Stewardship Of Talents Series

Series Name: Eternal Investments, God’s perspective

Stewardship of Talents

Romans 12

3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. 4 Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, 5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. 6 According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts:

If prophecy, use it according to the standard of faith;

7 if service, in service; if teaching, in teaching;8 if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity;?leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

Matthew Henry once said:

How blessed the Christian church, if all the members did their duty! Instead of coveting the highest stations, or the most splendid gifts, let us leave the appointment of his instruments to God, and those in whom he works by his providence.

Last week we looked at how important it is to give our time to Christ. Some of you experienced what God can do this past week when you do that.

Our youth experienced it Weds. night in a special way when we saw how God could take our time and surprise us with His use of it.

I saw it There is a story of a young man who came home to tell his Dad that he was excited because he had made the baseball team. He walked into his dad’s office and shared his great news to his dad’s response, that’s great, are you starting? You see the father knew he would make the team, but was he good enough to start was the question. To the boy, he just wanted to be recognized for being good enough to make the team. Tuesday night when some of us gave an hour to 60 children at Boulder Ridge and 13 of them miraculously came to know Him before the night was over.

Today we want to look at ourselves and our gifts or talents.

Sermon Central Illustration

1. You are important to God!!!

Don’t think of yourself more highly than you should

Don’t think of yourself lower than you should

Think as God thinks!!

God has graced us with new life in Jesus Christ, and that means that our value in God’s Kingdom is set from the very beginning.

The world has convinced us that worth comes from position or power.

In the corporate world, it is the upper management that is important.

In government, it is the higher political offices that have all of the power and make all the decisions.

The church has done the same thing.

Churches put deacons, elders, pastors all at the top and lay people down at the bottom somewhere

Too many people think that the pastor is the most important position in the church. ??

Here’s the most important proof of what I am saying. Whenever there is a particularly effective lay person, someone will ask him or her if he or she ever considered “going into the ministry.”

The implication is that lay people do not do real ministry, and are not as valuable to the church as paid staff.

Even in the church, our value lies in the position we hold.

“Hey, that’s great that you are teaching Sunday School, but are you chairing the committee?” “

Hey, that’s great that you pray moving prayers and are an exciting and life-changing teacher of God’s Word, but have you ever thought about going into “the ministry?”

Are you starting or just on the team?

UGH!!! This is not TRUTH. Scripture teaches that we are all part of the body and that every part is important!!?

Our value does not depend on our position or upon our power but upon the person of Jesus Christ.

You have to get this or the rest of the sermon won’t click

God loves you, God thinks you are special

We need to see ourselves as God sees us and to measure our value the way God measures our value.

Our value has nothing to do with the role we play in the church. Our value is set for us by Jesus. Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think about yourself.

God wants us to be recognize how much he loves us and wants us to be content with our gifting and wants us to use our giftedness to bless His church.

You are important JUST LIKE YOU ARE!!!

1. You are important to God

2. You are part of the Body of Christ

5 in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another