2-26-12 Sermon: HOW TO TELL GOD YOU LOVE HIM

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HOW TO TELL GOD YOU LOVE HIM

Essentials for 21^st Century Living

02-26-12 Sermon

If somebody asked you to describe the Christian life in a few words, what would you say?  If somebody asked you, “What does God want from us more than anything else?” What would you say?  If you said moral devotion, if you said ethical behavior, if you said religious ritual you’d be wrong.  The essence of the Christian life can be summed up in the word “love”.  God wants to have a loving relationship with you.

The Bible says that you were created as an object of God’s love.  God made you to love you.  He made you to be an object of His love.  He wants to have a relationship with you.  That means that you are created for the purpose of having a relationship and, as a result, the most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you.  And the most important thing that you can do in life is to love Him back.  Jesus said it like this in Matthew 22 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.”  Nothing is more important.  If you do this you will fulfill your primary purpose in life.  If you learn to love God and you let God love you, your life has fulfilled its meaning, its purpose.  If you miss this part of your life, your life is a failure.  Because you’ve missed the very reason that God created you and put you on earth – to love and be loved. 

There’s a term in the Bible for expressing love to God.  That term is called “worship”.  We think of worship as a ritual or routine or something you do in a church.  No.  Worship simply means expressing love to God.  Any time you’re expressing love to God, you’re worshipping whether you’re by yourself, in a small group, in a large crowd or wherever.  When you express love to God in any way you are worshipping.

You may have noticed that sometimes, for some people it’s hard to say, “I love you.” (especially for men).  Sometimes we feel it, we just don’t know how to get it out, how to say it.  So we don’t know how to express our love to our children, to our wives/husbands, to our friends and neighbors, the people we work with or even to God.  It’s kind of difficult.  Why does that happen?  Why is it sometimes hard to say, “I love you”?

You may have been raised in a very non-expressive home where there was love or maybe there wasn’t and you just didn’t talk about it that much.  You didn’t frequently say, “I love you.”  Or maybe you were taught to stuff your emotions, push them down, hide your feelings.  Maybe you have been hurt in the past and you say, “I don’t want to get hurt again so I'm not going to tell anybody I love them.”  Or God.  Or maybe you’re resentful of hurts in your past so you say, “I don’t want to love God.  There are things in my life I don’t like.”  Or maybe you just don't know how to express your love to God. 

This is your day.  Today we’re going to talk about how to do that.  There was a book called Ten Thousand Ways To Say “I Love You”.  Today we’re going to cover all 10,000.  Actually I’ve narrowed it down to six.  Six ways to tell God you love Him.

1.  The first way is BY SINGING TO HIM. 

You’ve probably noticed that music and love go together because music comes from the heart.  It’s not something you do intellectually.  It’s something that comes out of your soul, your emotions.  There are many love songs in the world.  There are radio stations that are dedicated entirely just to the love song format.  But did you know that more songs have been written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world?  Nothing even comes close in second place.  Over the last 2000 years there have been more love songs and songs written to and about Jesus Christ than any other subject.  Christianity is a singing religion, a singing faith.  Why?  Because it’s not about religion.  It’s about a love relationship with God, that God loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and He wants you to love Him back.

Psalm 147:7 says “Sing out your thanks to Him.  Sing praises to our God.”  Nothing will make you more aware of God’s love and God’s presence in your life than singing and praise.  I know some of you are saying, “But you don’t understand.  I can’t sing.”  The Bible says, “Make a joyful noise.”  I know all of you can do that.  You go to football games or somebody’s getting married – you make a joyful noise.  So just let it out.  You don’t have to hit the right note.  You just have to make a joyful noise.

I know some people who come to church say,   “I'm coming for the main event.  I'm coming for the preaching.”  That’s a big mistake.  You need principles for your head and music for your heart.  You need to worship God.  Music inspires, it refreshes, it rejuvenates, it revitalizes.  Music and worship in praise to God has a healing element to it.  If you’re depressed you need to sing a song.  I’ve noticed this: when I least feel like singing that’s when I need to do it the most.  When I don’t feel like participating in worship, when I don’t feel like getting involved, when I just want to stand still and be a spectator that means my heart is cold and it needs to be warmed up.  I need to get involved and let my mood be lifted in worship.

Can you worship God more than just at church?  Obviously you can because worship is just simply expressing your love to God.  So wherever God is you can worship.  That means you can worship in the shower.  You can worship in your backyard mowing the lawn.  You can worship washing dishes.  You can worship driving to work and making a deal or on the golf course.  You can express your love to God everywhere.  And that means you can sing everywhere.  It might be in some of those places you would prefer singing by yourself!

When you really think about what God has done in your life, really realize what He’s done, you can’t help yourself.  It about busts out of you.  You have to worship. 

2.  There’s a second way you can express love to God.  BY TALKING TO HIM. 

On the days when you have deep, significant talk with God your relationship grows.  On the days when you have little or no talk with God your relationship decays.  It’s that simple. 

When you really love somebody you don’t just want to spend time with them.  You want to talk with them.  Remember when you first fell in love as a teenager and your parents got upset because you were always on the phone?  It’s like you had a phone in your ear.  You talked and talked and talked.  You were getting to know that person.  That’s how you get to know them, through communication.  If your husband or wife never ever talks to you, you have every reason to start wondering, “Do they love me?” 

What do you talk to God about if you want to express love to God?  Anything that you’d talk to your best friend about.  Everything.  Your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your anxieties, the things you’re embarrassed about, the things you’re proud of, the things you’re ashamed of, your goals, your ambitions, your hurts, your cares, every part of your life – you come to God and you talk to God about it.  The Bible says in Psalm 116 “I love the Lord because He hears me and answers my prayer, because He bends down and listens.  I will pray as long as I have breath.”  If you don’t feel close to God there’s a simple remedy for that.  Start talking to God again.  You need to just talk to Him more often.  Prayer is not some duty that you have to do.  It’s a privilege that you get to do.  You get to talk to the creator of the universe.  He has invited you and He wants to talk with you. 

You say, “I’d like to have more prayer time with God.  I’d like to talk to God.  I just don’t have the time.”  Then you’re too busy.  You’ll never have the time; you must take the time to pray. 

3.  There’s a third way you can express your love.  That’s BY LISTENING TO HIM. 

Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give to somebody.  The gift of listening.  We all want to be understood.  We all want to be listened to.  When you listen to someone, you’re saying, “You matter to me.”  When I listen to my children, when I listen to my wife, anybody, I'm saying, “I value what you have to say.  I value your opinion.  You’re important to me.”  When I don't listen to somebody I'm basically saying, “You don’t matter to me.  You’re not important to me.  What you have to say I don’t value.”  One of the ways you express love to anybody is by listening to them. 

The same is true with God.  Every time you listen to God you’re saying, “God, You matter to me.  I value what You have to say.”  Listening is the most misunderstood and left off part of prayer.  Most of us think that prayer is just talking to God.  That’s only fifty-percent of prayer.  The other fifty-percent of prayer is shutting up and being quiet and letting God speak to us.  Usually we’re in too much of a hurry to do this.  What we do is, “Hi, God, it’s me.  I’ve got ten things I need from You.  Thank You.  Over and out.  Good bye.”  We don’t stop.  We don’t wait.  We don’t listen.  We don’t say, “God, do You have a few things to say to me?”  We don’t listen.

God is speaking to you all the time.  At least He’s trying to speak to you all the time.  You say, “Why don’t I ever hear Him?”  Because you’re not listening.  You don’t ever take the time.  You don’t ever get quiet.  You never pause in the middle of the day and say, “Do You have anything to say to me right now?”  You’re so busy, your life is so full of noise, you always have a channel on – radio, TV, cell phone, something – God couldn’t get through because the lines are all busy.  You need to not just take time to talk to God.  You need to take time to listen to God.  You stop and pause because God is speaking.

How does God speak to us?  Many ways.  One is the Bible, His word.  If you’re not spending any time in this book obviously He’s not going to speak to you through this book because you’re not reading it.

         Two, He speaks to us through the experiences we go through in life.

         Three, God speaks to us through trials.  But maybe you’re not listening.  You’re not reading the principles in his book and you’re not being aware that God may be trying to tell you something through that irritation.

         God speaks to us through other people, through the advice of Christians and godly people who will say, “What about this?”  God will often speak to you through another person.

         God will speak to you through impressions.  He puts ideas in your mind.  You have some great, good idea.  Where do you think you got that idea?  God put it there.  Now, not every idea you get is from God.  When you get an idea from God we call it an inspiration.  When we get an idea from the devil we call it a temptation.  When we get an idea from ourselves we just call it dumb!  You do have some good ideas because God gave you a brain to come up with good ideas.  But how do you know if an impression is from God or not?  Test it.  The Bible says you’re to test it. 

God can speak words into your mind.  He can speak to you in an audible voice.  He can speak to you through the gift of prophecy.  He can speak to you through an angel.  There are many ways that he can speak to you. 

Jesus said this in John 10 “I am the good Shepherd and I know My own sheep and they know Me and they listen to My voice.”  Here’s the question: How often do I pause to listen to God each day?  Do I do it in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening?  Hourly?  Occasionally?  Regularly?  Rarely?  Do I pause and say, “God, is there anything You want to say about this?” regarding a decision you’re working on, an event you’re getting ready to go to, somebody you’re getting ready to talk with. 

4.  The fourth way you can express your love to God is BY PUBLICLY IDENTIFYING WITH HIM. 

By not being ashamed of Him at work, at home, in your neighborhood.  By not saying, “I'm not going to let anybody know I'm a Christian.  I'm not telling my neighbors.  I'm not telling the people at work.  I'm keeping it a secret.”  Then you don’t really love God.  Because if you love somebody you’re not ashamed of them.  You publicly identify with them. 

Can you imagine: How my wife would have felt if, 30 years ago when we were dating, I said, “Let’s get married and we’ll be committed to each other but let’s just keep it our little secret.  Let’s don’t tell anybody about it.  I’ll be committed to you and you be committed to me but when we’re in public let’s pretend like we don’t know each other.  And let’s just act like total strangers.  Won’t that be great?”  She’d say, “What kind of love is that, buster?”  It isn’t any kind of love at all because when you really love somebody you’re not ashamed of them.  You say, “This is my husband/wife.”  You take on a name.  You’re a family and you identify with each other. 

You can’t say you love Jesus Christ and be ashamed of Him at the same time.  Jesus said it like this, in Mark 8:38 “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My teachings then I will be ashamed of him when I come in the glory of My Father.”  Jesus said, “If you’re ashamed of Me on earth, I'm going to be ashamed of you in heaven.”  We need to publicly identify ourselves with Christ.  That’s how we show our love for Him. 

5.  The fifth way to express love to God is simply BY BEING COMMITTED TO HIM. 

This is what love is really all about.  It’s about commitment.  You don’t really love somebody unless you’re committed to their best.  Nothing ever significant happens in life without commitment.  Your commitments determine your future.  You are becoming whatever you are committed to.  So you better choose your commitments carefully.  If you’re committed to the wrong thing, you’re going to become the wrong thing.  You can’t lose by being committed to God.  Weak people are defined by their circumstances.  But strong people are defined by their commitments.  The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles 16:9 that God is looking for people whose hearts are fully committed to Him that He can bless and can use. 

What does it mean to be fully committed to God?  There are five basic commitments. 

         1.  Giving my life to Jesus Christ. 

         2.  Committing my life to His family, the body of Christ, the church and joining a church family.

         3.  Choosing to grow spiritually and become more and more like Jesus Christ everyday in my character. 

4.    Using my talents and gifts in helping others.  We call that ministry.

         5.  Sharing the good news with other people and fulfilling the mission and purpose God put me on this earth to do. 

These are the five basic commitments.  What’s the next step for you?  Give your life to Christ?  Join His church family and be baptized?  Start growing as a Christian?  Find your ministry?  Begin to fulfill your life mission and discover what God put you on earth to do? 

What we’re talking about today – worship – is not just something that happens in the four walls of a building in a church.  Worship can happen anywhere.  Your life can worship God. 

Romans 12:1 says “Take your everyday ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”  Committing your life to Him.

6.  Finally the sixth way you can tell God you love Him is BY GIVING TO HIM. 

Giving, at its core, is the essence of love.  You spell “love” G-I-V-E because that's what love’s all about.  When you love someone you want to give to them.  You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving.  It is impossible to do that.  You say you love God, then it’s going to show up in your generous lifestyle.  I can claim to be a Christian, a follower of Christ.  I can claim to love God.  But the Bible says there is one way to really test the sincerity of your love.  2 Corinthians 8 “Just as you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in complete earnestness, see that you also excel in the grace of giving.  I am not commanding you but I want to test the sincerity of your love.”  God tests the sincerity of your love by looking at your giving. 

Why does He do that?  God doesn’t need your time.  He doesn’t need your money.  What does He need?  He wants your heart.  He wants what your giving represents.  And He wants you to become like Him.  “God so loved the world that He gave…” You can either become like God and become a generous giver or you can become like Satan and become a stingy hoarder. 

I have discovered that there are really basically two kinds of people in life – cheerful givers and fearful givers. 

Cheerful givers say, “I'm going to give.  It all belongs to God anyway.  He gave it all to me.  I wouldn’t have anything without God so I'm going to give it all to Him and He can take care of all my needs.”  Cheerful givers – that’s the kind that God loves. 

         Then there’s the fearful givers:  “I can’t afford to do this.  I can’t afford to give.  I’ve got to hoard.  I’ve got to watch what’s for me.  I’ve got to protect my self-interests.”

Cheerful or fearful – you make the decision.  Like God?  Like the devil?  God tests the sincerity of my love by how generous I am in life.  

In each of our services we have a time for giving our tithes and offerings.  Giving tithes and offerings at the end of the service is not like, “Ok!  It’s time to tip God.”  If that’s your attitude, forget it.  He doesn’t need your money and doesn’t want it anyway. 

Giving is another act of worship.  It’s as much an act of worship as singing, praying, thanking, listening, everything else.  It’s saying, “God, I love You so much I want to give back to You.  You saved my life and I want to give back to You.”  Everything we have came from God.  We can’t out give God because He gave it all to us in the first place. 

Here’s the bottom line: There are many, many ways to express your love to God.  We just looked at six.  God has wired you up in certain ways that certain ways are going to appeal to you.  And God wants you.  God uses our hands and feet and eyes and ears and all parts of us because He loves us and we love Him.  First you need to establish that relationship with God.

Prayer:

      Would you pray this prayer in your heart if you’ve never opened your life to Jesus Christ?  Say, “God, I realize the need for You in my life.  Jesus Christ, today I’ve realized what You did for me on the cross and I realize that I’ll never be able to repay what You’ve done for me and I realize that everything I have is a gift from You.  Please forgive me for not trusting You in every area every moment of my life.  Today, I want to make these five life commitments.  I want to trust my life to You.  I want to join a church family.  I want to start to grow spiritually.  I want to use my talent to help other people.  I want to fulfill the purpose and mission that You put me on this earth to do.  Use me to make a difference in the world.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.”

2-12-12 Sermon

I'm sorry but the audio for this sermon stopped halfway through for some reason! Here's the transcript which I'm sure will bless and encourage and hopefully compel you to DO for Him!

HOW TO INVEST YOUR LIFE

Essentials for 21^st Century Living

02-19-12 Sermon

The Internet made millionaires of a lot of people very fast.  In 1999 if you’d invested in a company called HotJobs.com, in three months you would have made a 217% return on your investment.  Three months!  If you’d invested just three months in a company called Net2Phone, you would have seen your investment go up 247% in one quarter.  If for three months you’d invested in a company called Red Hat Inc., which is the Linux software operating system, your investment would have grown an astounding 585%.  And if you’d invested just three months in a company called Internet Capital group, your return on the investment would have been an astounding 632%. 

Some of you are saying, “I’ve got the wrong broker!”  Of course we all know what happened when the internet stock bubble burst!

But today I don’t want to talk to you about financial investments.  I want to talk to you about something far more important than that.  That’s your life.  We have been talking about the essentials for living and we talked about how you need power to live on, people to live with, principles to live by and today we are picking up the theme that you need a plan to live out. 

You can do three things with your life.  You can waste your life and there are many ways to do that.  You can spend your life and the advertisers will help you out with that.  Or you can invest your life.  And to invest your life means to use it in a way that outlasts it, to make a difference for eternity, to leave a legacy. 

The Bible is very clear that you were created to make a contribution.  You were not put on this earth just to be a consumer.  You were put on this earth to be a contributor.  That contribution that you make with your life, your talents, your abilities, the Bible calls your ministry.  We often think ministry is what pastors do but ministry is for every person.  When you take your talents and your abilities and whatever you’re good at and add in the  spiritual gifts that God gives you, when you use all that to help other people unselfishly, God says that contribution of your life is called your ministry. 

Jesus says that one day we’re going to give an account for how we lived our lives and invested our lives.  Matthew 25, tells us a story on how to prepare for the final exam of life when God evaluates how well you invested your life.  Today I want to draw seven principles of life investment from this story. 

1. ownership  

Everything I have really belongs to God.  God made it all and God owns it all.  It was here before you got here.  It’s going to be here after you leave this earth.  A lot of times we think we own our things but we don’t really own anything.  God owns it all.  You just get to borrow it for 60 years, 70 years, 80, 90 years and then you return it.  You brought nothing into this world when you were born and you’re taking nothing out of this world when you leave it.  So everything you have – cars, homes, ambitions, everything you’ve got is really just on loan to you for the time that you’re alive. 

The Bible tells us that God made human beings to manage His resources on earth.  That’s why human beings are here.  We’re here to manage the environment, manage the earth.  The nice thing about it is while we’re managing it, we get to use it.  We get to benefit from it.  But we must never forget that we don’t own it. 

Let’s say you had a beach house and one day you came and said, “Frank, I'm going on vacation for three months.  I’d like to let you use my beach house.  It’s got a beautiful view of the ocean and I’d like somebody to take care of it while I'm gone.  While I'm gone I’d like you to do three things.  I’d like you to water the plants, feed the puppy, pick up the mail.  Just kind of manage the house while I'm gone.  But you can use it while I'm gone.”  I say, “Great!” 

So you go away and you come back in three months time and you’re ready to move back in and I'm not ready to move out.  I say, “Oh, no.  I happen to like my bed now … I park the car in my garage and I like the view from my living room window.”  Wouldn’t it be quite presumptuous for me to act like an owner when you had just loaned it to me?

But we do this all the time with everything we’ve got.  We act like it’s my career, it’s my family, it’s my bank account, it’s my home, it’s my car and on and on, when in reality it all belongs to God.  It’s just on loan to you while you are alive. 

Jesus made this principle in Matthew 25:14.  He tells the story and says, “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.”  Notice that word, “his”.  It’s not the servants’.  It’s the master’s.  When you learn to accept this fact, this truth of life that everything you have belongs to God, not you, you’re going to worry a whole lot less.  Your worry will rapidly be reduced.  Why?  Because you don’t worry about things that aren’t yours.  When you get a ding in your car, you worry about it.  Do you worry about the ding in your neighbor’s car?  No.  [Unless you put it there!]  When somebody else’s clothes don’t fit you don’t worry about that.  You just worry about your clothes that don’t fit.  So if you realize this is all God’s anyway, He gave it to me and He can take it back in fact, He can replace it, then you worry a whole lot less because you’re not trying to preserve what you’ve got.

2.  ALLOCATION 

God has given me some unique talents.  In fact, the word “talents” in the English language comes from this Bible story.  In the Bible, a talent was an amount of money.  Specifically, it was about $1000.  This master has doled out multiple talents to different people, a sizeable investment in those days.  Today a talent simply means the natural ability and gifts that God has given to me.

Some of you have musical talents.  Some of you have mathematical talents.  Some of you have mechanical talents.  Some of you have business talents.  Some of you have leadership talents.  Some of you are good at writing, or you’re good at speaking or you’re good at cooking.  Scientists have discovered that there are anywhere between 600-800 different talents.  You probably have at least 200 different talents.  But the problem is you don’t recognize them because they come natural to you.  But they are not natural to others.  Some of you people can naturally organize things.  That’s a talent.  If you have seen my office desk…well, that’s enough said about that! 

In v. 15 it says “To one he [this represents God] gave five talents of money, to another two talents and to another one talent, each according to his ability.”  First, the amount differs with each individual.  Somebody gets one talent, somebody gets two talents, somebody gets five. 

We have been taught all our lives that all men are created equal.  That’s not true.  We are created equal in our value to God and in our worth as human beings, but we are not equal in our talents and we’re certainly not equal in our opportunities and freedoms.  By the nature of the fact that you live in America you are miles ahead of the rest of the world.  You are given some privileges, some abilities, some freedoms, some opportunities that the rest of the world doesn’t have and most of the world would die to have the opportunities you have.  You didn’t ask for that.  You didn’t deserve it.  You certainly didn’t earn it.  It’s simply a gift of God, an ability that God gave you.

Everybody gets something but our talents differ.  Some of you are one talent people, some of you are five, some of you are ten, twenty, whatever.  But everybody gets something.  There are no no-talent people.  You say, “I don’t have any talents.”  Yes, you do.  You just haven’t uncovered them yet. 

In Romans 12:6 it says, “We have different gifts according to the grace given to us.”  Notice that word “grace”.  A talent is something you don’t deserve.  You can’t brag about it because you didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it.  You might develop it but it’s simply a gift of God’s grace.

3.  ACCOUNTABILITY

God expects me to use my talents.  He gave them to us for a purpose.  He wants us to make the most of the abilities He’s given into our lives.  It’s as if God looked at us and said, “I'm going to make an investment in them.”  Just like you would look for a financial investment – “Here’s something that’s worth investing my hard earned money in.”  He looked at you and said, “You are a person who’s worth investing in.”  When you make an investment, what do you do?  You sit back and excitedly watch for the return on that investment.  And God does the same thing in our lives.  He invests in our lives and then watches it.  Romans 14:12 says “Each of us will give an account of himself to God.” 

Every day we get to choose how we’re going to live our lives.  Every one of us, we get to make that choice.  But there will come a day in all of our lives when we explain to God the choices we’ve made about how we live our lives.     

Jesus reminded us in this story, v 19, “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled the accounts.”  Someday we’re going to be audited by God, audited about how you lived your life.  If you think you’re nervous about an audit with the IRS, how about an audit with GOD.  That’s a scary kind of audit to think about.  It’s our job, the job of any church, to get you ready for that final exam of life that I talked about earlier.  When you have a final exam isn’t it nice to know the questions in advance?  I’ll give you the final exam questions in advance.  Once you’ve settled the question of your relationship with Christ which is the most important question in life that you’ve trusted Him with your life, the final exam question is, What did you do with what you were given?  And our goal as a church is to prepare you to answer that question so you can stand before God and say, “I used my talents.  I used them in a way that helped others.  I used them in a way that made an impact on the world.”

4.   UTILIZATION

It is wrong for me to bury what God gave me, to take what God has given and not use it for Him.  In this story, the first person doubled his talent.  The second person doubled his talent.  The third man buried his talent.  He took them and hid them.  He was cautious, conservative.  He said, “I'm going to play it safe.”   He sat on it. 

The master’s reaction was, “You wicked, lazy servant.”  Do you think he was a little upset with him?  He looked at the servant and said, “You are wicked!  You should have at least put it in the bank and it could have gotten the interest.  Most of us when we hear the word “wicked” think “murder” or “rape” or “abuse”.  But look at what God calls wicked in this story.  He says it’s wicked to not use the talents that you were given to make a difference in this world, to never make a contribution, to bury it, to put it out of sight and pretend it’s not there. 

There’s a couple of insights in this part of the passage.  First, you can’t please God by playing it safe.  To use your talent you have to risk.  “Without faith, it’s impossible to please God,” the Bible says.  And to take my talent and do nothing with it because I'm afraid to risk it in any way is inexcusable. 

The second insight is God would rather have you try to serve Him, make an attempt at least, and fail and fall flat on your face than do nothing at all.  He calls this servant wicked not because he lost the money but because he was afraid to do anything at all with the money.  We start to play it safe and sit on the sidelines of life and become spectators, afraid to contribute, not using our talents the way God intended, living for ourselves, not involved in service to others.  And the truth of the matter is, we’re bored with life.  It’s time to get back in the game.  It’s time to move in ministry. 

Why is it that sometimes we find ourselves sitting on the sidelines?  That's the next principle.

5.  MOTIVATION

It is fear that keeps me from using my talent.  V. 25 the man who buried his talent said “I was afraid and I went out and hid your talent in the ground.”  What keeps you from developing your full potential?  Fear.  What keeps you from becoming all God wants you to be?  Fear.  What keeps you from building in your life a legacy that will last into eternity?  Fear.

There are three kinds of fear that will keep you from developing your talents. 

1. Self doubt is the fear that keeps most people locked in a prison and keeps them from developing their potential.  They say, “I could never do that.  I'm just not qualified.”  They have all these doubts about their talent.  Honestly what it is, is the fear of failure.  I'm afraid if I try to use my talent I’ll fail and then I’ll be embarrassed.  Fear of failure limits you.  Failure is actually a good thing.  Failure is how you learn what doesn’t work.  The only way you’re ever going to become a success in life is through failure.  By failure you find out what doesn’t work.  If you’re not failing you’re not trying anything new and if you’re not trying anything new, you’re not growing.  I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail, than attempt to do nothing and succeed at accomplishing nothing.

         2.  Self-consciousness is the second fear.  Let’s say you’re good at dancing but you become self-conscious about it, you’re good at singing but you become self-conscious about it.  Really, behind that fear is worrying, “What will other people think?”  If you worry about what other people think in life you might as well go ahead and dig your grave right now, get in it and cover up.  Because you’re already dead.  You’re going to learn real soon in life that you can’t please everybody.  You can’t worry about what other people think.

The Bible says in Proverbs 29:25 “The fear of man is a snare.”  It’s a trap.  It’s what keeps you from developing because you wonder, “What will other people think.”  The moment you put out your shingle, somebody’s going to throw rocks at it.  The moment you attempt anything in life, somebody’s going to criticize it. 

If you worry about what other people are going to think, nothing will ever get done in your life.  You just have to do what God tells you to do.  That’s all you’re accountable for.  You’re not accountable to please everybody else.  That is not your goal in life.  Your goal is to do what God tells you to do.  Don’t get self-conscious about it. 

You’re not called to be the best in the world.  You’re called to be the best that God made you to be. 

3.  The third one (and this is the greatest fear of all) is self-pity.  Self-pity is “I’ve failed in the past, so I'm afraid I’ll fail again, so I'm never going to try.”  Maybe you have allowed your past to keep you from being used by God.  You think, “I could never be used by God like that.  You don’t know my checkered past.  I’ve had some major failures.  I’ve had some moral failures.  I’ve had some relational failures.  I’ve had some financial failures.  I’ve really blown it in life.  So I'm sure I'm on God’s B” team or “C” team.  He could never use me.” 

You’re wrong.  God has never said, “You can’t be used because of your past.” 

There were two disciples that had spectacular failures – two of the twelve that followed Jesus.  One was named Peter and the other was named Judas.  They both committed the exact same sin.  They both denied Jesus in the crunch.  When it was in the clutch time, right before the cross, both of them did the exact same thing.  They betrayed Jesus.  They denied Him.  But they responded to their failure in very different ways.

         Judas went out and had a pity party and hung himself.  He committed suicide.  That was the end of his life.

         Peter, on the other hand, went out, wept bitterly over it, grieved about it, repented, asked God to forgive him, picked himself up, dusted himself off and went back to serving God.  Peter, the man who denied Jesus three times, was the same guy out of all the disciples that Jesus decided to choose forty days later to speak to the whole city of Jerusalem on a day called Pentecost and three thousand people became believers and the church was born.  Of all the people God could have used to start the church, He uses the guy with the biggest failure. 

I like that!  That means there’s room for me in the family of God.  That means there’s room for you in the family of God.  God loves to use failures.

Moses was a murderer and God used him.  David was an adulterer and God used him.  Jacob was a massive business failure and God used him.  Abraham was such a coward that he told his wife twice,  “Tell them you’re my sister so they won’t kill me to take you!”  Most of us husbands couldn’t get away with that one!  Yet God took every one of these failures, picked them up, cleaned them off and used them in great, great ways.  He uses imperfect people.  If God only used perfect people what would get done in this world?  Nothing.  Because there are no perfect people.  God uses people with hang ups.  God uses people with checkered past.  God uses people who have insecurities.  God uses people who don’t have it all together.

Sometimes in life we get dropped.  Sometimes we get stomped on and ground into the ground.  Sometimes we get dirty from our own stupid choices.  And sometimes we get our lives so messed up we don’t know if we’ll ever be able to unravel it.  But you have not lost your original value.  In God’s eyes you are still priceless. 

Matthew 25:24, “Then the man who had received one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you haven’t sown and gathering where you haven’t scattered seed.  So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.”  He’s blaming his boss!  He’s justifying himself.  He’s saying, “It’s your fault, sir, that I failed.  You’re a hard man and I knew it so I hid it in the ground.  It’s your fault.  The reason I failed is because you were so unreasonable.” 

Question:  Who are you blaming for your lack of serving God?  Who are you blaming for your unhappiness?  Who are you blaming for not being in the center of God’s will?  “If I had just married somebody else, I could have been a great Christian!… If I could have just gotten married, I’d really have gone far in this world… If I had had different parents, then I really would have amounted to something in my life…. If I hadn’t gone through that divorce… If I had had a different brother and sister… If I had had different children than the ones that I’ve got, then maybe I would have made something of my life.” 

Quit blaming other people.  You are as close to God as you choose to be.  No more and no less.  You are as spiritual as you want to be.  You can’t blame anybody else.  If you’re close to God it’s because you’ve chosen to be close to God.  If you’re far from God it’s because you have moved.  God hasn’t.  Stop blaming other people.

You must move against your fear and you must make a contribution helping others with the talents God gave you.

6.  APPLICATION

If I don’t use it I lose it. v. 28 “The master says, ‘Take the talent from him who didn’t use it and give it to the one who has ten talents.’”  Have you ever noticed this in life?  The people who are more talented seem to get more talented?  And people who don’t really have a whole lot going for them seem to oftentimes get less?  That doesn’t sound too fair.  Why is it that sometimes the person who’s got one talent all of a sudden doesn’t have any talent?  Because they didn’t use the one that God gave them.

This is a universal principle.  God has the right to take away anything in your life that you don’t invest for Him.  God has the right to take away anything in your life that you don’t use correctly and for His glory. 

This principle of use it or lose it is a universal principle.  It’s true with muscles.  If I don’t use my muscles, I lose my muscles.  That’s why doctors want to get you out of bed real quick after surgery.  They don’t want you lying flat.  If you don’t use it, you lose it.  If you don’t exercise, your muscles get smaller.  Your money: If you don’t invest it, you’re going to lose it.  Your mind: If you don’t learn to think, if you don’t use your mind, you’ll lose your mind.  If you have a talent and you refuse to practice, you’ll lose that talent. 

The opposite is also true.  If you do use it, you get even more of it.  So if you use your muscles, they get bigger.  If you take a little bit of money and invest it, it gets bigger.  That’s true with any area of life.  When you do use it, it multiplies. 

Hebrews 13:21.  God says “I will equip you with all you need for doing My will.”  That’s a promise. 

Here’s the question:  What do you need more of?  Is there anybody who needs more energy in your life?  Is there anybody who needs more time in your life?  How about money?  How about talent? 

Here’s the secret: Whatever you need more of, take the little that you’ve got and start using it in serving other people unselfishly and God will multiply it.  I promise.  You say, “I don’t have time to serve other people.  I don’t have time to minister.  I don't have time to do something on Sunday.  I don’t have time to get all the things I need to do done.”  Why?  Because God never meant for you to be a selfish little clod who spends all your time on yourself!  Why would God give you more time if you’re just going to spend it on you? 

It’s kind of like the principle of tithing.  The first ten percent of all I make goes back to God.  Why?  Because when I give that ten percent part back to God, God takes the other 90% and makes it stretch further than it would have if I kept 100% myself.  That’s true with your time.  That’s true with your talent.  That’s true with anything in life.  If you don’t use it, you lose it.  The way you get more is you invest what little you’ve got.  If you don’t have enough time in your life, you really need to start serving because you’re out of balance.  It’s all take in, take in.  Where in your life are you doing something totally unselfish that’s unrewarded that you don’t get any credit or money for?  It’s just volunteer service.  Is there any area of your life where you’re just volunteering service and getting nothing back for it?  If not, you’re out of balance. 

7.  COMPENSATION

If I use my talents, I will be rewarded.  V. 23 says “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.  You’ve been faithful with a few things, I’ll put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness.’”  This verse gives the three rewards that God gives when we use our talents in ministry, to serve others, to make a contribution in the world.

         1.  We get God’s affirmation.  He says “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  God says, “Good job, well done.  That’s my boy.  That a girl!”  The affirmation of God in your life is far more important than any other affirmation than you can get from anybody else.

         2.  We get God’s promotion.  “You’ve been faithful with a few things.  I’ll put you in charge of many things.”  You get promoted.   If you are faithful with the few talents you have here on this earth, God is going to give you greater capacity and greater ability to serve Him for eternity in heaven.  On the other hand, if you waste, spend, blow the few talents you have right here all on yourself, don’t expect God to give you the promotion in heaven for what you’re going to do the rest of eternity. 

         3.  We get God’s Celebration.  “Come and share your master’s happiness.” God’s saying, “I'm smiling on you.  It’s party time.  Let’s celebrate.”  And God knows how to throw a party!

Do you really want to be happy?  Do you really want to raise your self-esteem?  Do you want to feel like you’re making a significant difference with your life?  Then you need to find a place and start making an unselfish contribution with your life on a volunteer basis.  Use your talents to serve God by serving others.  If you do that what happens?  Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you.”  All the other things that you’re worried about He’ll take care of them.  It doesn’t says, “Seek second, third… fourth… fifth… finish your To Do list and then see if you’ve got any time for ministry.”  It doesn’t say, “Fill your schedule up and fulfill it and then see if you’ve got anytime for unselfish service”  No, put it first.  Think of somebody else first.  And God says, “When you do that, I’ll take care of you.”  The Bible says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”  Only one life will soon be past, and only what’s done for Christ will last.

My question to you, is will you use what God has given you to continue his touching lives today?

Prayer:

      Would you pray this prayer?  “Father, I realize that You’ve placed me on this earth to make a contribution, not just to be a consumer.  I don’t want to live a selfish, shallow life, thinking only of myself.  I really do want to make a difference with my life.  But Lord, I’ve gotten so busy and I’ve packed my life so full that I haven’t made time for anybody else or for You or for what’s most important.  Forgive me for getting out of balance.  I want to invest my life and talents in the things that matter most.  Help me to know what to cut back in my life so I’ll have time to serve You by serving others.  In faith, today, I'm going to commit to serving in some ministry today believing that You will help me find the time to make it possible.”  If you’ve never committed your life to Christ, why don’t you add this, “Jesus, I want to get to know You and Your plan for my life.  I want to follow You from here on out.  I ask You to come into my life and change me and save me.  Help me to use my life and talents to worship You.  In Your name.  Amen.”