It's Not For You

Happy Palm Sunday.

The day we remember Jesus entering into Jerusalem with people waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna”.

Those same people a week later would be yelling, “crucify him”.

I’m super excited about our Easter service next week!

Make sure you come and invite your friends.

We are in our last week of our series, “Called”.

We have been talking about finding and living in the SPECIFIC call that God has for our lives.

Last week we talked about STAYING THE COURSE.

That just because you are going through a difficult time doesn’t mean that you missed God or are out of the will of God for your life.

That just like fire brings impurities and imperfections to the surface when refining gold, God may be putting you in a position to bring about some imperfections you have that you need to deal with BEFORE He moves you on to the next thing.

He may be building your character and preparing you for what’s next.

If you missed any of our messages be sure to check them out online.

The title of this weeks message is, “It’s Not Yours”

Today I want to ask the question, “How do I maximize my calling?”

Before we get into it I want to share some verses with you.

Romans 12:6 “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…”

Paul is saying that we all have different gifts.

And those gifts are a form of GRACE that God gives us.

You see so many people think that grace is just salvation.

Or that it’s just forgiveness of our sins.

We forget that grace is what gives us the power to do what we NATURALLY can’t do.

John Bevere in this curriculum defined grace as, “God’s empowerment that gives us the ability to go beyond our natural ability.”

I’ve heard Pastors say things like, “hasn’t GRACED me with that”, or “God has GRACED me to preach.”

And I like that because that’s exactly what it is.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has given me the grace to preach.

It’s definitely NOT from my natural ability.

So God graces us with DIFFERENT gifts.

You have gifts that I don’t and I have gifts that you don’t.

Neither one is better, we just need to make sure we’re using the gifts God gave us.

1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

The word steward means, “one who manages another’s property or other affairs.”

So a steward takes care or manages something of someone else.

So what are we stewarding?

GOD’S gifts that HE gave us.

Your gifts come from God.

My gift to preach is not my gift.

It came from God.

It’s our job to use them and manage them well.

You can do whatever you want with your gifts.

You can choose to use it for others or use it for yourself.

But God gave you that gift so you can use it for others.

God didn’t give you your gifts for you, He gave it to you to bless others.

God didn’t give me the gift to preach for me.

He gave it to me to use to bless and impact the lives of OTHERS.

But I can CHOOSE what I want to do with it.

But everyone has different gifts.

Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 how the church represents a body.

How a body has many members.

Many DIFFERENT parts that work together to function at full capacity.

But the problem is we want to be certain parts.

We want to be the parts that get the most attention.

I want to be the arms because everyone sees the arms and how toned they are.

And they have such an important function.

Nobody wants to be the liver!

Nobody looks at me and says, “man nice liver!”

But can you live without a liver?

It’s a vital part of the body.

But so many people think that their gift or part of the body isn’t as good as the parts that get all the attention.

1 Corinthians 12:22-23 NLT “In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen,”

Those parts of the body that you don’t see are some of the most important parts we need to survive.

I think that’s true for even how a church operates.

People look at the preacher and the worship team and think THAT’S the best gifts or most important.

And yes a church needs good teaching and worship but this church would not be able to function without the volunteers we have every week.

The people who have a gift to teach kids and connect with them and they take care of them in the Children’s Ministry.

The people who have a gift to make people smile with their infectious attitude and positivity and love to welcome people as they come into our doors.

The administrators who do SOOO much behind the scenes to organize everything we do and don’t get any attention.

THOSE are some of the most important things a church needs to be successful.

But we all have different gifts and parts we are supposed to play.

And the key is we are supposed to USE those gifts for others.

What good does it do anyone if you have a gift to study the Bible and explain it to people, but you just want to keep learning and growing in your knowledge by yourself?

We should all want to learn and grow in our knowledge but why would you want to keep all that knowledge to yourself.

That’s one of the reasons we do groups the way we do.

I know a lot of churches have different small groups do different studies but we didn’t want to do that.

We wanted everyone in unity and discussing the same thing and learning and growing in the same areas.

Because what can happen is when you have specialty groups you attract people who are in the same stage as you are.

For example if we had groups that were geared toward new believers and then other groups that were for more mature believers that want to go “deeper” in their knowledge of the bible what will happen?

Now you have a group of new believers who want to grow in their knowledge of God and are stuck by themselves to struggle and learn together, and then you have this other group who has SO much knowledge and value that the young believers could learn from, but they’re off doing their own thing together.

And to me they are NOT using their gifts and ability to SERVE others like they could be.

That’s why we do groups the same so we can hopefully spread out our mature believers with our new believers and they can grow together and help one another.

1 Corinthians 4:2 NKJV “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.”

One of the greatest things God expects from us is to be FAITHFUL with what He’s given us.

There’s a parable that shows us what being faithful in our gifts looks like.

I’m not going to read the whole thing but I’ll summarize it and focus on a few verses.

In Matthew 25 Jesus gives the parable of talents.

In the parable Jesus talks about a master who goes away and gives 3 of his servants different portions of his wealth.

To one he gave 5 talents, one he gave 2, and another he gave 1.

The master then went on his journey.

When he came back he settled accounts with the servants.

The servant with 5 talents doubled his money and now had 10 talents.

The one with 2 talents did the same and now had 4.

The third servant was afraid he would lose his talent so he just buried it so he could at least return the 1 talent back to the master.

The first two servants received the same response from their master.

Matthew 25:21 NIV “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”

He doesn’t say, you came up with great ideas to double the money.

He doesn’t even acknowledge the money.

He just says, “YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL!”

And because they were faithful and DID something with their talents, it multiplied.

Now the third servant did not receive that same response.

Matthew 25:24-25 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”

He didn’t know his master's character.

And he let fear stop him.

Fear will paralyze you and stop you in your tracks from doing what God called you to do.

Some of you have amazing gifts that can impact people in this church or just the people around you but you’re letting fear cause you to bury your talent.

Matthew 25:26a NIV “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant…”

So the man that just sat on his talent and did nothing, Jesus calls wicked and lazy.

That’s pretty harsh!

But Jesus is trying to stress that God has given each and every one of us gifts and talents and we are called to be FAITHFUL with them and put them to work.

And if we do that we will multiply the kingdom of God.

But when you sit on your gifts or try to use it just for yourself, God says you're wicked and lazy!

I don’t want God to call me wicked or lazy.

You see in the church in America today a lot of people probably think they’re being faithful.

Because they go to work and do what they do and they even have time to come to church every Sunday.

They are faithful with their attendance.

But that’s all they do.

They come every week, sit in a pew, get up and leave and do it all over again next week.

Pastor Tim mentioned this last week.

But we have this thing in America called, “consumer Christianity.”

It’s the mindset that it’s all about what can you and the church do for me?

It’s all about MY wants and MY needs.

So we don’t go to certain churches because their chairs aren’t comfortable enough.

Or the worship team doesn’t play the song that I want them to play so I can’t worship.

So I’ve noticed over the years that people who attend church now tend to spend more time complaining about what their church ISN’T doing for them more than all the good their church is doing.

The church is not here to entertain you.

The church is not here to make you feel happy when you leave.

The church is here to help you understand the Word of God better.

And to raise you up to do the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-12 NLT “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.”

My job is to equip you to do the work of the ministry.

That means God did not call you to just come and sit in a pew and do nothing.

He’s called you to use your gifts to impact others.

Do you remember what the master said to the first two servants?

“You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”

It starts with being faithful with the little things that God calls you to do.

I think God has called people to be in charge or lead major companies but they aren’t walking in that calling because they weren’t willing to do the little things first that God called them to do.

I think of Pastor Tim and Marcy’s story.

They had a baby and saw there was a need for volunteers in the nursery.

So even though they didn’t have a desire at the time to be in children’s ministry they stepped up and started to serve.

That decision led them to becoming Children’s Pastors and then Next Gen Pastors and now here they are Campus Pastors at an amazing church plant.

But they got here by being faithful with the small things and being willing to help out in the nursery and then God took it from there.

You never know what God’s going to do when you put your gifts to work and serve others.

And like Tim said last week we are in a place that we need all the help we can get.

We are a growing church!

And the more we grow the more we need people to step up and use their gifts.

I’ll end with this verse.

Matthew 20:28 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus was the ultimate example for us.

He could’ve came and demanded that we serve Him.

But He came to serve others and to die FOR us.

And He calls us to serve in the same way.

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