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"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous... You were there while I was being formed... You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe." Psalm 139:14-16 (LB)
"Your hands formed and shaped me..." Job 10:8a (GN)
God has been molding and shaping you for ministry since you were born. In fact, God started uniquely shaping you even before you were born. So if God has been molding you for his purposes, what does it take to be used by God? I’m addressing part 2 of that question today.
((This jellyfsh and salmon illustration was borrowed from another Sermon Central contributor, Joel Smith)
This will sound like a strange question to start off with, but let me ask you: Are you more like a salmon or a jellyfish? Okay maybe you don’t know much about them. I’ll describe each one and then you can decide.
Salmon begin their lives in the fresh water rivers of the frigid Northwest. Not long after they’re born they begin a long swim down stream. Their destination is the ocean. It is here that they spend the majority of their adult lives. Then something strange happens. Scientists don’t even understand how, but at some point the adult salmon begins to swim back home. Though they may have swum thousands of miles from that original river location they head back home. That’s right! They swim upstream, against the current of the river. You’ve probably seen nature programs on TV that show them leaping out of the water to overcome waterfalls and other barriers impeding their progress. They face predators like bears and people.
Incredibly, though they’ve been gone for years many of them return to the exact spot where they were born. I saw a documentary on one determined salmon that even swam through a maze of pipes and nudged open a grate to re-enter the hatchery where it was born. After an incredible effort the fish spawn and then die. The new salmon are soon born and repeat the process.
Does that describe you? Does your life have a destination? Are you going in a specific direction and are you willing to face all the obstacles to get there? If so, you’re like the salmon.
Then there’s the jellyfish. There are numerous species of these yucky-looking little creatures. Some of them are tiny. Others have tentacles that can be measured in feet. Jellyfish are born in the ocean and die there too. They have limited movement, but never really use that ability to go in any particular destination. They’re moved along primary by the wind and waves and tides. They drift about stinging and surviving. Occasionally one will wash up on the beach and, if you’re not careful, you’ll step on it and mess up your vacation.
Are you more like a jellyfish than a salmon?--- You just kind of float from here to there. You’re carried by circumstances or other people’s plans, but you really have no particular destination of your own.
The difference between salmon and jellyfish is the same as the difference between people. Some have a direction. Most just drift.
The problem with that kind of life is that you don’t accomplish anything of significance. You reach your final days, scratch your head and ask, What was it all for anyway?¨ Jellyfish people never find nor fulfill the reason for which they were created.
Then there are those who have direction. They can look back with satisfaction because they discovered their life’s purpose and went full force in that direction. That kind of living is one of the secrets of success. Successful people find and embark on their life’s purpose.
Two weeks ago when I began this two-part message on “How to Be Used By God”. I pointed out two very important truths.
One, God has a mission for each of us in life. God has never created a person that He didn’t have a personal life mission for. Jesus said in John 17:18 “In the same way you gave Me a mission in the world I give them a mission in the world.”
The second thing I pointed out is that part of your life mission (not all of it but part) is pointing other people to Jesus Christ. Once you become a believer God wants you to pass it on. You heard about Christ because somebody evidently got the message to you somehow so it’s your job to pass it on. Paul says in Romans 1:9 “I serve God by spreading the Good News about His Son.”
Those who are salmon people---they are the people who have discovered their life mission and share their faith with others. Mission oriented people are Successful people who find and embark on their life’s purpose. They learn the secret of being used by God.
How can you be used by God in a successful and effective way? It begins with the ability to dream. If you want to find your purpose and begin to experience real success you must first:
1. Dare to dream.
T.E. Lawrence once said, “All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible..”
You’ve got to begin to dream about the possibilities God has invested in your life. Determining your dream helps you find your purpose. Dreams are good because they give us direction.
Thomas Carlyle:
”A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder--a waif, a nothing, a no man.” Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and muscle into your work as God has given you.”¨
The Bible puts it this way:
Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18
Again and again in the Bible God gives his people a vision of the way life could be. Sometimes we call this revelation. God gave his law as a parameter to help his people achieve his vision for humanity. But we think there’s more freedom if we go with the flow, so we tend to cast off restraint and drift.
People who go after their dream set priorities about how they will spend their time. Without some kind of vision we adopt an “anything goes attitude.”¨ We’re moved by the moment, not by something monumental.
John Maxwell, The Success Journey, p.28
”A person who has a dream knows what he is willing to give up in order to go up. He is able measure everything he does according to whether or not it contributes to the dream, concentrating his attention on the things that bring him closer to it and giving less attention to everything that doesn’t.
The thing that keeps most of us from dreaming is that we let our circumstances and limitation defeat us. Our dreams are so big, but were so small. Don’t let your perceived smallness stop you from dreaming big. That dream can propel you over all changes if you commit to it.
Dare to dream and act on that dream. Do it in spite of problems, circumstances, and obstacles.
Dare to dream. As you begin to dream you also have to factor in how you were created. To find your purpose you must determine how God has wired you up.
2. Discover your unique S.H.A.P.E.
SHAPE is a tool for discovering who God has created us to be. Make no mistake, you were created with a specific purpose in mind.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us so long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
We only have time to hit the highlights today. If you’re really interested in figuring out your God-given SHAPE, I’d suggest you sign up for Class 101 which will be offered 2 weeks from today from 3-7—dinner included. Mark that on your registration tab now!
The S in shape stands for spiritual gifts.
· Spiritual gifts
Every person who has crossed the line of faith has at least one. My personal belief is that all people have spiritual gifts, but they are only activated by a relationship with Jesus Christ. A spiritual gift is a supernatural ability. The Bible tells us :
God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. Romans 12:6a (NLT)
Again we explore these in CLASS 301 and you discover what God has invested in you. These gifts positively change other people’s lives, build up the church and bring the one using them a tremendous sense of fulfillment.
You also have at least one spiritual gift. Finding it will lead you to finding your purpose.
· Heart
What are you passionate about? What stirs you up like nothing else. Your heart is inclined in a certain direction and it tells you something about your unique shape. James White, in his book You Can Experience a Purposeful Life, provides some questions you can ask to see where your heart lies.
”What do I really care about?”
When I have an afternoon all to myself, free of family and work responsibilities, how do I want to spend it?
When I look around and think something needs to be changed, what area does my mind tend to travel toward?
What do I dream about?
What would I do to make every morning feel like Christmas day?
If I could leave my mark on any area of life, what would it be?¡¨
Proverbs 27
19As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the person.
*Abilities
Aside from spiritual gifts we all have some natural abilities. They may be musical or athletic. Maybe you have a mechanical aptitude. Perhaps you’re good with crafts or art. Maybe you’re a number cruncher and love it. Assess your natural abilities because they factor into how your wired up.
2 Corinthians 1
21It is God who gives us, along with you, the ability to stand firm for Christ.
*Personality
What kind of person are you? What are your like and dislike? Are you a type A -- high strung and revved up at all times - or a type B personality -- laid back, a nuclear war wouldn’t get you upset.
If people come to your with their problems and your only solution is “Get a life and stop whining”--You can bet that you don’t have the personality to be a counselor.
Make sure you factor in your personality when you try to determine your unique shape.
*Experiences
Where have you been? What have you done? Think about your painful and pleasant experiences in life. You’ve had educational, vocational and even spiritual experiences that make you unique.
If you can get a handle on those five areas----your spiritual gifts, your heart or passion, your abilities, your personality and your experiences—you’re on your way to determining your shape and your life’s purpose.
When you determine your direction here’s a hint to keep in mind.
3. Your attitude determines your altitude.
Your attitude is the limiting factor in pursuing your life’s purpose. If you think you can, you probably will. If you think you can’t you probably won’t.
Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over our nation’s deserts. All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for. They thrive on that diet. But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals. Instead, they look for the colorful blossoms of desert plants. The vultures live on what was. They live on the past. They fill themselves with what is dead and gone. But hummingbirds live on what is. They seek new life. They fill themselves with freshness and life. Each bird finds what it is looking for. We all do.
Steve Goodier, Quote Magazine, in May, 1990 R.D.
Your attitude is the lens through which you view life. Jesus said it this way:
Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!¨ Matthew 6:22-23 (NLT)
Your attitude determines how far you will go in reaching your dreams. You’ll only be successful if you develop a positive attitude.
John Maxwell, The Success Journey, p. 53
Your attitude determines your altitude. Combine your dream with a positive attitude. Remember these words by John Maxwell:
”A dream without a positive attitude produces a daydreamer.
A positive attitude without a dream produces a pleasant person who can’t progress.
A dream together with a positive attitude produces a person with unlimited possibilities and potential.¨
John Maxwell, The Success Journey, p.49
4. Set goals that will get you there.
An old Italian proverb says, “Between saying and doing, many a pair of shoes is worn out.”¨
John Maxwell, The Success Journey, p.34
You can have a big dream and a great attitude, but without concrete goals you won’t move in the direction of your life’s purpose
Most of us aren’t in the habit of formulating goals. When you do use the following criteria.
Goals should be:
written, personal, specific, achievable, measurable, time-sensitive.
Here’s personal example. My dream for this physical body is to be at normal weight and body fat for a man my age and height.I want to keep my cholestrol count under control. Actually I want to be better than that, but I didn’t want to appear vain in front of you. I had a goal that I sat on July 1, 2001, that by the end of last year I wanted to have lost 25 pounds and then maintain it. I wanted to bring my cholesterol down from 213 to a normal range. I wrote down and charted it.
Writing is a reminder. It’s personal because I can’t rely on anyone else to do it for me. It’s definitely achievable. It’s healthy and realistic to lose one to two pound a week, not 10 in two days. It’s measurable --25 pounds - and it’s time sensitive because I have done it in six months. And I’m to report that I achieved—I lost 28 pounds and my cholestrol is down to 173.
Goals provide the roadmap to your life¡¦s purpose. The apostle Paul, who was a spiritual giant, kept goals before him.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¡KI do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)
OK, you say to me. What can I begin to do right now to be used by God until I get to CLASS 301 and figure my SHAPE? I want to challenge you to achieve these goals so that you achieve your God-given purpose, so that you can be used by God as we prepare to go into Lent and examine our lives: Here’s some suggestions for being a salmon. It’s something God has created us all to do—point others to Jesus. Not save them, just point them to Jesus. WHAT TO DO NOW:
1. Show People that you care:
People need to know that we care. In fact, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Romans 15:2 “We should all be concerned about our neighbor and the good things that will build up his faith.”
1 Corinthians 10:24 “People should be concerned about others and not just about themselves.”
The number one reason why most Christians never share their faith with anybody, never bring anybody to Christ is not because they’re evil people. They’re believers. It’s not because they’re mean. It’s because they’re preoccupied. The number one reason we don’t share with the people around us is we’re not concerned about them. We’re only concerned about ourselves. My problems, my plans, my needs, my goals, my ambitions, my desires, my agenda, what I’ve got to do today, tomorrow, this weekend.
Another one of the reasons Christians never share their faith is because they’re never with non-followers. They’re always at the church. They don’t know anybody. They haven’t had a bar-b-que with a non-church goer in 3 or 4 years. Why? They don’t have time to bring them home.
What I want you to do next is this.
2. Think of your acquaintances -- select some people using the FRAN method.
The Bible says in Colossians 4:5 “Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity.”
The Bible says, “Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in so that My house may be filled.” God wants His house filled.
Think of some people you could bring into a church service. And two, those you could bring to a fun event with your group. Not a group meeting but a fun event like a party or a bar-b-que – something you’d just do together. Some people wouldn’t come to church “I’m never going to come to church!” but they would come to a fun party. Write down a
FRIEND
RELATIVE
ACQUAINTANCE
NEIGHBOR
Next Sunday we’re starting a new series on the Prayer of Jabez. I’ll be preaching about the prayer and we’ll be showing this video series during the SS hour. This would be a great time to bring people to church. This book is popular even among non-believers so we want to help everyone understand the message in simple terms.
So this Lenten series will do two things. It will reach nonbelievers, “Here’s what prayer can do for you so you can get to know your heavenly Father,” and it will help Christians grow “Here’s what you should be doing to claim God’s blessings in your life.” So I want to encourage you to bring people to that.
You’ll also want to bring people to a non-threatening event. Like you go to the show together, the movies together – something like that. You can bring people to the Easter egg hunt that we’re planning March 23 at the Community Center. We’re going to have activities for both children and adults and food to eat too.
Easter is just 7 weeks away. So we pull out all the stops.
Here’s how this can work. Let’s say you are at your kids’ soccer game this weekend and you’re talking and you find out someone is not going to church anywhere. You say, “I attend this really cool church called Bethany. Can I pick you up for one of our Easter services? You want go to a great Easter brekfast by some of the best cooks in the Shenandoah Valley?”
Easter could be a time of great spiritual harvest. Every great spiritual harvest is proceeded by prayer. And so we are going to teach you to pray during Lent using the Jabez model.
We’ll also have pocket sized invitations for you to give out like you.
Some tools that you can use at Easter. Some of you. Don’t miss this important time of the year. People are more likely to come to church on Easter than any other time of the year.
And the third thing I’d challenge you to do to practice being used by God is:
3. Enlarge your territory by moving out of your comfort zone:
Here’s the principle: There is always a cost of bringing people to Christ. Always a cost. In time, in money, in energy, in effort. Too often we’re not willing to sacrifice.
What would happen if every parent at Bethany told their kids, “If you want to invite anybody to church from school, we’ll make sure they’ll get there.” How many kids could come to Christ this year? If parents wouldn’t just say, “Sure it’s inconvenient but we’ll go pick them up. We’ll bring them to church. We’ll take them back home. And maybe pretty soon we’ll get their parents.” It just means you’re willing to pay the cost. To reach people you must get out of your comfort zone. Jesus said, “I will make you fishers of men.”
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not but when I go fishing, fish do not automatically jump into my boat. What I’ve learned is that my culture – air – is very different than the culture they live in – water. I have learned that fish are not going to get into my culture. I have to get into theirs if I’m going to catch them. And I have to get the food right in front of their nose where they live. For a church to put out a sign and say “Here we are! Ya’ll come!” is like saying, “Fish, jump into the boat!” They’re not going to do it. Somebody’s got to go out and go fishing for them.
And that means getting out of your comfort zone. The average fisherman never ventures more than a half a mile from a paved road because most people want to fish by convenience. But real fishermen, they will go to any extreme to catch a fish. If it means climbing over a cliff, going through bramble bush, getting all scared, wading in water, standing in the cold for hours – they will do whatever it takes to get to where the fish are.
What kind of fisherman are you? It is human nature to want to reach people for Christ but also want to do it when it’s convenient. It’s not always going to be convenient for you to bring people to Jesus. It’s not always convenient to invite people who are new into your group. We say, “But I have my rights!” I sat down yesterday and said, “I’ve been a pastor here for 6 years. I’m going to make a list of my rights.”
I have a right to sit back and let others serve now.
I have a right to park up close to the church. All those years I had to park so far away in grass.
I have a right to let other people give to the TTG fund. I gave for the past year now. It’s somebody else’s turn. I have a right to let other people do the giving now.
Easter is my holiday. I have a right to stay home this year on Easter.
I have a right to keep our prayer group just the way it is because we don’t want new people in it.
I have a right to sing only the songs that I want to sing in this service.
Are you willing to move out of a place or an idea that is convenient for you so people can spend eternity in heaven?
1 Corinthians 9:12 “We haven’t used our rights. Instead, we would put up with anything in order not to hinder the Good News of Christ in any way.”
Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to put up with anything in order to not hinder the Good News of Christ? As you consider your life message and your life mission are you willing to put up with anything in order to bring people to Jesus? I am. I am willing to do that. I think we’ve proven that for 21 years.
In fact, I’m going to pause here and express appreciation for the long-term members of this church. These people have been members here for many, many years. These are saints in my book. They have put up with all kinds of inconveniences.
Here’s my fear. My fear is that our church will become too comfortable, that we would become too complacent, that we would have it all so nice and so comfortable and so wonderful that we start forgetting the reason why we exist.
William Temple said, “The church is the only society that exists for the benefit of the non members.” We do not exist for us. The church never has.
Jesus said, “I didn’t come to be served. I came to serve.”
God wants you to reach out. He wants you to stretch beyond your comfort zone. Folks, there are paralyzed people all around us. Will you be a stretcher bearer?
If you want to live successfully, make the decision to go in the direction of your life’s purpose. No one ever drifted into success. Dare to dream. Seek God and determine your unique shape. Adjust your attitude to achieve for maximum altitude. Set goals that will get you there. And right now, determine that you will fish for people during Lent and Easter. Commit to being here to learn how to pray during Lent so that we will have a great spiritual harvest at Easter.
Success is not about talent or genius or beauty. Success comes down to a choice: direction or drift. Don¡¦t be a jellyfish. God has a glorious purpose for your life. All you have to do is find it.
Look at the response tab. Here’s the bottom line: Will you do more than just learn about your mission in life? Will you do something about it?
WILL YOU CHECK-- I commit to being used by God to help reach at least two people for Jesus in 2002. I will develop a list of people in my life, whom I can bring to a Sunday service such as Easter. I will spend time with them and get to know them. I will invite them to our groups special outreach.
We have __ small groups in our church. If all __ groups each reached two people for Christ, one couple, two individuals for Christ this next year, that would mean ___ new believers.
We’re going to close in prayer but I want you to take a minute and fill out this card and then I want to invite you to join me in prayer. We’re going to pray together as we dedicate our life’s mission.
Prayer:
Just say, “Father, I want You to use me and to ‘reach one more for Jesus’. And help us to be willing to do what is uncomfortable in order to reach others. Jesus, You paid a high price to save us. We’re willing to pay the cost to reach others, the people You died for. Thank You for the privilege for serving You. Help me move out of my comfort zone and learn to pray as Jabez did: And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
“Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.”
So God granted him what he requested.
Amen.
