LIVING IN YOUR SWEET SPOT – ‘Livin’ It - ROMANS SERIES · LIVING IN YOUR SWEET SPOT –...

LIVING IN YOUR SWEET SPOT – ‘Livin’ It - ROMANS SERIES

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Good morning Life Fellowship. It is that time of year again, right? The

Christmas music, the sounds of the wonderful songs that we love and then the smells, it is

all out there.

And I know that kids look forward to the gifts. When I was a kid I would do a

little bit of reconnaissance. I would go scope out the house to try and make sense on how

things were going to shake out for me during the Christmas season. I loved when mom

and dad would bring the Christmas gifts out, put them under the tree, and then I would

start doing some visual assessing. I would even get physical with them. I would pick

them up, and if they felt really light I would think maybe they were briefs or something.

I was looking for something more substantive, like toys. If I shook the gift and it made a

sound I would think that was probably a toy. If it was heavy I would think that was

wonderful. So it was all about the gifts in my little kid head. I loved the gifts, and when

I opened them I would be so stoked if I got the toys that I wanted.

I had an obsession with Star Wars. Literally. When I was a kid my room was

wallpapered with space from Star Wars. I remember having a Christmas fest of Star War

things back in 1977 when I was four years old. I got the original helmet from Star Wars

and it is still in my office. If you see it in there it is not me trying to say I am a big fan of

Darth, because I really liked Luke Skywalker better, but when I dressed up as a kid I

wanted to dress up as Darth Vader.

All of that to say when I would open these gifts up and get my new toys and

Legos I would be delighted. I loved Legos and building things with them. And I

resented my brother for breaking my Lego castle down after I had worked so hard to

construct it. But do you know what kids don’t do after they open their gifts and see their

toys? They don’t just leave them in the boxes. They get the toys out of the boxes and

they start playing with them.

I remember catching lizards outside in my back yard, and I would build space

ships so I could put the lizards in them and fly them around. Now I know you all are

probably thinking I was a sick, demented little boy and what’s up with that? Well, here is

the deal. In a much more significant way as Christians as we have been walking through

the book of Romans, we have learned that God has granted to us the gift of salvation

through Jesus. But what God has also done for us as Christians is He has given to us

spiritual gifts. And these gifts are to create excitement so we should want to get the gifts

out of the box. We don’t just want to leave them there.

Imagine standing before God someday after He has gifted us with salvation. But

we never unwrapped all His gifts. We never used the gifts that He gave us. And sadly

many churches live on the 80/20 principle. That is to say 20 percent of the people do the

work while 80 percent of the people just come to church. Church to them is like being on


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a cruise ship. They think that church is all about getting their needs met. And they miss

it. They feel like Sundays are a time for them to be fed, for them to get a break from their

kids, that it is a day just for them.

When really God wants us in the game, He wants us engaged. And He has given

us these gifts to help build the body of Christ. And if we do not use our spiritual gifts -

guess what it means? It means that we do not get to see how God wants to build the

church through us. Our spiritual gifts tell us that we get the privilege of being a part of

building up the body of Christ. God has given us spiritual gifts, some get several gifts

while others may just get one gift.

Now maybe you feel cheated on that, and that is when we can get competitive or

we can’t appreciate other people’s gifts. But if you have only one gift it just means God

is trying to focus you. Sometimes people with many gifts are more generalists. If you

have one gift it might mean that God is focusing you, and He really wants to do a lot of

great stuff through that gift with you. We shouldn’t be like the kid who is unhappy

because he didn’t get something he wanted at Christmas, because if we start thinking

about the gifts we didn’t get we won’t be thankful for the gift we did get. Whatever we

are coveting we are failing to be thankful for what we do have.

Many people do that in the church. They wonder why God didn’t give them this

gift or that gift, instead of just trusting that whatever gift or gifts that He has given them

is what is best for them. God is not going to hold you accountable for not being a gifted

teacher if you don’t have the gift of teaching. So that should be comforting. You don’t

have to spend time sweating or crying over that.

But He is going to hold you accountable if you go and pursue something that you

are not gifted with and miss what He has gifted you with. We need to land in our own

sweet spots. So as we continue with today’s message I want us to be able to figure out

what it means to live in our sweet spot. And I want to ask you at the outset if you think

you are living in your sweet spot today? Do you know what your spiritual gift or gifts

are? Are you using your spiritual gifts to help build up the body of Christ? Are you

using your gift in your home? Are you using your gift in your workplace?

Now as it relates to gifts, let me just clarify something. When God begins to work

in our lives in this sanctification process, that is in the process whereby we become more

like Christ after we have trusted in Him for salvation, there can be some confusion

around language like talents, skills and gifts. So how then do we square all of that up?

I was part of a church in Texas where the pastor really didn’t believe in spiritual

gifts; he just saw them as talents. And that can be confusing sometimes, because I

understand his argument. There are talents, gifts and skills. Skills are things that we


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develop to help us with our talents and our gifts. All gifts entail talents, but not all talents

entail spiritual giftedness.

So the way that I like to think about this is a talent and a gift can certainly be very

similar, but what makes it a gift is it is used for a spiritual purpose. A talent then is like a

spiritual enhancement, namely called a gift. Again, all talents do not entail gifts, but all

gifts do entail a talent. If you have been given a spiritual gift, that spiritual gift is a talent,

but you can be talented and not be using it in a spiritual sense. So that is one way we can

clean up some of the language and confusion to help us understand it.

And all of our gifts that we get require skills. No one comes into the kingdom of

God perfectly gifted. If you are gifted in giving you will be stretched more and more. If

you are gifted in teaching it will develop. Why? It is because as we learn skills, we

become aware about what the Bible says about finances, or we become aware about

communication. Gifts then do not mean that we can be lazy, because we have a

responsibility to make our gifts as great as they can be for the glory of God. We are to

hone them so that we can be the best at whatever we do for God’s glory. We are to work

at it with all of our hearts as unto the Lord and not to men.

And one of the things that we have to careful of then is not to create a sweet spot

that will never be sweet for us. We have to learn to live in our sweet spot. Let me pause

us here a little bit by bringing out a few verses before we turn to our primary passage in

Romans Chapter 12 and verses 3 through 8 today.

In I Corinthians Chapter 12 and verse 1, Paul writes, “Now concerning spiritual

gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.” So there is a principle right here.

We have spiritual gifts and God does not want us to be uninformed. He doesn’t want us

to be ignorant. He wants us to be aware of what our spiritual gift is. And that is pretty

cool.

In I Peter Chapter 4 and verse 10, Peter writes, “As each has received a gift, use

it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” So we often think

about stewardship of our finances, but do we think about being good stewards of the gift

that God has given to us? If we do not know what our gift is, then we will feel empty and

blank as it relates to knowing how God wants to use us to help build up the church.

In I Corinthians Chapter 12 and verses 4 through 6, Paul said, “Now there are

varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of service, but the same

Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all

in everyone.” So it will help us then to realize that there are different types of gifts used

for different types of purposes but all for the goal of building up the church for the glory

of God.


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With that in place, let’s turn to Romans Chapter 12 and we are going to look at

three principles that we can extract from these verses. Then I am going to give us some

things to consider, and by the end of this message I hope that even if you are not aware of

what your spiritual gift is, you will be ready to go on a quest toward discovering it.

And even if you are not a believer here today, here is what I would want to say.

You have certain talents, and while I would hope that you would give your life to Jesus

and place your faith in Him, there is something in this message for you today as well.

And that is because you can take some of the things that I am going to share, namely as it

relates to taking certain inventory tests like StrengthsFinders, where you can learn how to

enhance your own talents. But it is far more fulfilling to use our gifts than to use our

talents, because when we know we are doing something for the glory of God, we know

we are doing something that we have been absolutely created for.

So the first principle that I want to establish with us today is that in order to

understand our spiritual gifts we must properly appraise ourselves. And we see that in

verse 3 of Romans Chapter 12, where we read that Paul says this: “For by the grace

given to me I say to everyone.” Now by the grace given to him it means that probably as

an apostle he knows that he has a special authority to speak. So for the grace given to

him as an apostle he has something to say right now.

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of

himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each

according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” When it comes to our

giftedness there are some things that can happen. Number one, if we are not careful we

can be given a gift and then become prideful in our spiritual gift. We become prideful in

our spiritual gift when we fail to give God the glory for it, when we begin to feel like we

are better than others because we have that gift. And God would not want us to operate

from that kind of a mindset. Rather God would want us to properly appraise ourselves.

So as it relates to our spiritual gifts we have to watch out that we don’t think of

ourselves more highly than we ought. We also have to watch out that we do not think of

ourselves less than what we are so as to shun the gifts God has given to us. See, some of

you have been given certain gifts and it is possible that through people’s harshness they

have minimized the way God has made you and you feel empty, you feel small, you feel

insecure.

But God wants us to know that He loves us, that He cares about us, that He can

use us in great ways. So that can happen too. I mean we went to school when we were

younger and things may have happened there so we carry these wounds, and it may seem

hard to imagine that God can use us, but He can, and He wants too. He wants the best for

our lives and that can be so exciting. We are not to put down something that God has


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given us to use for His glory. Walk confidently in the Lord, trusting in Him, knowing

that He wants to use you.

When I first started preaching my wife and I didn’t know how I was going to be

able to do this. I would get so nervous that I would shake like a leaf. I would sit there

next to her and my hands would be all sweaty. And she would tell me that I had to stop

this because she didn’t know if she could take this for the rest of our lives. And I would

realize it, but I would just be so nervous. Some of you have heard me say before that I

used to go out and practice preaching to the cows when we lived in the country. They

weren’t our cows, they were just cows that I could see across the fence that belonged to a

neighbor. But I would do everything I could to prepare to be used even though I was so

very nervous.

Why was I so nervous? It was because when I was younger I would struggle even

forming sentences without stumbling over my words. I was the guy who couldn’t pass

the test to get into the military, so I didn’t think I had anything to say. So I had all of

these insecurities wondering how in the world God would be able to use a guy like me to

speak before people. I would go up on the platform and look out at my wife, and I could

tell she was so proud of me, but she knew I was still scared to death. She would smile at

me and give me a look as if to say, ‘You can do this, sweetheart, you can do it.’

And then it seemed as though after a while when I spoke before people it was as if

God would show up and gave me comfort. And I don’t feel all the overwhelming

nervousness today. Some people will say it is good to always be a little bit nervous

because it keeps you humble, but I don’t think it felt good to be nervous. It can make you

forget what you want to say because you are thinking about your nervousness instead of

about what you want to speak about. I would rather have something else keep me

humble than nervousness. I don’t want to depend on my nervousness to keep me humble;

I would rather depend on the Lord to do that. For a while I felt bad when I stopped

feeling nervous because I thought something was wrong and maybe I had become

prideful. God wants to use us but we have to properly appraise ourselves according to

the faith that He has given to us.

Now the word measure is used here in verse 3: “But to think with sober

judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Measure

here is not speaking of varying amounts such as if you have more faith than you are

going to be more greatly gifted. Rather as C. E. Cranfield, the great commentator on the

book of Romans, said: “This refers to a standard by which we measure ourselves. And

the same standard applies to all of us. We judge ourselves by the same standard of faith

that first of all our standard is in the gospel of Jesus for our salvation, and we trust in

Him. From that trust flows an understanding that He has gifted us.” So we can trust

Him in that.


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We need to properly appraise ourselves. We are not to think more highly

ourselves than we ought. We are not to think less of ourselves because of past wounds.

And we also are not to think that we have certain gifts that we don’t. The younger we are

the more gifts we think we have, but time has a way of smacking some sense into us.

Because the older we are the more we learn who we are and who we are not. Isn’t that

true? Life has a way of doing that to all of us. But I would say that God loves to use His

people in building up the kingdom. And He wants us to be a part of that. It is a

wonderful privilege that has been granted to us.

Secondly I would say in order to maximize our spiritual gifts we must learn to

appreciate our differences. As we continue on in verse 4 it says: “For as in one body.”

Now the word body is a metaphor that is referring to the church. “For as in one body (or

one church) we have many members, and the members do not all have the same

function.” Imagine if all of us just had the same exact gift how ineffective we would be.

We all have to have different gifts so that we can maximize our effectiveness. And that is

what makes it so beautiful when we see various gifts at work together.

Some of you were here for the Cause for Tea that was put on by Pastor Jason and

his team. What an amazing collection of gifts pulled that off from setting up the room to

tearing it down to all the artistic expressions. It was beautifully done and that required a

lot of different gifts.

Our church is to be an equipping church, which is explained in Ephesians Chapter

4, where God gives the church leaders the responsibility to equip the saints for the work

of ministry. That is not to say we are to be a cruise ship but we are to be a battle ship,

and this mentality then can protect the pastor from having to have all the gifts. Some

people have the mindset that their pastor is the one that is to do everything. He is to be

the CEO, the CFO, the one to be the great shepherd, the great teacher and the great

evangelist. You talk about pressure!

And one reason I believe many pastors burn out or fizzle out and don’t last long in

the ministry is because they can’t handle the expectations. And it is because everyone

has an idea of what they want their pastor to be to them. But Biblically speaking the

pastors are required to use their gifts and every pastor has different gifts. For example

sometimes people have wanted me to be one hundred percent extrovert. Well, I look like

an extrovert on stage, but I am really an introvert in person. That doesn’t mean that I

don’t love people because I do. I care about people. I feel deeply for them. But if God

gives someone the gift of teaching then He better give them the gift of study or they are

not going to have anything to say.

So part of the gift of a teaching pastor is they are not one hundred percent

extroverts. If they were they wouldn’t have the depth to share some of the things that


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they do. Not only that, but if some of those amazing extroverts wanted to study a lot they

wouldn’t be making some of the relational impact that they would be able to if they had

more time.

Instead of trying to have extroverts challenge introverts to be extroverts, and

introverts challenging extroverts to be introverts, we are to celebrate our variety of

differences. And we are to appreciate the differences. When my wife and I married we

were both young, and I still had leftover teenage energy. But then I grew into a big geek

who wanted to study all the time. You spend the first half of your marriage trying to

change each other to meet each other’s expectations, and then you spend the second half

accepting each other and celebrating each other’s differences. Heather and I are learning

at this stage of our marriage to celebrate the differences that we have and to appreciate

them without trying to change each other.

One way to become disillusioned in marriage, or with your pastor, or with your

church, is to put too high of expectations on people. What we should only expect people

to do is to use the gifts that God has given them for the glory of God. And that is all we

would expect for you here at Life Fellowship. Figure out your gifts and use them for the

glory of God. Imagine what we could see happen in this community if we could unleash

our gifts, if we could figure out what those gifts are, and then use them for the glory of

God.

So in order to make a difference with our gifts we must appreciate these

differences. Let’s look at verse 5 where it says: “So we, though many, are one body in

Christ, and individually members one of another.” We are members of one another. In

other words one way we are to take care of each other is through our spiritual gifts. We

can help edify each other, encourage one another, lift one another up, give to one another

in need and show mercy to one another. How we can stay strong together is through the

use of our spiritual gifts. And when our gifts aren’t at work we start creating toxicity in

the church, division in the church and we start craving each other’s gifts.

In the ancient culture, ancient eastern culture, there were five levels of

responsibilities to family members. They took care of their own family, they took care

of their children and grandchildren and they took care of their parents and their

grandparents. In America we often just think about our own immediate family. The

church tells us that we have a familial responsibility to one another and we can help build

one another up through our gift sets.

Thirdly, in order to make a difference with our gifts, we must use them then to

benefit others. Verse 6 says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to

us, let us use them.” So we are to be aware of our gifts and we are to be aware of the

difference in other’s gifts and then we are to use them. And as we use them our gifts


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become stronger and we are able to develop more skills and become wiser in the way that

we utilize them. So we use these gifts that we have that have variations to them.

Right now what Paul will do then is he will share seven gifts. He will give seven

gifts but the three main areas that we will see in this list of spiritual gifts are found in

Romans Chapter 12, I Corinthians Chapter 12 through 14 and Ephesians Chapter 4.

Taking these different gifts and putting them together, here are some of them. Now here

is what I want to say. This list from these three sections of Scripture is not exhaustive;

rather it serves as an example. It is a sampling so to speak. Some people can get so rigid

and think that Paul is just saying we are all one body and each has different gifts and then

he gives seven examples of gifts. But he is not meaning that those seven are exhaustive;

there are lots of gifts. Yours may or may not be listed on this chart:

Feel free to take a photo of this chart but also remember that these messages are

being transcribed and will be on the website. Also on Fridays if you subscribe to our

newsletter, you will get the notes from the previous week.

I want you to begin thinking about this. If you were to take a picture of this it

could be a great discussion at lunch. You could ask your family what they think the top

three gifts are. Or go out and do that with your friends. If your gift is not on the list ask

them what they think your gift is.

Now there is a lot of debate around some of the gifts known as the sign gifts.

Apostleship - we don’t believe that there are still apostles in the same sense that Paul was

an apostle, but an apostle comes from the Greek word, apostolos, which means ‘one who

is sent.’ There are certainly apostles that are sent, but they are not apostles in the sense

that they can write Scripture for us. There is no pastor or elder or bishop today that can


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write a letter and say it is from the Lord. Where would that ever end, right? Apostle is

one who had the authority. And one of the things that an apostle was, he had been an

eyewitness of Christ. So someone who claimed to be an apostle today would never have

been an eyewitness of Christ in that way.

These gifts can sometimes be so abused that it makes people shut down all

together so that they may miss the movement of the Spirit. And so I like the whole idea

as one pastor said, “Being charismatic in a seatbelt, open but cautious.” Not ignoring the

fact that the Spirit of God is free to move, because He does often move in very powerful

ways, but not out there trying to just assign moments for saying things like, ‘Okay, we

are all just going to levitate tonight at 5.’

So there are different gifts. Now let’s look at those seven gifts here in Romans

Chapter 12. Verse 6 says: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,

let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith.” Now prophecy could be

foretelling, like telling the future or forth-telling. We don’t see the gift of foretelling

prophets around like we would in the Scriptural times, where people are literally laying

out Scripture. But we do have proclaiming, forth-telling taking place. It is prophecy in

proportion to our faith.

“If service, in our serving.” So that would be those who serve. If you are gifted

in that way, use the gift of service. Utilize your gift to help serve. I think of Steve and

Michelle Robertson up front. They moved out here, they helped us start the church and

they have served in so many areas. They have done small group leadership, student

ministries, they have even cooked waffles and pancakes for the students. Steve built the

first stage that we use for the worship team. He serves as an elder now. Early on when

our kids were young they served in Kid Life. You can see them serving in the coffee

shop, and they have just been all over the map through the years. If you have the gift of

service it doesn’t really matter typically which area you are in as long as you are serving.

Now sometimes you will have a passion that is coupled with that service gift that you

really want to focus in on, but other times it is ‘just let me serve, I am here to help.’

“The one who teaches, in his teaching.” So if you have the gift of teaching, you

pay attention to that. When I first started communicating I thought I was going to be a

fulltime evangelist; that was what I thought I would do. I would go out and share the

gospel on campuses, I would preach at different churches sharing the gospel, and it

looked like to me that I was just going to be an evangelist. I never thought that I could

ever teach the Bible. I didn’t think I would ever be smart enough to do that. All I would

ever be able to know in life would be just to share the gospel.

Well that was rooted in insecurity due to my lack of education growing up. But

what happens is it can look like just evangelism, but as you grow, study and learn, now


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you have more to say and what was just evangelism now becomes teaching. But I do

teach through a lens of maybe you don’t know Jesus out here, so how do I say it in a way

that resonates. How do I understand maybe some of the obstacles that might be getting in

the way of you becoming a believer in Jesus. So I am still thinking like an evangelist,

while at the same token I am teaching.

So sometimes it just feels like the gift of communication. And some of you are

gifted communicators, and you would be gifted teachers if you would read more, if you

would study more. So we never know how all of that may work. I remember telling

Heather when we were dating that I didn’t know how to explain it but I thought God had

given me the gift of preaching. And I had never spoken before a crowd. I asked her if

she minded if I tried out a message on her. And I just started preaching. I don’t

remember what she said, but I was feeling so burdened that I had to try.

I started my preaching ministry by going out to the nursing home. I would just

bring a little radio along for music and then I would walk around loving on the elderly

and preaching in that nursing home. Or I would go out to the campus and I would stand

on a corner and just preach. I preached to cows, folks, because I had to preach. I had to

use that gift. So ask God to burden you to use your gifts.

“The one who exhorts, in his exhortations.” You know those encouragers, those

people who know how to lift people up. Use that gift and build people up.

“The one who contributes, in generosity.” This one calls for a momentary pause.

In other words if we are going to do the ‘living it,’ we have to start ‘giving it.’ How

about that one? Here is the deal. I put this in my message because it fits appropriately.

Here is where we are as the church. We are 25 percent larger in attendance than we were

a year ago, but our giving has not increased. What does that tell us? We tried to budget

the best we could and to anticipate the new growth of people, but we did not know when

the newer people would start contributing, or if they would contribute. So what has

happened is we have grown, and in order to service all the new people that we have, we

need more people giving.

Our fiscal year starts in August as a church. Up to this point we are $75,000

behind budget. And what we are going to do is take a special offering here in a few

weeks because we are $75,000 behind budget. And that is not because we are

overspending, but because we are under giving.

Now I realize we have had a lot of things for people to give toward and we want

to be a culture of generosity, but the purpose of being a culture of generosity wasn’t to

reallocate our funds and bleed out our operational expenses. Rather those are

opportunities for us to give above and beyond. And so if people start transferring their

gifts to other areas then we start getting paralyzed, and if something doesn’t change fast


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we are going to have to make decisions that will affect the personnel and ministries of the

church.

So we are going to ask you to help us. Some of you have the gift of generosity

and we really need to receive $100,000 and more. $75,000 of that will go to help us to

make up for where we are behind. Then out of the other $25,000 we want $5,000 to go to

a relief trailer that we are going to put tools in so that we can go out and help people with

local disasters. $10,000 will go to helping Little Life Academy to provide scholarships

and financial assistance for families in need, or in particular to single mothers, so that

their children can go there. And the other $10,000 would go to Student Life. Justin was

not privy to being a part of the budget, and he has some needs for help in Student Life.

And we want to be able to help him to be able to do some neat things for the students.

So we want to ask you to start prayerfully helping us. We want to be a culture of

generosity while at the same token we want to maintain a great generous spirit of giving.

If everyone would give it would be unbelievable what we could do. In the same way that

God expects us to be good stewards of our gifts we are to be good stewards of our

finances because it is not all ours. It is all His, and we get to keep a good portion of it,

but we owe Him a portion as well, in the same way that we owe Him our gifts.

God wants us to be faithful in the way that we use our treasure, time and talent.

So I want to say that for some of you that can make a difference, you have been blessed

this year. You could give in the form of stocks, in the form of property, there are

different ways that you can help out and we want you to consider what it is that God can

use you to help with so that we can keep this mission going. We are doing a bunch of

amazing things as a church right now. There is a lot going on, but we can’t have 20

percent of the people serving while 80 percent of the people are spectators. Nor can we

have a limited portion of the people giving while many of the people enjoy the luxuries of

other people’s gifts without contributing. We are a family.

I want to encourage men in particular as leaders of the home to lead out in this

way, to model being faithful in giving, to model being men who teach their children

about what it looks like to trust God in the area of resources. In the spirit of transparency

it is not dire, but we want you to be aware. And we will ask you to help us meet the need

and that is why we are making you aware of the need. So that is what I am doing right

now. We are saying there is an opportunity coming.

The next gifts are, “The one who leads, with zeal, and the one who does acts of

mercy, with cheerfulness.” So if you have the gift of leading you are able to oversee

things, you can see a vision and you can create the necessary steps to get there. Maybe

your leadership works so that you are a policy creator, or an implementer, or a detail

organizer. Or maybe you are a macro leader able to envision a better future and identify


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the gifts of people and call them to plug in, figuring out the way your leadership works.

Maybe you are a relational leader.

Maybe your gift is mercy and that is a beautiful gift as well. Sometimes you have

the gift and sometimes you may just fall into it, because you have seen enough pain in

life, or experienced enough pain in your life that you become more and more merciful

over time. And God wants us to be His minister of mercy. That is a good thing because

the longer we are in ministry the more we should be feel mercy growing in our hearts.

And with cheerfulness which is like being excited to be merciful, like it is a privilege

because God was cheerful for the joy set before Him to restore us to the Father.

Now let’s get practical. So how do you discover your shape? Rick Warren put

together a helpful tool that is well known. It is called ‘S.H.A.P.E.’ (spiritual gifts, heart,

ability, personality and experiences.) I would say you could start thinking about what are

your spiritual gifts, and you can ask yourself what you are passionate about in your heart.

Eric Liddell in ‘Chariots of Fire’ said, “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.” Where do

you feel God’s pleasure? What are the abilities that you have? You might try writing

some of these things done. What is your personality? And then what are your

experiences? And you could kind of just take some notes and do some inventory of

yourself and begin to build some awareness about your God given shape.

Do you know what is really cool about being Christians? Sometimes the longer

we are a Christian, the more gifted we will look. We start off young and think we are

more gifted than we are, but because of sanctification the older we get we will look more

gifted than we are, but we will know how limited we are in our gifts. It is an interesting

thing. In other words you will be more merciful, but you will know that is not naturally

your gift it is something that God worked in you through your life.

I would say also to start serving somewhere. Just figure out where to serve. That

is what I did. I just got excited about Jesus and I just started serving in different areas. I

went to church all the time looking for different areas of service. So just start serving

somewhere. If you don’t know where to serve, then start with Kid Life. We always

have a need there. We always have a need to help those youngsters out. And what a

great ministry that is to go in and teach those kids. That is where I would want to serve if

I wasn’t a pastor, other than teaching, like in Life University. I would want to go back

and serve the two and three year olds with my wife. There is something about being with

two and three year olds because they are just so cute. And they don’t come with

expectations. You can make them laugh, they are easy, they don’t get disappointed

about the way you do things because they are just glad to be with you.

Secondly, take a spiritual gift talent skill test to build your self-awareness. Start

maybe with StrengthFinders, and you can find that at Amazon. You can get either the


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audible kind or the book. And a free test comes with it. The test takes about 30 minutes

and then they will send your top five strengths back to you. And there are all sorts of

extra layers you can get into. But start with that.

You can go to youruniquedesign.com and you can take a test there. That will

help you learn what setting you work best in. Do you work best with data? Do you work

best with people? Do you like working with things? You can begin to think about what

types of structures you work best within. It is very helpful stuff.

I would say to embrace who you are and more importantly who you are not. Give

up trying to be something you are not. I get that sometimes we have to try something and

then be humiliated and discover we are not that, but that’s no fun. Except we may learn

to be humble and that’s great, plus we have good illustration material to share with

people in the future about when we fell on our face trying something. But it is important

to know who we are.

I remember one time there was a guy who loved to sing and he wanted to sing in

church. He thought he should be able to use his voice for however. And I understand

that, but frankly he needed to do it at home and not subject the congregation to it. So

sometimes people want to be used in a certain way that they ideate about, but it may not

be what’s right for them. Listen, if you want to be a leader but you look over your

shoulder and no one is following - ask yourself if you are really a leader. If we claim to

be a teacher but people don’t really want to listen, or if we claim to be generous but we

don’t really give, we need to assess ourselves.

I would say also that we need to detect our spiritual gifts by paying close attention

to what others frequently affirm about us. But watch out for the person with the gift of

encouragement. I know in my own life when I was younger I over encouraged at times.

I love to encourage people, so that can be easy, but you can also over encourage. If you

have the gift of encouragement without the gift of discernment, you can mess people up.

So we have to make sure there is a pattern.

For instance I could teach when I was younger, and sometimes I knew that was a

horrific message, but then people would tell me what a great message that was. I once

had someone overhear me singing in the congregation and they told me I could really

sing well - and I thought they could really lie well. So encourage honestly. But don’t

fail to encourage when you see something really beautiful because sometimes people are

one word of encouragement away to discovering their spiritual gift.

Two points of caution: avoid comparison and refuse to be envious of other

people’s gift sets. We have talked about that. And finally be sure to embrace and

appreciate whatever gifts God has given to you. What do we do at Christmas time after

we get gifts and open them up? The proper response is to thank the giver. What do we


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do as believers once we learn about our gifts? The proper response is to thank God.

Let’s pray.

God, we thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross. That is the greatest gift,

we have Jesus. And we celebrate and love Him. And we thank you so much for dying on

a cross, Jesus, so that we can be forgiven of our sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the

actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew

and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.

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