YOU WERE CALLED
Verse of the week: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
”Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
The past few weeks we’ve been talking about breakthrough – how we can receive spiritual breakthrough in our lives, and how God can use us to help facilitate a breakthrough for others.
This week, we’re starting a new message series titled, “Destiny,” and it takes breakthrough to the next level. During these next few weeks, we’ll be talking about what God has called us to, and what He wants in our lives. It’s what we do, and who we become after the breakthrough.
The bottom line is this – God chose us! He’s blessed each and every one of us with unique gifts, so we can use those gifts to glorify Him, and give Him the blessing for every good thing in our life. However, while He wants us to use our gifts, there are actually three ways we can respond:
1. Neglect the gift
If you’ve been around church for a while, you may have heard the parable of the bags of gold, found in Matthew 25:14-27.
In short, a master calls his three servants, and gives them various amounts of gold based on their standing in his service. The first servant gets five bags, the second, two bags, and the third, one bag. The servant with five bags uses his money to make five more bags, the second servant also works to double his two bags to four bags. However, the last servant took his one bag and buried it. When the master returned, he was extremely pleased with the first two servants, for they took the gift entrusted to them, were faithful, and multiplied it. However, when the last servant presented his one bag, the master called him lazy, for he didn’t use his gift to bring blessing to his master.
Likewise, God doesn’t want us to hide our gift, He wants us to use it to ultimately bring further glory unto Him. It can be tough…our gifts may not be as practical as a bag of gold. Sometimes, we don’t even think we have a bag of gold (or gift) before we bury it. But how do we know what we have, or don’t have, unless we try? Often, we don’t even know what we have until we start to minister.
If you don’t know what your gift is, have you spent time investigating it? Have you pushed yourself out of your comfort zone? When we’re faithful in a few things, God will trust us with bigger things. Once we know our gift, and use it to serve Him, God will continue to bring blessings. Will you bury your gift, or will you actively develop it?
2. Use the gift for yourself
God teaches us to use our gifts and talents for the benefit of others, rather than our own personal gain. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” This is perfectly exemplified in the lift of Jesus, who used His God-given gifts of healing, teaching, and compassion to serve others and spread the message of God’s love – even sacrificing His life in faith to do so.
By taking an unselfish mindset about our gifts, it helps us develop to be more like Jesus, as we must be more aware of the needs of those around us. This helps us view our gifts as tools to meet the needs of others, and ultimately direct people to God by ministering His love through our words and actions.
3. Surrender the gift back to God
When we use our gifts to praise God, we are pleasing Him by being a faithful servant. And as summarized in Matthew 25:21, a faithful servant will be put in charge of many things (will receive many gifts), and will share in our master’s (God’s) happiness.
Our gifts are not about building a name or platform for our ourselves. It’s all about surrendering them back into God’s hands, and using them to glorify Him. That starts with a humble mindset – by recognizing that our gifts come from Him in the first place. We are simply stewards of the talents and abilities that God has given us.
Using our gifts for the benefit of others is not just a suggestion – it’s central to the teachings of the Bible. By using our talents to serve others, we can make a positive difference in our world, and an eternal impact for the kingdom of God.
Make sure to check out the full message below!
