Doing What You're Made To Do Part 1
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Preliminary:
Preliminary:
Invite to 1 Corinthians 7
Thank - Testimonies, Special Song, God’s Presence
1 Corinthians 7 I want to just read verse 17
I want to talk to you for a few moments this morning on the importance of “Doing What You’re Made to Do”
Read: 1 Cor. 7:17
Read: 1 Cor. 7:17
1 Corinthians 7:17 “17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.”
Introduction:
Introduction:
Until the mid-1990s, Argentina required every young man to spend two years in military service. One fellow who showed up at the induction center objected, “What good would I be? I have no arms!” Allegedly they put him in the army anyway. At basic-training camp, so the story goes, his commanding officer said, “See that fellow up there on the hill pumping water? Go tell him when the pail is full. He’s blind.”
Its easy for us to think of our inadequacies as hindrances rather than viewing them as areas of God’s strength - after all God’s strength is made perfect in weakness the Bible reminds us.
We also forget that we have been given everything we need to succeed as a Christian
9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Think of this a minute - in giving us Jesus - God also gave us everything we need spiritually
When we are saved by grace through faith we receive the free gift of eternal life but notice Paul gives us a few more gifts we receive
Gift of spiritual freedom
Gift of a spiritual family
The gift of the Holy Spirit
The gift of our spiritual inheritance
When we think about God distributing gifts to every one - there is no room from allowing hindrances to control us.
It was 1526 B.C. Egypt was in a time of great progress and prosperity - but they had a challenge - the Hebrew slaves that were being used to bring about some of the prosperity and progress - were multiplying like rabbits.
So Pharoah decided to do something about it. His resolution - just kill all the boy babies by throwing them in the Nile River.
Isn’t it interesting how humanity can place such a low value on life when their comfort and security is threatened.
Just look at our current issue of Abortion - but i digress that isn’t what I am wanting to talk about
But God had a plan a purpose for the little boy baby born to Amram and Jochebed
Instead of just throwing him into the river - Jochebed the little boy’s mother built a little basket, put him in it and pushed it out into the river. Now she wasn’t shoving him to chance, or fortune - she was placing her precious little bundle into the mighty arms of God. - there are going to be situations that come our way in life that we aren’t going to be able to do anything about - it’s a basket case - here is the principle - just push it out into the waiting mighty hands of God - he’ll know how to handle it.
It was this letting go and letting God that forever changed the trajectory and direction of the little boy’s life.
It was while this three month old little baby - was floating on the river that the very daughter of Pharoah found him. I can only imagine the fright that came as the lid was opened and there was a little baby inside
but as the little one scrunched up his face and began to wail that fright turned to delight and she called him Moses - because she drew him out of the water
Moses became the grandson of the Pharoah - think of that from death row to kings palace
You never know what might happen if you just give it all to God
Now i’m giving all of this backstory of Moses because I wanted you to see that even though God is at work - it doesn’t mean that everything is going to go smoothly
Moses probably knew his whole life that he was different from the others in the palace
He just never felt as though he fit right
11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.
12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
14 And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.
He didn’t call those in Pharaoh's house “brethren” he knew where he belonged - and seemed to even know that he was to be the deliverer of his people
When he tried to have his “brethren” follow him they rejected him - Moses wasn’t ready yet. His gifts still had to be grown and cultivated.
if your gift is rejected just wait - you might not be through with training yet.
But I also want you to notice something - There is some extra biblical evidence that Moses had probably been trained and become a tremendous military force in Egypt and had led a successful campaign against Ethiopia.
But he wasn’t where he could lead the people yet - he wasn’t tuned in to the voice of God yet
As strong and powerful as Moses was - able to lead an army yet not able to lead a people -
Moses becomes disillusioned with who he is
This brought fear
Then Moses begins to have negative self talk and thoughts and runs away
I want to tell you that one of the greatest enemies on the usefulness of the gifts of the Spirit is this of negative self talk and thoughts
It is so easy to run ourselves down and sometimes even feel spiritual about it.
I’m the least of the least
I’m the bottom of the barrel
I”m the low man on the totem pole
Look at the conversation in just a few more verses when God asks Moses to do something for him -
Moses asks four questions and the negative self-talk comes through loud and clear Look at Exodus 3:11
11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
This isn’t a sign of humility - Moses has convinced himself that he is worthless, hopeless, and can be of no help to anyone but Jethro as a shepherd.
No doubt ringing in his ear and the back of his mind were the words of his “brethren” “who made you a prince or judge over us?”
Look at Exodus 4:1
1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
I’m not even believable - No doubt the words of his brethren are ringing in his ears, Exodus 2:14 “...Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? ...”
Moses is really bogged down in negative self-talk look at his next objection
Ex 4:10 “10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”
I can’t even talk - I stutter, I’m not eloquent - and you haven’t changed that.
I just want to park right here a little bit and talk to you about one of the greatest hindrances and obstacles of utilizing our gifts to their full potential
Negative self-talk or negative thinking.
4 Negative thinking tends to beget negative thinking.
Gary Chapman
We are not what we are. We are not even what others think we are. We are what we think others think we are.
—James Dobson, Hide or Seek
If I were to draw a Caricature that would symbolize the millions of adults with low self-esteem, I would depict a bowed, weary traveler. Over his shoulder I would place the end of a mile-long chain to which is attached tons of scrap iron, old tires, and garbage of all types. Each piece of junk is inscribed with the details of some humiliation—a failure—an embarrassment—a rejection from the past. He could let go of the chain and free himself from the heavy load which immobilizes and exhausts him, but he is somehow convinced that it must be dragged throughout life.… Paralyzed by its weight, he plods onward, digging a furrow in the good earth as he goes. You can free yourself from the weight of the chain if you will but turn it loose.
—James Dobson, Hide or Seek
I remember hearing in the Gordon family repertoire of innumerable stories my cousin’s family was out working with cattle. There was a pretty strong and healthy young calf they needed to rope in order to vaccinate and other things.
One of the guys a big burly strong guy was tasked with holding the rope so the calf would stay in place while the others took care of handling the other things needing done.
Well you might already know how this is going to go - they underestimated the strength of the young calf and overestimated the strength of the guy holding the rope.
The calf lunged on the end of the rope pulling the big burly dude down and if that wasn’t bad enough - the calf took off and while the big burly dude might not have had the strength to hold the calf in place - he sure was able to hold on to the rope - and what a ride he got as the calf took off - dragging him through the dirt, grass, rocks, mud, and several cow patties along the way.
In all of the chaos and pandemonium they finally got through to big burly dude - that all he had to do to get the trauma to stop was to let go of the rope
It sounds easy doesn’t it - but we are just as Dobson caricatured more prone to hold on to the rope and let our negative self-talk and negative thoughts drag us through whatever they want to do - when in reality all we have to do is let go.
Negative Thoughts–>Negative Feelings–>Negative Life
The average person has 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts per day, which equates to 35 to 48 thoughts per minute.
Approximately 95 percent of our thoughts today are the same thoughts we thought yesterday.
To make matter worse, about 80 percent of those habitual thoughts are negative ones.
Tens of thousands of negative thoughts cycle through our minds day after day after day, poisoning our attitudes and our outlooks, one by one.
Eighty percent of tens of thousands of little thoughts add up to a lot of negative thinking and self-talk.
If the majority of our thoughts are positive, then we’ll feel and be more positive, but if the majority of our self-talk is negative? Well, let’s just say the outcome will not be pretty.
You see, it is our thoughts that drive our feelings and our happiness, not our circumstances.
If our thoughts are negative, our feelings and actions will be negative as well, and altogether those things can lead to a negative life, lacking peace and joy.
For example, if we spend an entire day fuming over our spouse’s flaws and thinking about how he doesn’t meet our needs, we will feel animosity toward him or, at minimum, a lack of love, which leads to outward negative behaviors that might damage the relationship.
If we spend time thinking about how our boss doesn’t appreciate us and constantly telling ourselves how underpaid we are, we will feel discontent at our job, which can lead to a bad attitude, poor performance, or maybe the unemployment line.
If we spend time thinking about what other people think about us, we will feel like we don’t measure up and live with a lack of confidence in who we are, and Whose we are.
If we constantly think about our past mistakes rather than accept God’s forgiveness and mercy, we will feel unforgivable and unlovable and live a life disconnected from the love and acceptance He wants us to embrace.
If we let the critical words a parent said to us when we were children, the rejection or hurtful actions of a spouse, or the judgment of a friend or loved one dwell in our thoughts and define how we think about ourselves, we will feel like worthless individuals incapable of living life with purpose.
If we listen to all this negative self-talk, which is not from God, we might end up sinking in an ocean of discouragement and hopelessness and feeling that we can never swim our way out to peaceful waters.
You see, our thoughts turn into feelings that can easily take control of our lives and steer us in a direction we do not want to go.
Our feelings are persistent and unrelenting, constantly whispering to gain dominion over our actions. They can create our destiny, either good or bad, because whatever we are dwelling on in our minds is what will play out in our lives.
It is usually our thoughts, not our circumstances, that cause us to sink. This is such an important truth to tuck into our minds.
Mark it down: what we think becomes who we are.
I want to speak to that a little - I want to see how do we get from negative to positive?
1. You have to accept that you have been gifted by God
17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.
We aren’t expected to come up with our own gifts
We aren’t tasked with an impossible task - growing something that was never planted
Now we are given gifts
We are ALL GIVEN GIFTS by God - everyone here who has a relationship with Jesus Christ has been gifted by God - whether you feel like you are or not - you have been given a gift that is to be used to build up one another
2. Don’t let the negativity keep you from productivity
How did Moses overcome this issue? Look at his sons
I think we find a clue here -
Moses and Zipporah’s firstborn son was named Gershom
Gershom means refugee or stranger - Names are of great significance in the Bible and Gershom is a reminder that Moses is a nobody - but a stranger a refugee on the run. It was reminiscent of his negative self-view
I am Moses - failed deliverer of Israel I don’t deserve to be anywhere but here on the move on the run
In Exod. 4:20 there is reference to Moses’s “sons,” although Gershom is the only son mentioned.
It isn’t until Exodus 18:4 that we are introduced to a second son, Eliezer.
Eliezer’s name means “My God [Is] a Help(er).”
The word for “help(er)” [ʿēzer] is almost the same as that in Gen. 2:18, where the Lord God, upon affirming that it is not good for the male human to be alone, moves ahead and makes a “helper” (ʿēzer) for him (Gen. 2:18).
It is also the word in Samuel’s famous stone that he sets up, Ebenezer (ʾeben hāʿāzer) in 1 Sam. 7:12. “Hitherto (thus far - up to this point) hath the Lord helped us”
The name is exactly the same as that of Eliezer, the household servant that (childless) Abram comes within a whisker of adopting as his legal heir (Gen. 15:2),
It is a truth about God that Moses will mention later in his blessing of the tribes: “Be his help [Judah’s] against his foes!” (Deut. 33:7);
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you” (Deut. 33:26);
“He is your shield and helper” (Deut. 33:29).
It is difficult to pin down to what moment Moses is referring when at the end of v. 4 he says, “and rescued me from Pharaoh’s sword.” There have been many such moments, one after the other. Hence, it is likely that Moses is not thinking of one particular episode, but rather this is his testimony to God’s saving power manifested again and again over at least a year’s time. Eliezer is Moses’s living Ebenezer.
Which son are you living under?
Refugee on the run - the negative self-talk and thoughts
Or God is my helper
The only successful and victorious way to live is by living under the second.
Someone was probably tired of living under Gershom and wanted to move over to Eliezer when they wrote and prayed....
The Knots Prayer
Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
the can nots, and the do nots
that I have in my mind.
Erase the will nots,
may nots,
might nots that may find
a home in my heart.
Release me from the could nots,
would nots and
should nots that obstruct my life.
And most of all,
I ask that you remove from my mind,
my heart, and my life all of the “am nots”
Let me sum up how this works in a modern parable
The Parable of the Acorn
An elderly man was once out for an evening stroll when his feet inadvertently sent a little acorn skittering across the forest floor. He came to the place where it had stopped rolling and, stooping slowly, picked it up. And then, strangely, he held that acorn to his ear. He held that acorn to his ear and, listening attentively, heard it speak.
“In time the birds will come and make their nests in my branches,” it said. “In time I will cast deep shade so that cattle can come and find respite from the midday sun. In time I will provide warmth for a home. In time I will be a shelter from the storm for those who gather beneath my timbers. In time I will form the ribs of a great ship and the storms will beat against me in vain as I carry passengers safely across the storm-swept seas.”
“You foolish little acorn,” said the old man. “Will you be all this? Can you be all this?”
“Yes,” replied the acorn. “Yes, God and I.”*
...As Christians we are often discouraged by our scant accomplishments and slow progress. We find ourselves attuned more to our spiritual defeats than spiritual victories, ...
The acorn in this parable models the kind of faith each of us can have, the kind of confidence we ought to have, for it reminds us that God has made many promises. God has said that since he is the one who began a good work in us, he is the one who will bring it to completion. God has said that he will sanctify us completely so that our whole spirit and soul and body will be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has said that he will fulfill his every purpose for us. (Phil 1:4, 1 Thes 5:24, Psalm 138:8) - Source - Tim Challies file link
Spiritual gifts are an important topic in the Bible there are no fewer than 155 verses where the Spiritual Gifts are mentioned, described, regulated, or portrayed.
Paul explains the importance of the Spiritual Gifts helps to bring about the goal of the body of Christ - the believers
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
mature manhood - our aim is to build up the body of Christ in love it doesn’t happen automatically or magically -
it happens as each believer contribute their spiritual gifts to the body
But if we are so overcome by our negative thoughts about ourselves we won’t even try.
I’m a practicing continuationsist - meaning I believe that God intended the Gifts of the Spirit to be used more than for just a few years.
Christianity is inescapably supernatural (Sam Storms - master lectures 1) - this power fills every believer
Think of the power that Paul wanted to know more of
Phil 3:10 “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, ...
(not a theoretical knowledge, not more apologetic argument) but a greater acknowledgment and recognition a cognizant reality of the the resurrecting power of Christ - the same energy and force that raised Him from the dead -
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
more than we can ask or think according to the power that works in you - without the Holy Spirit imparting himself and gifts we are nothing
We need a revival a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit
- but I think we also need and perhaps even more-so a personal and experiential realization that if we are born again, if we have surrendered all to God - God already has us and has filled us with His Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit comes with gifts - the supernatural effect of the Holy Spirit abiding in our hearts - is already there - but should be acknowledged cultivated professed, confessed, believed and lived.
We need a fresh glimpse at the reality that there is only ONE HOLY SPIRIT - there are no JR Holy Spirits or less effective Holy Spirits
the same Holy Spirit that filled Peter on the day of Pentecost is the same Holy Spirit that filled Paul that was in Stephen that was in John Wesley and is those who love and serve God today
If He isn’t effective and working in your life - it is not His Power that has become non-effective it is our connection that has become faulty
or we need to fan into a flame the living coals God has already put into our hearts
listen to what Paul tells Timothy not once but at least two times Paul admonishes Timothy
6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
The power isn’t just something God has - he gives Him to us
Acts 1:8 This passage governs the rest of the book of Acts
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
The Holy Spirit - the power of God isn’t there just to give us a good life, keep us safe, immune from persecution or free us from hard times - or even lift us up when we are down - it is rather to strengthen us enabling us to endure without giving up
11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
note the standard by which we measure this power or the reservoir from which it comes - “the glorious might of God” -
Sam Storms of OKC made the comment that “we see that the power at work within us is the energy of the omnipotent God who has Genesis 1 on his resume (Master Lectures 1 20:15)
The democratizing of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor 12:7 “7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.” to each believer the Holy Spirit equips everyone
There is so much more that could be said on this - but I want us to close in prayer this morning
We’re going to do it a little different than normal
I want us to take a few moments of silent prayer - I want you to let this truth this reality sink in - I want you to meditate on the reality that if You have a relationship with Jesus Christ - the Holy Spirit is in you and has gifted you - I want you to ask God to help you know how to fan that into a flame - This is also a good time to confess any negative self-talk and thoughts to God and commit to become a person who HAS GOD AS THEIR HELPER!!!
I want us to pray together confirming our covenant with God that we are going to receive Him as our Helper!!! Thank Him for how he has made us in His image - the way He wants us to be - and can use us however He Chooses!!!
Lets pray silently for a few moments