A Different Perspective Official Podcast

For anyone who believes in this Jesus, one of the things that God wants us to do is to keep on shining His light into this world.  Sometimes we look at our circumstances – the conditions around us and things seem far from favourable.  So do we stop, or do we keep shining the light of Christ into this world?
Over these last few weeks we've been chatting about rekindling the gift that God's put within us. And you know the exciting thing about that? When we use our gifts, I mean when we take the things that we've been given in our make up and put them to work, it is just so incredibly satisfying. I know myself, one of the things I really enjoy doing is playing the piano.
In my young years I practised hard, all the scales and arpeggios, sat the exams practical and theory. But when I moved away from my parent's home I went years, maybe twenty years without playing the piano much at all. Eventually my mother gave me the grand piano we had out in the music room and when it arrived at my home I started playing again. These days it sits in my study where I pray, where I write my books, where I prepare these radio messages and a few times each day I'll go and play for ten minutes or so and it is such a delight and a joy to do that.
I mean, that's just one small, almost trivial example. But as we've been chatting over these last few weeks I know I've been emphasising the fact that our God-given gift is meant to be a blessing to other people. I'm blessed through your gift, the things that you can do that I can't do and hopefully you're blessed through mine. That's how it's supposed to work and it does.
But there's something so incredibly special about the enjoyment, the fulfilment that we get when we use our gift and we see the impact in other people's lives. All my life I was looking for fulfilment in things I could get and I didn't realise that fulfilment comes when we take the things we have and give them away to bless other people.
About eighteen months ago a young teenager from a broken home contacted me in response to one of these radio messages that she heard on her local station. She's only thirteen at the time and going through a really terrible time at home but she also had a hunger for God. And so she asked me some questions and I was able to share a few things with her and within weeks she gave her life to Jesus and she was filled with His Holy Spirit and she had a joy and an excitement in her that she had never experienced.
Well I was praying for her the other day so I sent her a quick email to find out how she was going. She came straight back to tell me that she was powering on with God, that her whole life had been changed. Now look, I just had a small part to play in what God was doing but the joy and the sense of satisfaction that I gained from knowing that God had used me, me of all people, this fifty-two year old man who's never met this young teenager, who isn't what you'd call made to be involved in youth ministry, it still makes me smile.
Does that make sense? It's so easy to forget that we have to use it and when we do even though it can be really hard work, using our God-given gift is so fulfilling. And to emphasis this the Apostle Paul is writing to his young protégé Timothy encouraging him to rekindle the gift that Gods put within him has this to say. 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning at verse 4:
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom I solemnly urge you proclaim the message. Be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable, convince, rebuke, encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine but have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
As for you always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of a evangelist, carry out your ministry to the full. As for me I am already being poured out as a libation and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, from now on there is a reserve for me, the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
And right here Paul is giving Timothy and us focus on the big picture. One day soon Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. Time is short and because of that I solemnly urge you to keep telling people about Jesus irrespective of whether the time appears to be favourable or not. Be persistent, keep telling people, convince, rebuke, encourage with the utmost patience, whatever it takes.
Now Timothy's gift, the one that he was being called to rekindle was the gift of teaching and preaching. Praise God, not everyone in his family is a preacher and a teacher but do you see how this applies equally to each one of us irrespective of what our particular gifting happens to be. If you're an encourager it applies equally to you, if you're a giver it applies to you too, if you're a compassionate pastoral person it applies equally to you.
There is great joy and satisfaction in exercising our gifts, sure there is but what we want to do is we want to pull back and take a breather when the time appears to be unfavourable. "No!", says Paul, the time is short. I mean Paul was at the end of his life here, the sense of satisfaction he has running the race and fighting the good fight, Paul was at the end, Timothy was still in the main thrust of it and he was saying to Timothy, "People are dying, people are going to a Christ-less eternity."
Jesus is planning on coming back some time soon to judge the living and the dead. God has put each one of us where He's put us with whatever gift that He's given to us in order to make a difference in this world. In order to bring people to know Jesus, in order to see them growing, to see them realise their giftings and start using those. And we need to be doing that because the time is coming when people won't put up with sound teaching, they'll have itching ears, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, they'll turn away from listening to the truth and wandering away to some myth.
Isn't that the truth? It's something that we see all the time, people chasing after this and chasing after that. People trying to pull alongside so called guru's who tell them what they want to hear. Jesus never told people what they wanted to hear. Now He was very sensitive to where someone was at and where they were coming from but He didn't dress it up, He didn't put any spin on His message because truth is truth.
There is a heaven, there is a hell and many, many are heading the wrong way however enticing that way may seem to appear to them right now. Have you ever watched the news and heard some so- called Christian leader tickling people's ears with the sort of stuff they want to hear? Just the other evening I saw a Christian denominational leader standing side by side with a Buddhist monk and a Jewish leader and leaders of other religions proclaiming that there was more that binds them together than pulls them apart.
That's not what Jesus said, that's not the truth. The thing that puts Christianity out on it's own is that it is based on the truth that Jesus is the only way, that no one will come to the Father except through Him and this is the reason that we need to continue living out our giftings, each one of us, for the glory of God.
I know that there are those listening who've turned back; I know that there are those listening who've lost sight of their gifting, their one particular God given gift all together. And today I believe that God is speaking especially to you through His Word. I believe that today God is calling you back to the plans and the purposes that He has for you.
And before you tell me that it's all too hard, that there's too much weighing against you let me say this. Inevitably when we've seen amazing breakthroughs in the lives of people here at Christianityworks – young Ami who recently was pulled back from the brink of suicide – the time for proclaiming Christ was not favourable at all, we just went and did it and you know what we discovered, we discovered that Gods grace was more than sufficient for us.

You know what I've noticed?  It's awfully easy to lose our way in life.  We each have this God–given gift or ability and we head off into life with our dream for using it.  And then the cares of the world take over and we're off on the wrong track.  How do we stay focussed?  How do we get our lives back on track?
One of the people with whom I have been greatly blessed in my life is my good friend and mentor Graham. Graham would be twenty odd years older than me I guess. We first met when he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army and I was a brash young Captain. We hit it off and within a few years he and I and a couple of other ex military sorts were involved as partners in a Management and IT Consulting firm.
So for almost two decades I worked with Graham and benefited so much from his wisdom and his insight. To this day he is seriously one of the wisest men that I have ever met and if you're a regular listener to this program much of the wisdom that I'm able to share with you came to me through my friendship with Graham.
Sadly mentorship is something of a lost art these days, at least in the western world and here I am now in my fifties and as I reflect on life I realise that none of us can do it all on our own. We need to be surrounded by wisdom from somewhere else. When the going gets tough and when we're tempted to race off in this direction or that direction, having some wise trusted counsellors close by, well you just can't put a price on that, you just can't. And as we continue our look today at rekindling the gift that God has placed within each one of us I'd really like to chat about that with you some more.
Because when the going gets tough and when we're tempted to pull off the path that God prepared for us, to use our God-given gifts for His glory, then right there in that place we need some good advice.
If you were with me yesterday on the program you will recall that we again looked at this whole thing of rekindling the gift that lies within, rekindling the flame, rekindling our dreams through the Apostle Paul's second letter to Timothy his young protégé. And the thing that Paul talks a lot about was the adversity that Tim was facing. Let's have another listen, 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1:
You must understand this that in the last days distressing times are going to come because people are going to be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying it's power.
Avoid them for among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all their desires, who are always being instructed but can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
What a list. I mean there's pretty ugly stuff I think you'd agree. We don't expect to find those people in our Churches or our families or our work colleagues or amongst our friends but they are definitely there. People who want to stand in our way, people who want to tell us we're not really that gifted, people who'll do absolutely anything to stop us from living out our God given gifting as a leader or a teacher or an encourager or however it is that God has made each one of us.
And it's because of this brutal reality that Paul says to Timothy, 'Look, for this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift, the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.' Because God doesn't want us to stop using the gift that He's given us. Well, all good in theory but when we're in the heat of the battle, when the emotion and the exhaustion and the misinformation, when the fog of war envelops us how do we stay on track? What do we need to do to maintain the course that the Lord our God has set for us?
Well that's the question that Paul now goes on to answer for Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 10:
You've observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering, the things that happen to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
Indeed all who want to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted but wicked people and imposters will go from bad to worse deceiving others and being deceived but as for you continue in what you've learned and firmly believe knowing from whom you've learnt it and how from childhood you've known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
All Scripture is inspired by God, it's useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.
Well, he goes back to what I was saying earlier about having a mentor, and in this case the first thing Paul says to his protégé Timothy is, "Look Tim I know it's tough but remember me, remember your mentor, remember the things you saw me doing through the trials and the persecutions. Trials and persecutions by the way that you too are going to have to travel through at some time. Tim follow my example."
And as I look around and look back on my journey God has put some people like that in my life. Graham of course who I mentioned earlier, Phil the pastor of the first Church I went to when I became a Christian. What a powerful example that humble man has been in my life. My good friend James and several others and these are people who have acted as, well as signposts in my life. Keeping me on track to use the gifting that Gods entrusted to me.
Are any of those people perfect? Of course they're not and yet God has used them mightily in my life, to tell you the truth I wouldn't be here with you had He not put them along my path because I'm sure I would have wandered off in completely the wrong direction 'cause that's what we do isn't it?
And the second thing, the second thing that God calls us to use powerfully to stay on course is His Word, the Word of God:
As for you (says Paul to Timothy) continue in what you've learned and firmly believe knowing from whom you've learned it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is inspired by God, it is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.
So many people imagine that they can follow Jesus without reading His Word, the Bible, for themselves and I'm sorry if you're one of those people who subscribes to that school but it is just plain wrong. God has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to preserve with an unparalleled degree of accuracy the sixty-six Books of the Old and New Testaments so that you and I will what? Use them as a door stop or an ornament on a bookshelf? No. So that you and I will open them up and read them and allow God to transform our lives through His wisdom and His counsel and His truth.
We need wisdom from above and it comes to us when we drink it in from God's Word the Bible and it comes to us as it's reflected off other godly men and women right into the dark patch that we may be in right at the moment.
My friend as I often say, you cannot make it even through kindergarten on a twenty or thirty minute teaching session once a week so why do we Christians imagine that we can make it through life based on one short sermon every Sunday? Because we can't. The Lord our God is so passionate about seeing us rekindle that gift that He's placed within each one of us. So passionate.
He knows about the adversity, He knows about the temptation for us to turn back and give up. And so He's given us sign posts – godly men and women – and above all He's given us His Word to keep us on His path so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

We each have a God–given gift or ability – something that we're able to do better than just about anybody else that we know. But it's a funny thing – when we run into opposition and trials in life – the first thing we want to do sometimes is to stop using that gift. To stop living out who God made us to be.  Why is that?
Now I don't know if you've picked this up in your life but life ain't always easy, have you noticed that? We kind of figure to ourselves it should be, at least it should be easier than what it is. And yeah there are some great things that happen in life, they really do but there's always something there, some adversity that seemingly takes the shine off things.
I'll tell you what that does to us, it discourages us. It starts to tear away at the hopes and the dreams that we've had for our lives and as we've observed over this past week on the program we each have hopes and dreams and more often than not our dreams are built on the foundation of the gifting that God has woven into our DNA.
I have a dear friend, Keith, in fact Keith and I have written a book together, and his particular gifting is to be a teacher. Now he doesn't stand up in front of a classroom and lecture, that's not Keith at all. He's more your life coach, not a self appointed franchise owning life coach like those you find on the internet but a natural gifted life coach.
People come to him naturally for advice and encouragement and he helps them understand their own giftings and abilities to get their lives back on track. It's a God given gift that Keith has and his hopes and his dreams for the rest of his life are built on this foundation of his gifting. It's a part of who he is. He understands that, he knows the stuff he's good at and loves, absolutely loves doing the things that he is good at.
Back in the 1980's he suffered a surfing accident, broke his neck and he was almost killed firstly by the surfing accident and secondly when the rescue helicopter crashed. And some days Keith suffers terrible migraine headaches, totally debilitating. I called him the other day and he sounded like death warmed up. He told me later that he really thought he was going to die that day the pain was just so bad.
But here's the thing about Keith, the adversity doesn't distract him from living out the special gift of teaching and encouragement that God's given him. The adversity doesn't rob him of his dreams that he has for blessing other people through this God given gift.
Do you remember last week we chatted about this whole gifting thing through the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé Timothy? And these were the two verses that in particular leapt out, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 which says:
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.
And 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 14:
Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
See Timothy was struggling obviously in this adversity of pastoring a growing Church and he was at risk of losing sight of his God given gifts. So the Apostle Paul writes to him exalting him to rekindle that gift and to guard the good treasure entrusted to him. Why? Well because adversity was tearing away at him and today we're going to have a look at the adversity that he was facing in his life and his ministry.
Have a listen to what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. He says:
You have to understand that in these last days distressing times are going to come because people are going to be lovers of themselves and money and boasters and arrogant and abusive and disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying it's power.
Timothy avoid them for among them are those who make their way to the households and captivates silly women overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires who are always being instructed but can never arrive at the knowledge of the truth.
As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses so these people of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress because as in the case of those two men their folly will become plain to everyone.
I love the way that Paul starts off his advice to Timothy about this adversity. He says, look you must understand this that in these last days distressing times will come. It seems that Timothy, perhaps like you and me, wasn't expecting adversity. It's not something we hope for or look forward to and invariably one of adversity's biggest impacts on us is that sense of surprise.
But Paul's saying, "Look young man this is the reality, this is what's going to happen, don't be surprised. People are going to come against you and what a list, listen to it again. They're going to be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power."
Wow, what a list. Now tell me do you expect to find those people in your Church or in your family or in your circle of friends or in your workplace? Is that what you expect? No. But Paul's saying, don't be surprised, they are there and more often than not they are going to be a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing, they're going to hold to the outward form of godliness, like pretend to believe in God but denying it's power on the inside. In other words they're going to pretend that they're holier than thou but in reality they're out there to tear you down because on the inside they deny the power of God.
And this is the context, this is the reality, this is the opposition which causes Paul to say to Timothy:
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
Do you see? Adversity isn't our excuse to give up on doing good. Adversity and criticism and opposition don't give us cause to give up using our God-given gift to love and to bless and to encourage and to comfort those around us. To the contrary, it's the reality in which we live, it's the reality in which Timothy was operating, it's the reality in which Paul was operating, it's the reality in which you and I operate. And I believe that in this reality, in the harsh, cold light of day with people like this around us, not all of them but some of them, God is calling you and God is calling me to rekindle the flame, to rekindle the gift that He placed within each one of us when He handcrafted every strand of our DNA when we were in our mother's womb. And that's what I encourage you to do today.
Because I know without a shadow of a doubt that for some the dream of using their God-given gift has grown cold. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are some who have pulled off the path that God has chosen for them because it's all just become too hard. Because there's all these people around them that tear them down, that criticise them, that hurt them. Oh surely God doesn't want me to use my gift in this place, surely.
Imagine for a moment, just imagine where you and I would be today if Jesus had turned back from the cross because it was all too hard. Adversity is the very place where we are called to grow and exercise our gift because here's the thing, the gift we have from God, that one special ability that we have to make a difference in other people's lives invariably turns out expressing the love of God to those people who benefit from our gift.
Whether, as in Keith's case as he coaches people back onto the path that God has for their life, or as in my case as I use my gift of story telling to share the good news of Jesus with you and others, or as in your case as you use that special gift that God has given you to bless others. Adversity is not our excuse for giving up on our God given gift, it's the trigger to use it more to bless others because where there is opposition and adversity there, right there in that place more love and more grace is actually required.

Each one of us has something that we're good at; something we enjoy doing; some God–given gift or ability that we just excel at.  But all too often, it's been buried under years of neglect.  And so many, many people live their lives, without ever living out their dreams.  But what if God never meant for that to happen?
Over the past week we've been chatting about rekindling the flame, the passion in our hearts for being about the business of God. The business that God's left us here on earth for, His business, God's business. Many, many Christians love Jesus and they want to follow Him but they've lost their way. Not so much because they don't love the Lord but because the way they spend their lives and their resources and their time isn't what God had intended.
What we believe and what we do are meant to be linked. That's why faith without works is dead. What does that mean? It means that if we believe in something with all our hearts and yet we fail to live it out eventually what we believe will start to die and that's what's happening for many people who've set out on this journey of loving Jesus and following Him. Their faith has begun to die because they've lost focus on what they are meant to be doing.
Interesting how that strikes home, interesting how we sometimes focus on our faith and we forget about living it out and then wonder why our faith is dying. Why we feel like a rudderless ship on the ocean being tossed this way and that way.
Now, can I say that's something that many people go through and so those who don't believe in Jesus look at us and what they end up seeing is a hypocrite, what they see is someone who's living out a disconnect between what they profess to be true and how they live. So this week we're continuing on our journey of rekindling this flame.
And if you were able to join me last week on the program you'll recall that what we've been doing is opening up the second letter that the wise old Apostle Paul wrote back in the 1st century to his young protégé Timothy. It seems that young Tim was having the same problem. Timothy was pastoring a Church and as anyone who's ever tried to do that will tell you, that quite simply is not an easy job. It would be much easier without the people of course but I guess that wouldn't be the point. And there are two verses in particular that really leapt out for me in what Paul was saying to Timothy. The first was 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 where Paul says
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.
And then down to verse 14:
Guard the good treasure that has been entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
It comes back to this concept, that each one of us has been given a special gift or ability by God that's been handcrafted into our DNA by God Himself and He's done that with a purpose. In Timothy's case that gift was preaching and teaching so I relate really well to what Paul's saying to Timothy in this letter and clearly Timothy was finding the going tough as we'll see over the course of this week.
He was facing quite a bit of stiff opposition from all sorts of different people and when things are tough it's so easy to lose focus isn't it? It's so easy to forget that God's given us this special gift that God means for us to exercise and to use this gift that Gods plans and purposes for this world and for the people around us and indeed for you and me are intricately linked to the exercising of that special gift or ability that God has given us.
Is that really true you might ask? Do I really have a gift and is it really important in the scheme of things for me to use them? My answer to that is absolutely you do and absolutely it is.
Today we're going to journey off somewhere else to another of Paul's letters, indeed his letters to the Roman Church and I want to share with you a passage that you may find familiar because while I was reading it the other day something leapt off the page for me and into my heart, something that I'd never seen before despite the fact that I've written a whole book that revolves around this passage. Have a listen to it, it's Romans chapter 12 beginning at verse 4:
For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function. So we who are many are one in the body of Christ and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. Let love be genuine and hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with mutual affection, out do one another in showing honour, do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Now what this is all about here is explaining how we as men, women and children who love Jesus should live together in fellowship and a community of faith. That's how God changes us, that's how God transforms us, in a community. Here He uses the analogy of the body of Christ but how does that community function?
Well, quite simply Paul's saying, "Guys, we're all different. One of you has been put here by God to speak His will into the community of faith, that's what prophecy is all about. Another's been put here to minister, to serve. Another to teach. Another to exalt or encourage. Another to give. Another to lead. Another to show compassion."
You look at this list of seven gifts and it's pretty comprehensive, it's the way things are meant to be but that's not so much the angle I want to come at this particular passage today. As I said I've written a whole book about this to help people locate their particular motivational gifting or as we might say today, their personality type. It's called incidentally, that book, "My Personality GPS" and GPS being a locating device.
But will you please notice with me what Paul says that each of the people with these different gifts should do and we all have at least one of them in our make up. The prophet should do what? Prophecy according to his or her faith. The minister or server should do what? Minister. The teacher should? Teach. The leader should? Lead diligently. The giver should? Give generously. The one with compassion should show? Compassion with cheerfulness.
In other words God is saying here through Paul, "Would you please live out the gift that I've given you?" Do what God made you to do, do you see that? It's right there in the text. God is commanding us to be, to live out who He made us to be. Why is it that so many people are unhappy? Well it's this, it's because they're trying to be someone else, they're trying to do things that they were never meant to do. And it's by living out this one particular gift that we've been given that we end up showing genuine love and notice with me how Paul finishes off this particular passage.
Do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord.
Be zealous, be ardent in using your particular gift to serve God. Why are so many of us finding it hard to live out our faith? Why have so many of us lost our passion? Why has the flame gone out in so many a Christ followers' heart? Because we've stopped living out the gift that God gave us. It's something we all struggle with; Timothy was struggling with it which is why Paul writes to him to remind him to rekindle the gift of God that is within him through the laying on of Paul's hands.
And friend today I believe God is reminding me and God is reminding you, I don't know what your circumstances are but I will bet a penny to a pound that there are so many things in your circumstances that are screaming at you that it's not the right time to use your gift, that you've lost it, that you should do something else, that the comfortable job you're in is what you should be doing.
Friend it is time to get back on focus, it is time to get back on purpose because Gods plan is to bring a lost and hurting world back to Him and that plan involves you using your special particular gift to be part of that. It includes your gifts and your abilities. Gods plan is to work through the person that He has made you to be, to share His mighty love with the people in your life. That my friend is the plan.

We each have a special gift or ability that God's given us – unique to us.  And so often we have a dream for using it … but somehow it doesn't ever quite happen.  Somehow this special gift or ability, just ends up being ever so ordinary … without much of an impact in this world.  Ever wondered why that is?
You know, on the one hand the world's always shouting at us that we're special, that we deserve the best, that we should pamper ourselves and aspire to achieving this or that. By and large it's the advertising industry hype reaching into our desire for significance. You realise though that what they're really doing is playing on our insecurities in order to get us to part with our hard earned cash because quite obviously whatever it is that they're selling will help us to feel secure. Of course it never works that way, it never does that. So they try and sell us the next thing and the next thing, that's how the whole cycle works.
The result of this inexorable cycle is that most of us don't think we're anything special at all. Most of us have so much of the world's dirt sprayed all over us that any specialness we might have had ends up being obscured, hidden as it were under layers of muck. And yet in each one of us there is something special, very special, not because you or I happen to be super clever or anything like that. Paul tells us that he knows that in his flesh in his human nature he's rotten to the core and that there's nothing good to be found there.
We're special because you and I are made in the image of God and He's given each one of us a special gift or ability to use for His glory, if only we could find it amidst all the muck. So today we're going to have a look at what God has to say about all that.
If you've been with me this last week you'll know that the thing we're exploring on the program is the special gifting that God has given to each one of us because He has a purpose for our lives and you won't be surprised if I tell you that who He made each one of us to be is a perfect match, an absolutely perfect match for what He's planning for us to do.
Someone who's call in life is to work with kids is going to have a special mix of compassion and a teacher and an encourager in their make up. And because that's how they've been wired they're going to absolutely love working with children every day. Whereas that would send me absolutely bonkers. And someone who does what I'm doing is going to love telling stories and have a way of putting words together and holding people's attention so that they can do what they do and I'm sure that would drive the person who loves working with children absolutely bonkers too.
Now this is not just me saying this, it's in God's Word. God has brought us into His Kingdom through Jesus Christ not just to bless us but to let our gifts and our abilities be a blessing to other people. Have a listen, Ephesians chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:
You were dead through the trespasses of sins in which you once lived following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh following the desires of the flesh and the senses and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else.
But God who is rich in mercy out of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God, not the result of works so that no one may boast for we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
So God has done this amazing act of grace by saving us from death that's certainly coming from our sin, it's a glorious act of mercy and anyone who's received that mercy, man we should be dancing in the streets. It wasn't through our works but as a free gift from God so that none of us may boast. In fact what He did was to create us in Christ Jesus and we are what He made us to be and He created us with a purpose for good works, the works that He has already prepared beforehand for us to do.
So who we are, and what He's made us to do, fit like a hand in a glove. But then having been saved, as we saw yesterday, we seem to want to fall straight back into our own ways. It's like we've been let out of the mud, washed, clean and then we want to race straight back and roll around in the mud again. We're pretty good at that actually.
And as Paul sets out to teach Timothy, when we do that, well we're hampering God's plan for our lives. Have a listen to this sobering instruction from the old Apostle Paul to his young protégé Timothy, it comes in the second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2 beginning at verse 20. He says:
In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay. Some for special use, some for ordinary. All who cleanse themselves with the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work.
Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies, you know that they breed quarrels and the Lords servants must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone. An apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth and that they may escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will.
You know the picture Paul paints here for me, it's the picture of being a special vessel. Clean and pure in Gods hands. Made of gold or of silver. Being used to pour Gods Spirit and Gods love and Gods mercy and Gods grace into the lives of other people. I can't go past that, to be a utensil like that in the hands of God is just the most awesome thing but some, some are clean so they're special utensils, others are not and they're just there for ordinary every day use.
And then again Paul goes on to list what appears to be an excerpt from the B list of sins, youthful passions, stupid and senseless controversies. It's not murder or adultery or theft but smaller ones but sin is sin and all sin acts like a snare from the devil and so renders us unfit for use as a special vessel.
God's looking for men and women who are mature in Christ. Those who pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace from a pure heart. Those who are kind, correcting people with gentleness. That's the sort of person Gods looking for, to be a special utensil in His mighty powerful hands because if we're dirty on the inside, well He can't use a dirty vessel to pour His love and mercy and power and grace and joy and peace out on someone else, can He? It's obvious.
So here's the sobering thing that God wants to say to you and to me today, we may all well have a dream, we may be aware of the gift that God has placed in us, we may have a great hold on the purpose that He has for our lives but persistent sin is going to hamper that plan. It's going to hold us back from being the special vessels set apart for a very special purpose that God has for us.
And friend only God Himself can get us clean, through our faith in Jesus as He forgives us and as He wipes us clean and through the Holy Spirit whom He would place in each believer to grow us and to mature us and to cleanse us and to get us fit for the special purpose that God has for each one of our lives. This is why some people have an apparent gift that makes little or no impact in the world because they're not yet cleansed.
Some people today are missing out on living their dream because they haven't cleansed themselves through faith in Jesus and through cold, hard, brutal repentance, turning away from their sin towards God and that my friend, that is really sad.