Introduction: Are you in shape? Earlier this year I went and had a full check up, everything including chest xrays, and ekg. Everything came back fine. My cholesterol was in the normal range but my triglycerides were a little too high. The doctors office just said to watch my diet and not eat too much starches and sugar. That includes a lot of great food. I was not too happy about that. I then went onto the internet to find out what triglycerides are and what I should do about this. The best information that I found said, “Triglyceride is the principle form of fat found in foods, body tissues and blood. It is a name given to all visible fat. Fat in food becomes fat (triglycerides) in our blood. A diet high in carbohydrate (sugar and starches) and alcohol may also raise blood triglyceride levels. If you are overweight, your body stores the extra calories that you eat as triglycerides. A HIGH TRIGLYCERIDE LEVEL is one risk factor associated with the development of heart disease. There are FOUR reasons for high triglycerides: 1. OVERWEIGHT. 2. A diet high in sugar and starches. 3. A high alcohol intake. 4. Stress. How can blood triglycerides be lowered? High triglyceride levels can be controlled in most cases, but not cured. To do so you must make permanent, beneficial changes in your lifestyle. 1. Achieve and maintain your ideal body weight. To do that, examine your eating habits. Are you overeating, eating only one large, late meal a day, having a bedtime snack? There are many reasons for overeating, not just hunger (stress, boredom). 2. Increase your activity. If you are overweight, you have taken in more calories than you have used up. "Burn up" calories by exercising - moderate brisk walking (1/2 hour 3 - 4 times per week, or as directed by your physician). 3. Decrease your calorie intake. Take smaller portion sizes at each meal. Use low calorie foods and snacks. Have three meals a day rather than one large, late meal. Choose whole grain, higher in fiber breads, cereals, crackers, whole grain pastas, and rice. Try homemade, high fiber, low sugar baked goods. Fruits contain natural sugars. Limit fruit juice and use only 100 % fruit juice, no sugar added brands. Choose whole fruits more often. Use artificial sweeteners. 4. Avoid alcohol until you have reached your ideal weight and your triglycerides are within or below the normal range.” The bottom line is that I can control all of these factors in my life. Therefore, I made an effort to get in shape. God has given us all our unique SHAPE and I am not just referring to our unique shape of physical body. I mean that God has given us all our own unique spiritual gifts, passions, abilities, personalities, and experiences that God expects us to use in serving Him. Jesus shares a parable about the resources, responsibility, and the rewards of using our unique SHAPE to serve God. Look at Luke 19:11-27 . . . .
Jesus first wants us to know that He has given us all the RESOURCES that we need to serve Him. As Jesus was approaching Jerusalem many of the people wondered if Jesus was to be the new leader of the Jewish people to bring about a new kingdom from God and set them free from the oppressive rule of the Roman government. Jesus knew what they were expecting so He used the situation to tell them a story. The setting of this story is a large empire, where a person of royal birth, a nobleman is about to receive royal power from the Emperor. Most likely Jesus is drawing on recent history here in telling this story. Apparently after the death of Herod the Great, his son Archelaus went to Rome to ask Caesar to make him king over Judea. But Herod hadn’t been too popular among the Jews, so they sent a delegation of 50 men to oppose his appointment. So there’s a ring of truth about the story. You could probably hear some giggles and murmuring in the crowd as Jesus was telling the story. It was amazingly similar to a current affair that they just saw on CNN. Well, here is this nobleman going on a long journey. He’s going to be away for some time, and when he gets back he expects to be king. So, what does he do? He calls his servants in and gives each of them a sum of money and tells them to put it to work until he comes back. Notice that they each receive the same amount of money. About 3 to 4 months wages.
Jesus is obviously the nobleman who is getting ready to leave His disciples to go to His Father where He will be exalted as King by His Father. In the meantime Jesus has given His disciples and us today as His disciples all the resources that we need to serve Him. What unique resources has God gifted you with? What is then your SHAPE? What Spiritual Gift or gifts did God give you? Teaching, preaching, shepherding or pastoring, helping, serving, gifts of compassion and mercy, gift of administration, gift of leadership, evangelism, healing, discernment, etc . . . ? Look at Romans 12 & 1 Corinthians 12 for a place to start to study the gifts. Go online to our website at www.bigbendumc.com and look at the links section where you can find three different online spiritual gift inventories that anyone can take and begin to learn about the different spiritual gifts in the Bible and possibly which one or ones that God might have given you. What is it that you get passionate about? What is near and dear to you that makes your Heart beat faster? Money, ministry in the workplace, healthcare, teaching, families, children, youth, singles, seniors, the church in general, administration, evangelism, or the homeless? What Abilities have you learned in this life? Are you particularly athletic, a great cook, a whiz with the computer, learned how to teach or how to lead or how to manage an organization? Maybe you have learned how to repair cars or do woodworking or build things? What is your unique Personality? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Are you more serious or more silly? Are you quiet or loud? What kind of Experiences do you have? You may have weathered some tough times in your life, a loss, or a significant struggle. You may have lived in different parts of this world that have broadened you.
God has given each one of us our own unique SHAPE. It is okay to be you! As a matter of fact God expects you to celebrate your unique personality. You do not have to be like anybody else. As a matter of fact God created you to be the unique you who you are. Celebrate it and be secure in who you are! We are not to envy others’ SHAPE nor be boastful, proud, or feel superior because of our unique SHAPE. God loves you just the way that you are. You should as well. You could say that God has made an investment into our lives. He has given us our unique selves. As Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it . . . .” All that we have is from God and belongs to God. Even our very lives as followers of Jesus Christ all belong to God!
With all these unique resources that God has given to all of His children we then have a RESPONSIBILITY as to what we are going to do with them. In this parable the nobleman invested in these servants and when He returned He expected that they would have done something with their investment. He expected them to invest the resources that was given to them. There was basically two responses to the resources that they were given. The first one was fear. When the nobleman came back one of the servants admitted that he was afraid of the master and therefore hid it so that he would not lose it. He did not want to fail or make a mistake and therefore did not risk using or investing the resources. On the other hand the second response was faithful obedience. One servant came to the master and multiplied it 10 times and the other 5 times. This is clearly a picture of the situation the disciples are about to find themselves in and that we, too, are in today. Jesus has left and given us many resources that were especially designed for us and God expects us to do something with them. What is our response? Fear or faithfulness? Warren Wiersbe said in his autobiography, Be Myself, “If life is to have meaning, and if God’s will is to be done, all of us have to accept who we are and what we are, give it back to God, and thank Him for the way He made us. What I am is God’s gift to me; what I do with it is my gift to Him.” Jesus tells us in Luke 12:48, “‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.’” In this parable they were only expected to be faithful in their investment. The nobleman did not have necessarily the same expectations of the amount of return on their investment only that they were faithful in their investment. God expects all of us to respond to His calling to serve Him with faithful obedience. A great motto to live by is, “I will do the best I can with what I have where I am for Jesus’ sake today.” This is what is meant in 1 Peter 4:7-11 which says, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” The time is short therefore let us serve God with the unique SHAPE that He has given us until Jesus returns.
In this story the nobleman does return to hand out REWARDS according to what they have done. Jesus then says that He will Reward us according to what we do with the resources that He has freely given us. First the nobleman took from the unfaithful, fearful servants what He had and gave it to the ones who were faithful. And then those who were faithful were given even more based on the amount of return that they had realized. Sounds fair. A 3 year-old girl named Charlotte received a certificate of achievement following her last swimming class. When her dad came home from work that evening, the mom handed him the cherished award and said to the little girl, “Charlotte, would you like to tell your daddy what this is?” Charlotte thought for a moment. With excitement in her proudest, most confident voice she exclaimed, “Oh, Daddy, this is my terrificate!” When Jesus returns He wants to give all of us that are His faithful servants Terrificates. Some of us will multiply the resources by 10 or 5 fold. God will then reward us accordingly. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21, “‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’” Are we investing for the future? Are we investing our SHAPE for eternity? What blessings if any will we receive on the other side of death’s door based on what we are giving today not to mention blessings in this present life? The principle that God is showing us concerning what we do with our SHAPE in this life is that of weight lifters and body builders, use it or lose it. We can use and develop our unique SHAPE and experience the blessings and fruit of serving God or we can miss out on all of it.
We all need a sense of urgency and not complacency. As 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 says, “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” When we stand before God in the end of time we will be rewarded according to how we have served God with the unique SHAPE that He has given us. In a recent NCAA cross-country championship held in Riverside, California, 123 of the 128 runners missed a turn. One competitor, Mike Delcavo, stayed on the 10,000 meter course and began waving for fellow runners to follow him. Delcavo was able to convince only four other runners to go with him. Asked what his competitors thought of his mid-race decision not to follow the crowd, Delcavo responded, "They thought it was funny that I went the right way." Delcavo was one who ran correctly. In the same way, our goal is to run correctly; to finish the race marked out for us by Christ. We can rejoice over those who have courage to follow, ignoring the laughter of the crowd. As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness."
Conclusion: There are so many opportunities to serve God with your unique SHAPE in our church family and out in the world. Jesus will soon return and when He does what will be your reward? Are you storing up treasures in heaven? He will not listen to excuses based on fear or ignorance or busy schedules or feelings of inadequacy or laziness. He will hold us all accountable for His investments in us. Let us go together and experience all the blessings of investing the unique SHAPE that He has given us.
