you think. The root of your personality is the way you think, because the way you think determines the way you feel and the way you feel usually determines the way you act. Even the Bible says the root of your personality is your thought life.
Proverbs 4:23 "Your life is shaped by your thoughts."
Everybody agrees that personality is very complex. We’ll look at that in this series. Researchers have discovered there are at least 18,000 different personality traits. When you put those in
combinations, the combinations are endless. In number of personality traits, you are very complex.
Years ago there used to be a debate over "Is personality something you’re born with or is it something that’s acquired through the environment?" If you ever took Developmental Psych in college it’s the issue Nature or Nurture. Which is it? That used to be a big debate. There’s no doubt about it any more. Over the years, study after study shows that the moment a child is born they already have a set pattern of some personality characteristics long before any environment affects them from the outside world. Anybody who’s a parent of two or more children knows that. Some babies are born cooing and loving and complacent. They’re so much fun! Other babies come chomping on a cigar saying, "I dare you to make me smile!... I’m going to take on the world!" Any of you who are parents of multiple children and have watched the dynamics at the dinner table you think how out of my loins could this diversity come? Just day and night!
So your personality is a complex part. It’s part of your shape - your gifts, your heart, your ability, your personality. God wants to use your personality for a purpose. He gave it to you. It’s a sign to you. It’s not just something that came accidentally. He shaped you with it for a reason.
E - Experiences
God plans experiences in your life to help shape you. Romans 8:28 "And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans." God is both organized and purposeful in planning the personal experiences he prepares for us. He uniquely allows things in your life. He doesn’t cause them all but He sees them and He allows even the bad to bring good out of your life. He wants to work through your experiences.
In the last session of this series we’re going to talk about four kinds of experiences that God uses in your life. We’ll conclude the series talking about how to get the most out of the experiences you’re having. God never wastes a hurt.
These are the five things we’re going to be looking at the next several weeks. Spiritual gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality, Experiences. These five things make you, you. What can we say about your shape before we even get into the details?
Three things.
1. All five factors are inter-related. You are a complex combination of gifts and heart and personality and abilities and experiences. They all work together. Each element influences the other. You are a combination of them.
2. Your shape is fixed. It’s stable. It endures. It’s constant. It’s fixed by God. Your shape does not change. As you go through different stages in life you have different expressions but your shape demonstrates itself very early in life and it continues with you for a lifetime. You’re not basically any different from when you got started -- the basic bent, the basic shape that God’s made you.
So what happens at conversion? What happens when I’m born again? When you come to know Christ and you’re converted, God doesn’t slow you down, He just changes your direction. If you look at the life of Paul, all of the characteristics you saw in his life -- his zeal, his enthusiasm, his very sharp mind -- he still had after he became a Christian. It’s just that God used them in a new direction, He channeled them in a new way. He didn’t change his personality but he changed how he used it and he used it for good rather than for selfish purposes.
Your shape is fixed. If, as a little child you were pulling pranks, you’ll probably still be pulling pranks at 85. If you were wheeling and dealing in 3rd grade at recess, trading marbles, when you’re in the rest home you’ll probably be wheeling and dealing in bed pans. It’s in your nature to be a wheeler dealer! If God has given you the ability to acquire and some of you have that ability, long after all your needs are met, you keep on acquiring. Why? Because you can’t do anything but be you. What does God do after your needs are met? He wants you to start using it for the right way. Maybe He wants you to acquire for the kingdom of God. Or any number of other things that He has in mind. Not just selfishly. But once He’s got you going, you’re going, and it’s not going to change. If, as a little child, you had a caring heart for hurting animals -- maybe you fixed a broken wing on a little bird or a cat’s paw -- the rest of your life you’re going to be caring for hurting people and hurting animals. You’re made that way. It’s fixed. You never get tired of doing what you’re shaped to do. You don’t get bored with it. No matter how many satisfying experiences you have you’re always ready for another one. Why? God made you that way.
3. Your shape is irrepressible. You cannot not be you. It’s all you can be. There’s no escaping you being you. You can try to be like somebody else but your real self will spurt through. If you enjoy doing something over and over you’ll repeat it. It becomes a pattern in your life. The fact is, if your job does not allow you to express your basic shape -- who you are -- it’s irrepressible, so you’ll find some way to express it if you can’t do it at work. Maybe through a hobby or at church -- some way. As a manager of 50 staff members here at Saddleback and over 1000 volunteers in different ministries of the church, it never ceases to amaze me that regardless of the job description you give a person, they eventually end up doing what they want to do in the job anyway! No matter what the job description says, we form and fit the job until we get to do what we really enjoy doing and sluff off the stuff we don’t like doing and do it on the side. Why? You’re made that way! A secret of a strong organization for those of you who are CEO’s is to put people in positions that they’re shaped for. Then you don’t have to motivate them. This is their niche, where they fit.
II. WHY MUST I UNDERSTAND MY S.H.A.P.E?
Why should I bother to understand how God has shaped me? Why should we spend several weeks looking at this? Four benefits.
First, a random list of issues that your shape explains. Once you understand your shape it explains how you respond to authority. It explains how you handle criticism, how you like to be led. The way God has made you and designed you explains how you deal with confrontation, how you handle power and freedom, how you make friends, why you loose interest in a task and when you do it, why you find it hard to get started in a new activity sometimes. Your shape explains how you deal with guilt, why you emphasize what you do, why you’re popular or you’re unpopular, why you get close to people or why you don’t get close to people. It’s all explained by your shape that God gave you. Your shape explains what makes you mad, what makes you sad, what makes you worried, what makes you happy, what makes you fearful. Because it’s you! That’s why this may be one of the most important series that I could do.
Four benefits of building your life around your shape, discovering what are your spiritual gifts, your heart, your abilities, your personality, your experiences -- looking at them and then building your life on the way God has shaped you.
1. It reduces stress. You stop comparing yourself to other people. The Bible says in Corinthians don’t do that anyway. It’s dumb to compare yourself. You stop comparing yourself to others. You stop trying to do what you’re not gifted to do. You build on your strengths. You recognize your limitations. You maximize what you’re good at and don’t worry about the rest. That’s a stress reducer.
2. It increases success. What is success? It’s not making a lot of money. I know a lot of people making a lot of money who aren’t successful. Success is knowing God’s will and being right in the center of it. Success is being what God meant you to be. It’s figuring out who you are and then being it! Finding your niche and saying, "That’s me!" That’s success.
We call Lake Pointe, a Life Development church. I like that term because we want to help develop, to position you, so you can make a significant difference with your life in this world. I think one of the things we ought to do is help teenagers discover their shape before they get out into the market place so we can help position them for success. Rather than like most of us, we had to go through four or five different trial and error decisions before we could say, "Oh, that’s what I’m good at!" Wouldn’t it be a whole lot easier if we helped teenagers before they get out in the work place discover what they’re gifted to do and start heading that direction.
Education should help people move that way. Your shape determines how you learn. Only about 25% learn by reading and studying, others learn by listening, discussing, by actually doing it, seeing it modeled. If you happen to learn the way the school system teaches you get "A’s" but if you don’t happen to learn that way you probably don’t get very good grades. It has nothing to do with your intellect. It has everything to do with your shape. We learn different ways. Schools ought to teach different ways because people are shaped differently.
The implications of what I’m talking about here are mind-blowing! But it increases your success.
3. It deepens satisfaction. A satisfying life is when you are doing what you’re shaped to do, what God made for you to do. Freedom comes from doing what you’re gifted to do. You enjoy what God made you to be. All of a sudden you feel the love of God a whole lot more! Because you’re in harmony with His plan.
4. It builds self esteem. Doing what you’re shaped to do builds self esteem. There’s an epidemic of low self esteem in our society today. Most people do not like themselves if the truth were known! They don’t like themselves. One of the reasons, studies say over 50% of all the people in their jobs are in the wrong jobs. I believe that genuine, not pop psychological self esteem, but genuine self esteem is built on two biblical truths. Not on raising yourself up by your boot straps or positive thinking or "I’m OK, you’re not so hot!" but genuine self esteem is built on two things:
1) The truth that you matter to God. Jesus Christ proved it. He died on the cross. He didn’t die for junk. He died for you. Jesus Christ proved how much you matter to God by giving His life on the cross for you.
2) You were shaped by God for a purpose. You matter to God and you were shaped by God for a purpose.
When you get those two things, that’s going to build genuine self esteem in your life. We talk about the first all the time -- that you matter to God. But I want to talk about in this series, how God has shaped you for a purpose. Maybe you don’t feel like your life has mattered much up to this point. This series could be the turning point.
Letter from an attorney who resigned his law office to become the director of the Rescue Mission. He says, "Over the years you’ve delivered many encouraging messages. One message has been particularly helpful to me and in turn to others. It comes from class 301 and concerns our unique shape. I frequently refer to our shape when talking to discouraged men and women along skid row. I point out that even the most desperate tragic situations can form the basis for the good that God can bring out of our lives. In the language of the street, you can’t deal God a bad hand. Yesterday, I was struck by the impact of these words had upon a man named Richard. As a toddler, Richard was abandoned in a hotel room by his prostitute mother. He served oversees, he’s had two failed marriages and children with whom he has little or no relationships. In sum, at this point in his life, his forties, he was overcome by pain and frustration, and emotionally was an abandoned child. When I reminded Richard of his unique shape and that `God never wastes a hurt’ you could see the despair beginning to lift. Though weeping, there was a clear sense of joy and celebration. It was as though God was embracing and tenderly stroking someone who, for many years, was convinced he was utterly unlovable."
The purpose of Lake Pointe Community Church is to first help you to realize that you matter to God. You do. You matter to God. And then, as you establish a relationship with Jesus Christ and begin to live the way He wants you to, it is then to help you discover who God made you to be. I, personally, as your pastor, am committed to helping position you for a successful, meaningful, fulfilling life out in the world based on the God given shape that He’s implanted in your life. I hope -- my prayer is -- at the end of this series you’ll be able to say like Paul,
I Cor. 15:16 "By the grace of God, I am what I am." That you’ll not only accept what God made you but you’ll enjoy it and you’ll thank Him for it and you’ll see the wisdom of what He did in your gifts, and heart, and ability, and personality, and experiences. And that you will say, I want to contribute my uniqueness to this world for the glory of God.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, what an awesome God You are. You had us in Your mind even before we were born. You did not randomly select the genetic code that each of us would have, but that You lovingly fashioned and formed the DNA that would make each of us like no one else in the world. Lord, there are people here that need to understand and realize emotionally that they matter to You. Help them to sense Your love. Father, if there is someone here that has never opened his life to Jesus Christ would You help them to take that step, to step across the line today and say, Jesus Christ I want to know You. I want to have a relationship to You. I want You to come into my life and make the person You want me to be. I want to follow You."
In this series, would You use these words from Your Word. Help us discover and develop the shape that You’ve given to each of us, the design, how You’ve formed and crafted and fashioned and made each of us unique and for a purpose. I pray that individually and collectively as a church that self esteem will rise and people will find new success in life and find significance and meaning and satisfaction from being what You meant for them to be all along. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
