Ability

God has uniquely gifted every person to make a difference. Discover how your abilities and spiritual gifts can be used to serve others and impact the world.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, and thank you for listening to this message from ShepardScape Current, located in Kelby Township, Michigan. To learn more about ShepardScape and to access more content, visit atScapeCurrent.org.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Good morning. Good to have you all here today. Excited to share with you today. Want to welcome those who are watching online. And if you're here for the first time today, um, glad to have you here. And I'd love to meet you. Tim and I will be out there in the lobby. Uh, and you can also visit our welcome center where we have a gift for you as well. I'm uh Pastor Eric Chanbrin, and glad to be here to share with you. As you know, we're in this series, the Serving Challenge. How many of you have been reading through the book? Okay. At least you're honest. Some of you are honest. Um, today's 34, day 34. Uh, so this is the last week of readings. This is last chance to catch up. And uh you can see here what our topic is for today. We've gone through, as we looked at serving, we've gone through attitude, availability, action, and today we talk about ability. Can I share a personal story? Well, I've always wanted a certain kind of ability. I've always wanted to be muscular. You know, to be strong. I wanted some guns, like Don Felsto, I wanted some of those guns he's got. So my whole life I've been I've been trying to gain muscle. In fact, um, when I finished graduate school, my my first graduate degree, I was coming home and I'm driving home listening to the radio, um, 96.3 back then. And they had, remember that station? And they had this um free membership to Hollywood Bodies. This is before Planet Fitness. Okay, it was there was no Planet Fitness, it was only Hollywood Bodies. But it was a six-month membership for free. I called in, I was like, this is it, Lord. This is the this is the day I begin to develop. I called in, I won the membership. So my plan was I talked to my mom and said, Mom, are you okay with me not working? Good, okay, good. And so for six months, I went to the gym two or three times a day, and I went to the you know, those nutrition stores with the GNC and everything, and I got one of like a heavy weight gainer fuel shake. It's like two to three thousand calories in one shake. So I had at least two or three of those a day, and worked out two or three times a day after six months. Ready? I gained two and a half pounds. And a whole lot of gas from that. That is not good. I didn't have a lot of dates, so that was I was done with that. Um, but I'm still trying. You know, it's like I've never given up. I'm still obviously I'm still trying, you know. You talk to my wife, she'll tell you, yeah, he's still trying. He's still trying. Um, I think I asked AI to create a picture of me in the future. I think this is probably me in the future. This might be the actual day I die, is that picture? Probably, most likely. But I've always wanted that super ability, you know. Maybe you have you ever wanted a super ability, a superpower? How many of you love like superpowers? Watching the movies, Avengers, X-Men, you know, um, what else? Hall of Justice, uh, School of Rock. That should be one. I don't think it is one, but it should be. But in the last 30 years or more, this has been a huge genre. I mean, it's making a lot of money. TV shows, movies, pop culture, it's huge. And I was thinking about this. With AI and technology, it actually promises some of these abilities. In fact, I went on to one of the, I'm not sure it was Chat GPT or whatever, but I said, hey, tell me, you know, what's currently available through technology and AI to give me some kind of ability, special ability, and what's coming in the future. And I kicked this out, which is very interesting and very frightening at the same time. Augmented humanity. And then over the last month, there's been this crazy disclosure of aliens. Have you seen the pictures and the photos that the government is putting out? Hey, this is all our information on aliens and UFOs and stuff. It's it's it's quite amazing. You watch that stuff. And even some politicians are saying, yeah, they're they're here and they're they have a hybrid program. I'm like, wow, this is crazy. We're living in some crazy times. It seems like everybody, even our government, wants super soldiers, super abilities. We're all fascinated with this. Why? Why do we all want this? Why do we want a special ability or a special identity? We want power. We want praise, maybe, we want strength, muscles, we want fame, riches, to be super smart, super skinny, super muscular, super pretty, to be known, to be different, to be unique. There's all the kinds of things we want. These special abilities and special identity. I was thinking about the Garden of Eden. What was that first temptation that the devil had for Adam and Eve? Special ability of what? Knowledge. They were gonna be super smart.

unknown 5:48

Right?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

That's what he offered them. And he offered us, also offered them a special identity to be like God. It's the first temptation, it's the same temptation we face today. It's still here. It's hard to see in yourself. It's easy to see in somebody else. It's easy to say, well, that girl thinks she's all that, you know. Um you look at Facebook, you're like, oh can you believe her? Um so it's easy to see in other people, but it's hard to see in yourself, isn't it? To see your own pride, to see the way you have given yourself over to this temptation. Who can overcome this? Well, give thanks to God. Someone has overcome this. Jesus, who did have a special ability. I mean, he turned water into wine, he commanded the waves and the storms to obey him, um, he healed people, he resurrected people from the dead, right? He was God man. He was true God and true man. That's a pretty special identity, pretty special ability. The chosen one, the promised one. And he was the only one who could save us, who could overcome sin, death, and the devil. And he did. Amen? That's why we're here today, right? In fact, let's look at some verses here. The Bible tells us, there's many verses that tell you about why Jesus came. Look at these. 1 John chapter 3, verse 8. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. What's that work? We just talked about it, didn't we? That's the work he came to destroy. Mark 10, 45. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus could have forced everyone to bow and commanded everybody, right? He was powerful, all-powerful God, the creator in the flesh. But he didn't. He came and he served, and he gave his life for you and for me. So that we could have eternal life, the forgiveness of sins. And now in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, remember today's Pentecost. Through that Holy Spirit, you've been given, guess what? You have also been given a special identity and special abilities. Did you know that? Did you know that? You have a special identity and special abilities that are given to you through the Holy Spirit. And I want to talk about talk about that today. First, let's go to a couple verses. So in Christ we have an identity as his children. This is to me is really important because I feel and I see people searching for a special identity, especially our young people. They're searching for that to be the different one, the unique one. Everyone's chasing some special identity, some special thing, special look about them. The special identity you have is that you are a child of God. And there's nothing more important than that. There's nothing more satisfying, nothing more fulfilling than that. You can chase down as many different looks as you want to chase down, as many different identities as you try to chase down, it's not gonna fulfill you. But being a child of God, that is a beautiful gift and a beautiful identity you have. Amen. You've also been given special abilities. Look at these two verses here. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 says, but to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Manifestation means the that's the Holy Spirit working through you in some way, through some special gift or special ability. And you've been given that, but it's not for you. That's the difference. It's not for you, it's for the other person. It's for the common good of this place, it's for the kingdom of God. In fact, the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of the world, there's a different motivation for wanting these spiritual gifts, isn't there? Different purpose, different focus. Look at 1 Peter chapter 4. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. As good stewards of God's varied grace, whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God. Whoever serves is one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything, who gets the glory? God, not you, not me. But God gets the glory. So what are these gifts and abilities? Actually, the Bible actually has a number of lists where it describes these gifts and abilities. We're not going to go through all these, but you can read this for yourself in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13, Romans 12, those are the most popular passages. But there's a number of them. I don't think this is an exhaustive list, but it does cover a lot. The important thing is not which one you have. You know, it's not really listening, hmm, ooh, I like that one. I want to try that one. That's not the point. We're not picking and choosing so that we can have some kind of special power or ability. The point is, what are you doing with what God has given you? That's the point. What are you doing with what God has given you? In fact, Jesus gave a parable called the Parable of the Talents. I want to talk about that now. From Matthew chapter 25. Parable of the talents. Now, a talent was a year's worth, a year's worth of salary. Okay, so think about that. So you could think of what's saying, what's an average salary today? 60,000 a year, maybe, 75,000, I don't know, 50,000, somewhere in there. So this is a story that Jesus told to prove a point about the importance of doing something with the talent you've been given. He tells a story of a we'll call him a business owner. He's called the master here, business owner, who has a lot of assets. And he goes on a journey for a few months and he hands over his assets to three employees, three servants. To one, he says, I'm gonna give you five talents worth. Okay, it's five years' salaries worth. To another, he says, I'm gonna give you two. And to another, he says, I'll give you one based on their ability. He goes on his journey. While he's gone, the one with five talents, he develops and uses it, and when the master comes back, he actually doubles it. He now has ten talents to give back to him. The one with two talents doubles his, gives him back four talents. The one with one talent, he actually was afraid of the business owner, of the master. He was afraid. He decided he would just bury it, not do anything with it. So he buried the talent in the ground. And when the master came back, he says, Look, here's your talent back. And so look how in this story, Jesus gives you how the master responds. Now, in this story, you're supposed to think that Jesus is the master, we're the servants, that God has given something to us. Okay, so you read in that kind of mindset. So when the master returns, he says to the one with five talents and two talents, Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little, I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Who wouldn't want to hear that from Jesus? Imagine hearing those words from Jesus. Is there anything else you'd rather hear than that? Now to the guy with one talent, Jesus approaches him. Now he says to the master, I knew you were a hard man, reaping where you don't sow, gathering where you don't scatter seeds, so I was afraid. So I just hid your talent in the ground. Here. Here's what you gave me. The master replies, You wicked and lazy servant. I do not want to hear that from Jesus. Do you? No. I do not. See, God has invested in you. He literally invested in you. He's given you his spirit. He's given you abilities through and gifts through that spirit that he's given you. What have you done with those gifts? Maybe God trusts you more than you trust yourself. He's entrusted you. That means God is entrusting you. He's trusting you. Sometimes it's about us trusting ourselves. Now you might be here sitting here and saying, Pastor, sounds great, but I don't think I have a special ability or a special gift. I'm pretty sure I don't. I don't know what it is. I don't know how to find it. I don't know what to do. That's a great question. Thank you for asking. I want to tell you a story first. I never thought I would be a pastor. I was supposed to be an architect. You can ask my mom. She's watching online. That was her plan for my life. Architect. In fact, when I started going to church a lot as a teenager, I remember the youth director came up to me one day and he said, Hey, there's going to be a preaching contest for high schoolers at this camp. Why don't you enter? And I thought, I don't think I'm supposed to be doing that. But I said, okay, I will. And so I entered. Guess what? I was disqualified. You thought I was going to win. No, I they said I spoke too much. So and that's why I'm a pastor now. See? So it works out fine. It's true. But you know, it's sometimes when you have a gift, a spiritual gift, it might be just a desire that God puts in your heart that you have to develop. It's not like Amanda came out of the out of her mother playing piano, right? She had to develop that gift. So sometimes you have to develop it. It might be a desire, it might be an interest that you develop. Sometimes it's a natural thing that God's given you. So how do you find out? I'm going to give you four things, okay? Four things. First, pray. Just ask God. Lord, you know, here I am. It's a great prayer to say. Lord, here I am. Send me. Use me. What is it I can do? Show me. Those are great prayers. God always answers those prayers. When you come to Him in humility because you want a desire to serve your neighbor, God will answer that prayer. Ask others. Talk to those around you. Maybe they've already told you. You know, you would be a good greeter. You're so happy all the time, and you're always happy to greet people. You know, maybe they've told you that. Maybe they told you, don't be a greeter, because you're a grumpy. It's possible. You can have a process of illumination that way. Maybe you should take the spiritual gifts inventory. Now, if you read in the book, you'll notice in the book there's a link where you can go take it. Did anybody try taking that? Somebody did, see? We also have a link here too. In fact, all our members, we ask our members, those who become members, to take a spiritual gifts inventory. So you can take that too. You can see Jan, she'll show you, tell you where to how to do that. But so I encourage you to take that gifts inventory. If you haven't done it in a while, take it again. And fourth but not least, just start. Just start somewhere. Do something. Start serve somewhere. You maybe you find out, ah, it's not a. Maybe you start in the nursery and you're like, I don't know, man. Me and kids, I'm not sure. Maybe you like teenagers better. Um, whatever it is, start serving. That's how that's the best way to find out how God's gifted you and blessed you and placed desires in your heart. Um, start serving somewhere. You know, 80% of Christians don't know their spiritual gifts. Did you know that? 80% of you here don't know. Well, I think Shepherd's Gates probably a lot less here, I would think. But God has given you these gifts. And you never know what this special gift God gives you, how God's going to use it. How many of you have had uh had a grandfather or a great-grandfather who served in World War II? You know, the unsung hero of World War II wasn't a soldier, wasn't a general, it was a boat maker. Andrew Higgins. He had this gift, he made this special boat. It was a flat-bottom boat where you didn't need a dock. It would open up, and he made it for the Louisiana swamps. And it just so happens that that was the boat we needed to land on the beaches of Normandy. And 1,500 of those boats were there that brought tanks, jeeps, and our men on that beach and turned the tide of that war. Insignificant guy, boatmaker, huge difference. God used him in a mighty way because he offered his gifts and how many lives were saved after that victory on that beach. Shepherd's gate is incomplete if you don't use your gift because you are a part of the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul says we're all different members of one body. Maybe you're the big toe, maybe you're the ear. But you're all members of one body, and we all need each other. And if you don't serve, we're incomplete. We need each other because you're actually serving each other, right? That's the whole point. You're serving each other. It's not for yourself, it's for everybody else here, for everybody else outside these walls when we go out and step out and serve. Now, I want to, in closing, I want to say this. There is a gift, a special, unique gift, that every one of you have been given. And it's a very important gift. In fact, it's a necessary gift. The Apostle Paul talked about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In fact, at the beginning of chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, he talks about these other gifts that we had mentioned already. Listen to what he says. He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries of the future and all knowledge, or if I have a faith, I could tell a mountain to move and it moved. But if I don't have love, you're nothing. It's nothing. It means nothing. You see, the gift of love is the most important, and it needs to go with every gift for you to have me find meaning in that and for God to use your gift. You have to have the gift of love. Now, God gives us the gift of faith, right? That's a gift from God. He has given you faith. He's the one that started the work in your heart to cause you to believe. The gift of faith. He's given us hope. That's another wonderful gift. Hope for the future. And he's also given you love because when you learn about how much God loves you, When you look at the cross and you think about how he sacrificed his life for you, and that amount of love and that amount of grace flows into you. It's supposed to flow out of you into those around you. See, that love that you've experienced and know about from God is a gift that you now have to give somebody else. No one around you is an accident. No one around you in your family, no one around you at work, no one around you in the lobby, no one around you at the grocery store, no one around you at your step out and serve sight is an accident. They're there for a reason. God puts you there so you could serve them. And what are we doing when we serve somebody? You open their heart to Jesus. That's what you're doing. You're opening somebody's heart to Jesus in their life. And tell you, man, that is a powerful, meaningful experience when you get to be a part of that. That's what we're gonna do on Step Out and Serve weekend. I'm so excited. Are you excited? I'm excited. We're gonna open hearts to Jesus. You're gonna want to be a part of this. It's a powerful experience. We're born to do this very thing, to use those gifts and talents to serve your neighbor. So let's go forth from here. This day, this Pentecost Sunday, knowing that the Holy Spirit has gifted you and is preparing these wonderful good works for you to follow and do and to open hearts to Jesus so that more and more people can come to know the love of God that you've come to know. Amen. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we know that it's not by power, it's not by might, but it's by your spirit. Fill us with your spirit, Lord, guide us, show us, motivate us to follow you in word and in deed with our hands and our feet, so that people will come to know you and spend eternity with you and know the love and the peace and the hope and the faith that you give. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus.

unknown 24:35

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

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