Employing Your Experience

EMPLOYING YOUR EXPERIENCE

You Are Shaped for Significance - Part 6 of 6

Job 10:8 & Selected

Job 10:8 is the verse we've been using as our theme verse in this series. For six weeks we've been looking at "You are Shaped for Significance". We've been talking about how God makes every person individually unique through a series of five different things. SHAPE. God has given you spiritual gifts. He's gifted you to do things that other people can't do. He's given you a heart -- a motivation and desire that there are some things that turn you on and some things that turn you off. There are some things that interest you and some things you couldn't care less about. That's your heart and God gave you those desires. He's given you natural Abilities. Some have the ability to work with things or people or animals or words or numbers. We all have different kinds of abilities. God has given you Personality. We're all unique and different in our personalities.

Today I want to wrap up this series by looking at your Experiences, and how God has customized the experiences you've had to make you, you. Your experiences have shaped you. All of us operate from what I call a Personal Referral System. It's kind of a data bank of memories and experiences that you've stockpiled in your mind. Every time you see something or you feel something or you hear something you immediately attach it to some frame of reference and say "Does this jive with my experience? Does this agree with what I've experienced in the past? Does this correlate with what I know to be true?" For instance, if I were to say to you, parenting is easy. That does not jive with some people's experiences. You would either be saying, "Yes, I agree. It's easy" or "No" or "I partly agree" based on your experience. If I were to say "High school was fun!" Some of you would say yes and some no. If I were to say "Crime doesn't pay!" Some of you would say, "Yes, that's my experience. I've found crime doesn't pay." Others would say, "No, I've found it to be very profitable!" It's just different. We've all had different experiences.

You've been shaped by many different experiences. Some of them were your choice but many of them were beyond your control. There are family and relational experiences. Obviously people have tremendous influence in our lives. People say, "You're just like....." There are educational experiences -- the schools, the books, the seminars, the training you've gone through have helped shape you. There are spiritual experiences -- meaningful times with God, times of commitment often in a time of crisis. Those experiences have shaped you. Vocational experiences -- your career, your job. And the painful experiences. All of these -- even painful experiences.

Remember the story of Joseph in the Bible. He was a man who everything went wrong for him the first half of his life. He was betrayed by his brothers. He was sold into slavery. He was taken to a foreign country. He was sold to a master. He was falsely accused of rape. He was put in prison. His life was all downhill the first half of his life. Yet, later at the end of his life, he could say to his brothers, Genesis 50:20 "You intended to harm me but God intended it for good."

God has a personal plan for your life. God made you for a purpose and He has a plan for your life -- He has also uniquely designed experiences for you which are both personal and purposeful. God has a purpose in the experiences you have. What are those purposes?

Three intentions that God has for the experiences in your life. First, John 13:7 "Jesus replied, `You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.'" Most of us understand what He's talking about. Hind sight is 20-20. Usually perspective comes after the fact rather than during the experience. It's a lot easier to look back on life and say, "That's what was happening. That's what was taking place and these are the experiences and lessons and benefits." Often you don't understand them when it's going on but God says "You don't understand right now, maybe, but you're going to understand eventually why these things happen in your life. If you've ever wondered "Why is this happening to me?" I hope you won't throw away this sermon. I hope you'll take these notes home and file them rather than toss them away so that someday when you start to ask "Why is this happening to me?" you can pull out these three reasons. God says He intentionally plans experiences in your life for three reasons:

1. They are intended to teach me to trust God.

2. They are intended to build my character.

3. They are intended to accomplish God's purpose.

The Bible says very clearly that the experiences that come into your life are not random, they are not by chance, they are not freaks of nature, but that God intentionally has a purpose behind them here.

1. TO TEACH ME TO TRUST GOD

2 Corinthians 1:9 "This happened so we might learn to trust not in ourselves, but in God." You're never going to know that God is all you need until He's all you have. Sometimes God knocks out the props from underneath you and everything falls flat and things don't go the way you wanted them to go because you'll never know God is all you need until He's all you've got.

When I was in seminary I was a teaching assistant and grader for a well known professor in the school I went to. Very popular man, well known Christian Bible teacher named Oscar Thompson. I was with him in the final years of his life when Oscar had cancer and died. It was very tragic. A man in the prime of life, very popular with all the students, in those difficult days when he was dying of cancer he said, "I want you to know that I've been to the bottom and it's rock solid." He meant I've been in the depths of despair and pain and even there you can depend on Jesus Christ.

Last week I asked all of you to write down the greatest lesson you learned last year. There were hundreds of them. I was deeply moved by many. Saddleback is a spiritually growing church. I was fascinated. I want my kids to read some of the cards about the lessons you've learned in the last year. It's interesting that about fifty percent of them all said the same basic theme, "God is in control and I'm not! But I can trust Him."

The greatest lesson is that God will take care of me and provide for me if I trust in Him and stop trying to control my own life myself.

The greatest lesson I learned is trusting in God to take care of me really works.

The greatest lesson I learned is that letting go and letting God is a daily choice that I must make and when I do He works mightily.

The greatest lesson I learned is that God is faithful and you can count on Him."

The greatest lesson I learned is to relax, trust God in all areas of my life, spouse, work children, family, friends and future.

The greatest lesson I learned is as my husband served in the Gulf War I learned true trust in God.

God allows experiences to teach you that He is trustworthy.

2. TO BUILD YOUR CHARACTER

You don't grow character by reading about it. You grow character by experiencing it, by making right choices when you're tempted to do the wrong thing. Romans 5:4 "We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope." Circle "character". Suffering actually builds character in our lives. The experiences that are there, are there to teach you. For instance the character quality of integrity. Integrity is learned when you do the right thing when it's much easier to do the wrong thing and you're tempted to do the easy thing. Endurance is learned when you keep on keeping on when everything in you wants to give up. Responsibility is learned when you keep your commitments even at great personal cost because you said you'd do it.

As I read through the cards this week and the lessons you learned it's obvious that many of you are learning character, patience and many other things.

Proverbs 20:30 "Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways." It's true. When God turns up the heat then we change. How many of your parents told you "Don't touch a hot stove!" when you were growing up? How many of you touched the hot stove anyway? How many of you told your children "Don't touch a hot stove!" How many of you had children who touched it anyway? Each generation must learn the stove is hot! Some things, the only way you learn it, is by getting burned. Some of you learned some tough lessons this last year by getting burned. Sometimes all the good advice in the world does not get through and some things the only way you learn it are learned by experience. "Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways."

3. TO ACCOMPLISH GOD'S PURPOSE

There's a purpose behind it. For instance, Paul was taken prisoner to Rome. He was taken prisoner falsely, hand cuffed, in a shipwreck on the way to Rome. Then he was jailed in a dark, dungeon jail. He was chained to a Roman soldier 24-hours a day. One of Caesar's own guards was chained to Paul 24-hours a day. Yet in spite of all that Paul says in Philippians 1:12 "Whatever has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel." He says, Yes, it's tough on me right now but there's a greater purpose behind it. What was that greater purpose? One, he was getting to witness to a captive audience. There was a guard chained to him everyday and as soon as that guard went off duty he went back to Caesar's inner palace and shared some things there. History tells us that in a matter of a few years there were actually members of Caesar's own family who had become believes. Where had they heard about it? "What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel."

There are many experiences in your life that you're not going to understand here on earth. You're not going to know why they happen until you get on the other side of eternity. When you get to heaven it's going to make sense. There are many experiences we don't understand and can't explain. We'll just have to wait until we get to heaven to figure them out. In the meantime, whether you can figure out why it's happening or not, I want to talk with you about how to make the most of your experiences here on earth -- how to get the best of them.

HOW TO USE THE EXPERIENCES OF LIFE

Experience can make you bitter or it can make you better. The difference between bitter and better is the letter "I" -- I make the difference. It's your choice. You get to choose whether the experience will make you bitter or better. There are four steps you can take that will help you make the most of the experiences of life.

1. EXAMINE

Examine your experiences. Look at them and take some time to review them. Think about your life. Don't just live it. Think about your life.

The question you want to ask is, What really happened? What has really happened in my life to date? What really happened in that circumstance, that experience?

For instance don't just say, "That job was a good experience." Ask yourself, "What aspects of that job were a good experience for me?" That's a good clue about what you ought to do in the future. Instead of saying, "I really enjoyed that class" say "What was it about that class I really enjoyed?" Look behind the experience whether bad or good. What was it that didn't work in that experience? What was it that I didn't enjoy? What was it that I did wrong? You examine your experiences.

The Bible says this is very important. Galatians 3:4 (Good News) "Did all your experience mean nothing at all. Surely it meant something!" Unexamined experience is wasted. You experience it but you don't let it benefit your future if you don't look at it. You need to examine your experiences. It's especially important for you to examine your failures. Why didn't it work? What went wrong? Look for a pattern. Don't waste the hurt and don't waste the pain. Stop and examine and say "What went wrong?"

Phillips translation of Galatians 3:4 "Has all your painful experience brought you nowhere?" Sad to say, for a lot of people it has brought them nowhere. They're not better, they're just bitter. It's that old statement, Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. If you don't examine your experiences you will find yourself making the same mistake over and over and over.

The Bible says in Proverbs that the fool never learns from mistakes. Why? He's not teachable. Experience does not teach everybody. Experience only teaches the teachable. Experience only helps those people who stop and examine the experiences they've had.

2. EXTRACT THE LESSONS YOU LEARNED

You look for insights. Look for principles. Look for truths. Say, "What can I learn from this experience?" When you're going through situations you don't want to ask "Why?" but "What?" Don't say, "Why is this happening, God?" You may not find the answer to that. Say, "What do you want me to learn?" Experience is an educator. The School of Hard Knocks teaches you some things you only learn that way.

There are two rules in the school of experience.

1. If you flunk the test the first time you just keep taking the test until you pass it. If you don't learn the lesson in experience you just keep on doing it until you finally get it right. If you flunk it God will give you another chance.

2. Just about the time you think you've graduated God makes up a new course. Just about the time you think, "I've matured and I've got it all together" God says, "No, you've got a whole lot more to go."

Deut. 11:2 "Remember what you have learned about the Lord through your experiences with him." It says, Remember what you've learned about the Lord... How? How do you learn about the Lord? through the experiences with Him. If I had to define maturity I'd say that maturity is the ability to find lessons in everyday life. Maturity is the ability to extract lessons from the experiences of life. That's the mark of maturity. To be able to see what the truth is, what's the principle, what's the essence, what's working, what's not working. And that's what God wants you to do. He wants you to grow up and mature and learn to see lessons in life.

Notice it says "Remember what you have learned..." Circle the word "remember". Why does God want you to remember your experiences of life? So you don't keep making the same mistakes. Over and over. You go on. You learn from them. This was the biggest problem of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They had a very short memory. They kept forgetting. They kept getting into trouble as a result. When the Israelites were in Egypt for four hundred years as slaves and God brought Moses and did those ten magnificent plagues -- a tremendous expression of God's power -- but they quickly forgot and a couple of days later they're at the Red Sea panicking and worrying. They had forgotten what God had already done. So God opens up the Red Sea and they walk through to the other side. Immediately they say, "Oh no! We're in the desert! There's no water." They have just forgotten what God had done in the Red Sea. So God brings them water. Then they start complaining "No food!" and God brings them food. They just kept forgetting all the goodness and how God had bailed them out and helped them time and time again in the past.

The Bible says over and over again -- Remember! Remember! Remember! Learn the lessons!

The best way I know to do this is to write them down so you don't forget them. A very practical thing you can do to aid your personal spiritual grown and your success in life is to get a journal and keep a journal of the lessons you've learned. I've already filled two and working on my third. I'm not talking about diaries. I'm talking about a journal simply of lessons. You stop and think through the experience and think "What did I learn from that?" and you write it down. I have these journals I've written down these lessons in and I go back and review them. Why? Because I don't want to have to relearn those lessons. Some of them weren't very pleasant learning experiences! I don't want to go through all that heartache again and I certainly don't want to waste the pain I went through so I write down the lessons I learned and I continually remind myself so I don't have to go through it again. But if you don't write it down, you're going to have to relearn it. You'll forget it.

So how do you get the most from experiences? Examine them. Extract the lessons you learn and write them down in a journal.

3. EXPLOIT THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS

Tap into them. Get yourself into a network and learn from other people. The average person in life learns from experience. The wise person learns from the experiences of others. The fool learn from neither. It's wise to learn from experience (I touched it and got burned), it's wiser to learn from the experience of others (They touched it and got burned, so I'm not going to do it!). You don't have enough time in your life to learn all the lessons from personal experience. There's not enough time in life to do that. So you've got to learn from the experiences of others. It's quicker and it's certainly easier. You need to exploit the experiences of other people.

Proverbs 27:17 "People learn from one another just as iron sharpens iron." How do you learn from others? Learn to ask the right questions. That's the secret. You can learn from anybody if you just know the right questions to ask. I can learn something from anybody because I've learned how to ask questions. If you ask questions, you can pull it out of people. God not only plans experiences in your life intentionally, purposefully and personally but He also brings people into your life for a purpose so that you can learn from them and the people that were around your life were intentionally put there. Some of them as good examples and some of them as examples of what not to do. You need to know the difference. you need to exploit the experiences of others. We learn from each other.

Proverbs 25:12 "A warning given by an experienced person to someone willing to listen is more valuable than gold." The best advice is often from somebody who has made the same mistake. They've already been there. That's the value of the twelve step groups and recovery groups that we've got. Who better to help than somebody who can say, "I've been there. I know what it was like. This is how I worked through it. Let me save you a little bit of pain by giving you some steps." We learn from each other.

The richest source of human experience is not just the people around you but the Bible. It is the richest source of human experience. It is filled with thousands of years of stories of examples of people we can learn from. It's better than a biography because biographies don't always tell the truth. Every biography that's ever been written has a slant to it. It is either in favor of the person or it is not in favor of the person and it doesn't tend to just lay it out plain. But the Bible, because it's God's Word, always tells the truth. So when it talks about people it gives the good, the bad, and the ugly. It's just honest. When it tells us that David was a man after God's own heart it also says he committed adultery. When it says he was a great leader and writer of songs, it also tells us his family fell apart. Why? Because the bible tells the truth about people.

If you want a graduate course in life, immerse yourself in the Bible. Exploit the experiences of others. Abraham, Moses, David, the disciples. Exploit the experiences of others by studying this book.

Although experiences are helpful and God does use them in your life -- God uses experiences to shape you and teach you and they are very important -- experiences are helpful but they are not infallible. Experiences can be misleading. They can be misinterpreted. Experience is not always reality.

For instance, you can be misled by an experience. I could bring a magician up here on stage and he could make a beautiful woman disappear and a lion appear in her place. You would have experienced the disappearance of the woman and you would have experienced the appearance of the lion. You would have experienced it but it's not reality. So just because you have an experience doesn't mean it's true. Experience can be caused by all different kinds of things -- drugs, personality, the devil, slight of hand -- many different reasons. That's the problem with the New Age movement. It's build on experience -- I've experienced it therefore it must be legitimate. I could give you a dozen illegitimate causes of experience. What you need is a standard for life by which to evaluate everything that happens to you and judge it rather than just say, "I felt it, therefore it must be right." What is that standard? God's Word. It's always the truth.

Always use God's word to judge experience. That's very important. Experience can be misleading, misinterpreted, misunderstood. It can be an illusion. But you have to use something that is reliable. A mark of maturity is if I have an experience that contradicts what God's word says I'm going to choose what God's word says over my personal experience because I could be wrong. If I set up myself and say, "I experienced this!" even though the Bible says the exact opposite then what I'm saying is my experience is more legitimate and reliable than God. What you're doing is setting yourself up as God.

If someone comes to me and says, "I think God wants me to run out from my wife and marry this other woman." I say, "Why?" They say, "I feel it's the right thing to do. God wants me to be happy and therefore it's the right thing to do." Let's look at what the Bible says. When the Bible says the exact opposite what does that say about your experience? It's coming from the wrong source that's what it's saying.

4. EMPLOY YOUR EXPERIENCES TO ENCOURAGE AND HELP OTHER PEOPLE.

Utilize them. Use your experience for the good of other people. If you don't use your experience what good is it. If you have all those experiences stockpiled in your mind and you don't benefit anybody from them what's the value of it?

1 Thes. 5:11 "Encourage one another and help one another." Circle the two ways it says we can employ our experiences. You can use the experience you got to encourage others and you can use your experience to help others. This is very important especially in our society today. In the past fifty years ago, people had a network of an extended family. Most people grew up in a smaller town and all of their relatives lived together. As you were growing up you had this great chain of experienced council with you. You not only had mom and dad, you had your grandparents, maybe even your great grandparents. You had a few uncles, a few aunts. They were all there in your family, committed, helping you come through the stages of life that they had already been through and give wise council and experience. An extended family provided a council of experience you could grow on.

But that's not true anymore. Most of you don't life anywhere near your grandparents or your parents or aunts or uncles. They're spread out all over. We're in a fragmented society today. We have to create a new network to provide wisdom and council and experience as people go through stages of life.

What is that new network? The church. The Bible says, Titus 2, that older women are to use their experience to train and encourage and help younger women. In the same chapter it says that older men who are more experienced in life, in business, family, are to use their experience and wisdom to teach and train and encourage younger men. That's what it's all about. God doesn't expect you to have this experience and not use it to help anybody. He wants you to employ it. It's a critical need.

I received this letter from one of the older women in this church I dearly love. She's been a member here from the very first year. "This is such a joyful time for me at Saddleback. I'd like to share it with you. I am the only older woman in the Heart-to-Heart group of young women in which I participate. girls who could be my daughters and some even my granddaughter's age are dedicated to living lives based on God's principles, prayer loving lives, eager to raise their children in God's way with God's love and guidance. ... they make me feel special nd tell me the wisdom that comes with age is much needed and wanted in today's world. And I am fulfilled." She ought to be fulfilled! She's doing what God says to do.

Who are you sharing your experiences with? If you've been alive more than ten years you've got some experience. God intends for you to use it. Encourage one another and help one another it says.

Today is the anniversary of Saddleback. I have to say that as your pastor, the single most frustrating thing to me about the church is the untapped wealth of experience setting in this room right now that is going unused. Incredible talent, incredible experience. Backgrounds -- God's brought us together from all different kinds of backgrounds. He's shaped us all differently. God brought you here. I don't believe you're here by accident. I believe that God intentionally brought you to this church family because you have something to offer to this church family that this church family needs. God made you for a purpose and He's given you experiences for a purpose and you have something to offer. Every one of you! You have something to offer because of your experience. You need to offer it for your own emotional health, physical health, spiritual, mental health. Balance. You need to offer it and God expects you to offer it. Some of you have experienced deep hurt in your lives maybe even in the last year -- the death of a loved one, a painful divorce that ripped your heart out, an illness, cancer, you got laid off at work, you went through a bankruptcy, your kids flipped out and went off on drugs, you had a major crisis, you experienced some kind of hurt. God expects you to use that hurt to minister to others. He expects you to use that experience to encourage and help others who are going through it.

"God gives us comfort in all our trials so we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in their troubles that we receive from God. This means if we experience trouble it is for your comfort and spiritual protection." God takes you through problems and He comforts and helps you through it (obviously -- you're still here, you're still alive) and he brings you through troubles and difficulties so that you can turn around and encourage others with the same help that you were given with the lessons you learned, the experience you had. God wants you to help others through what you've already been through. That's called ministry. God expects you to have a ministry. Don't waste your hurt. If you've gone through the pain and you just hold it inside, what good is that. But if you examine it, you learn from it -- extract lessons from it, and you employ them to encourage and help others, there's benefit to it.

For six weeks we've looked at how God has made you unique and shaped you, how He's given you spiritual gifts and a Heart and Abilities and Personality and Experiences. There is nobody like you in the whole wide world. You are unique! God's shaped you to be unique, but why? He didn't do it just so you could be unique! He didn't put forth all that effort just so you could be different. He did it -- He made you unique -- for a purpose. He did it so you would be shaped for significance, that your life would matter, that you would make an impact with your life that nobody else could have because your experiences are unique. He doesn't want you to just store up those things in your mind and keep them to yourself. He's saying, Use them to help other people.

Another card I got this week says:

The greatest lesson I learned was this: There are people all around waiting to be ministered to in all areas if you're just willing to look.

I hope that's a lesson you'll learn. That there are people all around waiting to be ministered to in all areas if you're just willing to look and to share the God given shape He's given you.

Which ministry should you be involved in based on how God has shaped you? It's time to give something back. Don't waste your life.

In a world of teeming millions crowded in on every side

When you feel so bewildered that you want to run and hide

Think of Him who counts the sparrows and gives each rainbow a special hue

He counts the hairs you carry for He made just one like you.

When you think no one really cares and feel so incidental

That every nice thing done for you is merely accidental

Recall the snowflakes you've seen fall each one is different and it's true

That to God you're extra special for He made just one like you.

If you've heard you're not important with no special identity

That you're only just a number to be carried out to sea

Call to mind that you're His creation and from the songbirds take a cue

Let the whole world know you're happy for He made just one like you.

And He didn't do it just so you could be unique. He did it so your life would matter. So that you could have significance and impact and meaning with your life because you use it to help others. That's called ministry.

Prayer:

I'm going to ask you to make a commitment this morning that may be the most important commitment you've ever made, even greater than many others, next to inviting Jesus Christ into your life. Of course that's the greatest commitment and if you've never done so I would encourage you to say, "Jesus Christ, make Yourself real to me. I want to have a relationship with You. Come into my life." If you've already done that would you say I want to commit the God given shape that I have to be used the way God wants it to be used. Would your pray this prayer in your heart, "God, I give You all that I am. I owe it to You however great or little; it belongs to You. I want to give You the experiences of my past good and bad. I want to give You the schedule of my present. And I want to give You the potential of my tomorrow. I want to be available to be used for the purpose you created me for. Help me to discover my ministry."

Father, I look out on these faces and I am in awe of the potential in this church. When I think of the untapped wealth of experience sitting here right now and knowing that if properly committed to You and mobilized that there would be an atomic explosion of power that would cause all of Orange County and even the nation to take notice. Would You help us to commit all that we have to You, realizing that we can trust You. You're building character and You have a grand purpose and we want to be in on it. Use the gifts and abilities ad experiences You've given to us for the good of others, for the glory of God, and for the growth of ourselves. In Jesus' name. Amen.

WORDS OWNED BY:

RICK WARREN (http://www.rickwarren.com/)

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You've Got PERSONALITY

YOU'VE GOT PERSONALITY

You Are Shaped for Significance - Part 5 of 6

Job 10:8 & Selected

Most of us give lip service to the fact that we believe everybody's unique. But we really don't understand how unique each of us are. The DNA molecule determines your inherited qualities. Mathematicians estimate that the DNA molecule can theoretically unite in an infinite number of ways. DNA can unite in 10 with two billion, four hundred million zeros behind it! That means if you were to find somebody just like you it would be one chance in 10 with two billion, four hundred million zeros behind it. To show you how long a shot that is, to grasp the enormity of this number, to write it out, if each zero were one inch wide you would need a strip of paper 37,000 miles long. Scientists say that all the particles in the universe are probably less than 10 with 76 zeros behind it. When I say you're unique, that's not a theological statement. That's a scientific fact of life. When God made you, He broke the mold. He doesn't make any copies. He doesn't make any duplicates. There never has been, there never will be anybody just like you.

We've started a series I'm calling "You are Shaped for Significance." We're taking the verse Job 10:8 "God's hand formed and shaped me." He made you, you for a purpose. We're talking about five different aspects of that shape - S-H-A-P-E. God had given you Spiritual gifts. God has given you a basic Heart -- what do I love to do, motivations. God has given you natural Abilities. God has given you a Personality. God has given you Experiences. These five things -- your Spiritual Gifts, your Heart, your Abilities, your Personality, your Experiences -- all combine to shape you and make you unique.

Today we want to work on the fourth of those qualities -- your personality. What is a personality? Personality refers to the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act. Part of your personality comes from hereditary factors -- you inherited it, part of it comes from the environment, part of it is your choice. Your personality is partially inborn, but it's also partially learned. You are a complex combination of many, many different traits. Scientists say that up to 18,000 different character traits have been identified. You're a combination of those. We're very, very complex. So complex that sometimes we're a mystery to ourselves. We can't figure ourselves out. We can't figure out why we act the way we do. Your personality influences far more than you realize.

Somebody gave me this card: "I was watching Geraldo. He had a guest who had 79 different personalities. I thought that was wild because I work with people who don't even have one."

Your personality influences every area of your life. It influences every decision you make, how you deal with change or don't deal with it, how you solve problems, what makes you happy/sad, what you think is funny and what you don't think is funny at all, says a lot about the kind of work you should be in, the kind of person you should marry, the kind of ministry God wants you to have serving Him. Every area. Your personality influences how you relate to God. Some people relate to God in a quiet, meditative, contemplative kind of way. Some people relate to God in a very emotional, loud kind of way. We're just different!

The number one way your personality shows up is in how you relate to other people. I want us to look at understanding why others misunderstand you. 1 Corinthians 12 (Phillips) "God works through different people in different ways." That's obvious. God loves variety! He loves differences. Every one of us think differently, feel differently, react differently, respond to life differently. We're just different in every area of our lives. Because of your personality and these factors God has put in you, you are very unique. That causes people to misunderstand you and it causes you to misunderstand others.

There is no right or wrong temperament. There is no right personality in God's book or wrong personality. God has given you the personality you have and He did it for a purpose. He did it intentionally.

There are lots of different ways you could classify personality. Scientists and psychologists have been trying to do it for years. There's the MMPI -- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. There's the Myers-Briggs Survey. There's the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis. There are many different ways and all of these ways are helpful but they're all limited because you're unique. I've put one classification that is in Florence Littauer's book, and before that Tim LaHaye's book... 2000 years ago a guy named Hippocrates thought it up. He classifies everybody into four different categories. Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic, Melancholy.

I could explain to you the differences and then talk to you about the implications of these, but that would be kind of boring. I have arranged a distinguished panel to come and help us understand the differences in personalities rather than having me explain them I'm going to have them come and talk about them and share. Try to identify the temperament you have and then that of your husband/wife or those you work with or friends.

For this demonstration, I have four women who are going to model this but temperament is not gender inclusive. Men have these same four temperaments. But I had dirt on these four women and I blackmailed them to be here this morning.

Susie Sanguine

Connie Choleric

Two sisters -- Melody and Melonie Melancholy

Phyllis Phlegmatic

I've asked each of these women to take about sixty seconds to share who they are and then I'm going to ask them to discuss how they would respond to a typical life situation like going on a family vacation.

Susie Sanguine: First of all a sanguine, their main goal in life and mine is to have fun. We try to make fun out of every situation. We don't ever plan anything because that's not fun! People living with us it's tough! We always are the life of the party whether they want us to be the life of the party or not. Everything we have we think the whole world should know about it. Our stories are better and more fabulous than any other story. We take a little boring story and add a lot of meaty stuff to it. You may consider that lying. It's not. It's just improving your life. We are also very curious people. We want to know what you're all ....

Connie Choloric: Ten seconds

Susie: I hate time. I just won't wear a watch. My husband's bought me tons but I won't wear them because that's constricting.

Connie: Time!

[It's OK. She can have my time.]

[We'll never keep on schedule this way!]

Susie: I love a microphone but they're going to make me quit. So I'm going to. But... have a good time. OK?

Connie Choleric: Would you time me please? I'm Connie Choleric

and as you can see, I always like to be in control. I have the strongest of personalities. Some of you might remember like Type A, Obsessive-compulsive, Workaholic, Born Leader. I try to control myself and others. My strengths are, I'm very task oriented. I have a one-tracked mind which can lead me to be bossy and demanding. I am a planner -- a mental planner, that is. I don't write things down on paper but I keep track of them in my minds. My way is the right way. I am practical and logical which can lead me to be very critical of others if they don't see the logic in the way things should be done which is my way! I'm very productive. I'm always in continual motion. I make work out of leisure. I never have any time to rest because that isn't work. I'm a perseverer and I thrive on opposition which can lead me to be tactless and insensitive to others. As you can see, I'm very controlling of myself and of others.

M/M Melancholy: We melancholiacs like to be organized and do things perfectly. We're introspective so we often keep a journal. We also like a place for everything and everything in its place. And labeled. We're neat and orderly so we have color coordinated wardrobes. Everything must be perfect. We have calendars where we write down everything that's going to be done and then we check it off when it is done. We have coupons. This is my coupon box. It is according to all the different things like cereal isn't just cereal it's Kellogg's cereals, Nabisco cereals, General Mills cereals. And each section is according to date of expiration.

Susie: I had coupons once but I couldn't find them in the bottom of my purse. And then they were two years out of date. I want to talk. I have so much to share!

M/M: When it comes to Bible study, we Melancholiacs have different Bibles for different things. This is ...

Connie: Times up!

M/M: I'm not done and I have to get done! Because Melancholics have to finish! This is my devotional Bible. It's the daily Bible in chronological order -- 365 daily readings and it must be done every day. And I will finish the Bible in one year. Then this is my study Bible and it has the concordance and handy little markings in it so you can find what book. In addition to that I have all of my bible study helps which is my topical Bible

[Hurry Up!]

M/M: ... by Bible dictionary and my Bible handbook. A lot of people ask me, I'm the leader of the Victor's group and I'm also a counselor for people who are in pain. So people often ask me, Why do I do this kind of work and Don't I get tired of it. No! I'm a melancholic, so I understand pain. My motto is, Anything worth doing is worth doing perfectly!

Connie: Ok, Phyllis, your turn!

Phyllis: That's the most boring thing I've ever heard! Do we really have to stand up. I don't really feel like it.

Connie: Yes, Hurry up!

Phyllis: Phlegmatic tend to be very easy going and just mellow kind of people. We like to relax. We like to have fun by relaxing. Sometimes decisions are very difficult for us. But I like to think it's really because we see both sides. Which do you think it is?

Connie: There's only one way!

Phyllis: We can be very easily distracted. Sometimes our task are left uncompleted. But if we're interested it is important to know that we ...

Connie: Come on! Get to the point!

Phyllis: ... can focus well. I'm getting there!

Connie: Time's almost up!

Phyllis: When we're interested, we can tune out the things around us completely sometimes to the distraction of our spouses. Things like kids and housework can be left unnoticed while we're finishing what we're trying to do. We like to take the easy way which is often the quicker way if there is an easier way we'll usually find it.

Connie: I'm sorry! Time's up. We have to move on now.

Phyllis: OK. That's fine.

Connie: Now that we have briefly described each of the personality types we're going to take a common occurrence -- taking a vacation -- and each of us are going to explain it from our personality type. Susie, one minute!

Susie: One minute? My kids are pretty much grown up now but when they were little and we used to plan a trip this is how we did it. My husband would ponder over a map for many months to decide where we were going and what we were doing. I really could care less. Just so he could promise me at the end of this something fun was going to happen. I always had travel games and if we didn't have this we'd play the A-B-C games and everybody keep every happy and do the jokes and those things. When we were getting ready for the trip the first things I'd ever pack would be the games, of course then I'd start to plan the food. I didn't plan menus because after all, that's not fun! So, I would go to the store and buy snack food. And lots of treats I could put in strategic places so that when we were doing things we could bring out these fun foods and eat them. Then my husband would have to promise me that if we saw something fun along the side of the road that I got to stop. I'm very curious so it didn't matter.

[Did you ever get there?]

Susie: Yes, we always got there. Because my husband is a phlegmatic and he just keeps going on. He also lets me do whatever I want so that's great. The other thing I do when we prepare for a trip when my kids were real little I bought them all a duffle bag and ...

[whistle]

Susie: ... I would put a duffle bag in each of their rooms and say, "There's your duffle bag. You pack. What you take you have." And they did this from the time they were very little. That's the way it went. If they didn't pack a jacket they just didn't have a jacket. If they only packed one pair of socks that's what they had unless my husband weakened and went out and bought them more. That's how we did it. And we'd have a great time and lots of laughs.

Phyllis: Didn't it hurt their feelings if you didn't help them pack?

Susie: No. Well, I didn't think about that. I don't know. Anyway, that's how we took our vacations. And...

Connie: Cut! My turn!

Susie: There's something else really important I have to tell you. I have to tell you also that being rejected by people is a real serious thing for a sanguine. We like to have everybody like us.

Connie: I like you. Set down!

Susie: Even if you're not enjoying this be sure and tell me you are afterwards because it's really important!

Connie: Now that she's wasted all my time! The first thing a choleric does is make a list. We make a list and delegate to our husband to our children and those going with us their part and their responsibility that's their's in getting ready for a vacation. My responsibility in getting ready for a vacation is deciding what is our purpose in taking this vacation. If we're going to national parks we are going to be sure to see everything that's beautiful. If we're going on an historic vacation, we're going to make sure we see every tourist sight in every historical monument and everything and learn everything we can about it while we're there. We use every cent we have to go and we make sure we spend it all well. If you're sick, I'm sorry! We move on. If it's raining, that's OK. We go to Disneyworld in the rain. We don't stop along the way when we're traveling by car unless it's on the schedule. Bathrooms, drinks -- you have to bring your own little drink with you and we just move right along. We keep very much on schedule on our vacations because I am in control and we're going to have fun on our vacation but we're going to do it a certain way!

M/M: Planning a vacation is very serious business because if it goes wrong it's all my fault. It doesn't matter who else is involved or what happened, it's my fault! So it must be done correctly! to begin with, I can't depend on my own judgment because I probably will be wrong. So I get out the LA Travel section and see where other people have gone on their vacation and surely that is a good idea. Once we zero in on a state then you go to the triple A office and you get a book on that state and you read every single page of every article -- the history of the state, everything. Cover the whole book! Then you zero in on the particular city you're going to stay in and get out a map of that sate and you yellow mark the entire trip. Every single stop must be marked with the yellow marker.

Phyllis: This is really scary.

M/M: I know! We set impossible goals for ourselves and then when we don't meet those goals we feel so guilty and we know that we've ruined everything for everybody else so you have to be sure that every stop is marked because you might miss something. Then, when you pick out the city that you're going to you write to the hotels that are listed in the back of the Triple A book and you get a brochure because if the hotel is not pretty you don't stay thee. It doesn't matter what else but it has to be pretty because we like pretty! Then you write to the national parks and all of the sights that you're going to see. You don't call them because that cost money. But if they have an 800 number then you can call. You get a list of all the tours. The 10:00 tour, the 1:00 tour, the 3:00 tour. You make sure you book whichever one has the prettiest view at that time of the day. We don't do anything without reservations. You don't just go! No!

Then once that's all done you start shopping because you have to be sure that the film you buy is on sale and the socks you buy are on sale. You don't buy anything unless it's a bargain. Then finally, after you've done all your research, you're ready to plan your trip with a chart. This chart has numerous columns. The first column is the date. Then your transportation -- are you driving.

Phyllis: This is boring! Are you almost through?

M/M: But it's so organized. Then your logic -- the phone number and the room number. You get that in advance, you don't wait until you get there. And the sightseeing on each stop that day and how much time you're going to allocate for that stop. An hour, hour and a half. Plus you have to figure in diving time. then you total up your expenses. What did you pay for admissions? What did you pay for meals? What did you pay for souvenirs?

Connie: 10 seconds!

M/M: ... and the last one is your coupon column. You keep track of everything you saved because that makes you feel so worthy that you have saved some money on this trip! Then when you're all finished...

Phyllis: I use money on our trip and when it's gone we're through.

M/M: As far as the money is concerned, when your trip is all over you make up an expense report because that's what's withdrawn from the vacation savings fund. You have to be sure they balance.

Phyllis: I don't have a savings fun! Phlegmatics don't take a lot of vacations. We talk about it a lot but we never seem to get anywhere. This year, God did give us a vacation. He must have known I was going to be up here so He gave me something to talk about. I must have a little melancholy in me because I did bring a map and we reserved our camp sight, We had ten days to take a vacation and I couldn't decide exactly where to go so we chose four different campsights. I wanted one of each kind so I'd know which kind we'd want for next time. We had one at the beach and one in the Red Woods and one in a forest by a lake and one by the Hot Spring area. That doesn't add up to ten days but I wanted two extra days in case we wanted to do something I didn't know about yet. When we get ready for a vacation I tend to want to pack everything because you don't know what you might want to do once you get there. You just might need it. My husband is not as phlegmatic as I am in this regard so he packs the car and leaves a lot of my things still standing by the doorway. Once we got to our first campsight this year we were followed by a storm and it came during the night. Everything we had put out on the lines to dry weren't dry any more. That didn't bother me because I thought there were a lot of fun things you can do inside with the kids in the tent. My husband didn't agree.

Connie: If you had planned a little more carefully nne of these things would have happened. You realize that?

Phyllis: We don't plan. We just do it! It's not as enjoyable if you have to waste a lot of effort in the planning.

Suzi: I'm for that! We're alike there!

Phyllis: We played in the tent and my husband packed everything up and we went to a motel so that he could nap and dry off. I took the kids and the dirty things to a laundromat ...

Connie: Was that in your schedule?

Phyllis: No! that's what made it more fun. It was an unscheduled trip. We went to the laundromat and Burger King. That might have been my favorite part of the trip! I can't decide.

This is just an aide. There are many different ways to categorize personality but your personality is far too complex to fit into any one pattern. What I want to say about this can best be summarized in 1 Corinthians 2:11 "No one can really know what any one else is thinking or what he is really like except that person himself." As the result of that -- because we're all so different -- you have great possibility of conflict with other people. I can't assume you think the way I do. I can't assume you feel the way I do. We're all different. As a result there is conflict. Most of your problems in life are people problems and most of your people problems are because you don't understand that God made us all differently. The Bible is full of examples of personality conflict: Paul and Barnabus, Paul and John Mark, Paul and Peter. Paul was a choleric, by the way. There are many different problems that come as a result of personality.

Let me give you three factors on how to increase your personal skills with people. Eighty percent of the people who fail in a job do so not because of a lack of ability but because they don't know how to get along with other people. Your success in life is far more dependent upon your ability to get along with other people than it depends on your intellect -- far more. The number one thing employers value in an employee is the ability to get along with others. Inter personal skills that's a personality issue.

Three keys on How to get along better with others.

1 Be aware of personality differences.

Provers 19:11 "A man's wisdom gives him patience." The more you understand how people act and react the more patient you are with them. God wants you to not only understand your personality but He wants you to understand the personalities of the people around you. If you're not aware of why the people act the way they do you'll misjudge them, you'll misunderstand them, you'll become impatient with them and you'll be living in constant conflict with the people around you because they are different. For those who are married, you probably married your opposite. I think that is proof of God's sense of humor. When I look at Him putting Kay and me together I think, "He's such a prankster!" Chances are if one of you are extroverted, the other is introverted. If one of you likes variety, the other likes routine. If one of you are structured the other is unstructured. If one of you reveals their emotion, the other tends to conceal their emotion. He just made us that way. I think a lot of the early problems that Kay and I had in marriage could be summed up in the phrase, "Why aren't you more normal like me?" It was simply not understanding that God made people differently! It's part of the way He made you.

Awareness is not only key in your marriage and relating to people. It's a key foundation on being a good parent, being aware of the basic personality bent of your children. "Esau loved the outdoors, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home." These two were twins. Although they were twins they were as opposite as Danny DeVito and Schwarzenegger and they really didn't get along. If you had been their dad, Isaac, how would it be if you tried to force Esau to stay at home more and force Jacob to go out for wrestling, which later would have come in handy. The point is be careful not to destroy your child by trying to mold him into some preconceived pattern. Find their bent. The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go..." What that means in Hebrew is the way he naturally goes, his temperament and your children often are not going to have the same temperament as you. You need to help them value it, understand their temperament and build on the strengths of it.

But awareness is not enough. The second key to getting along with other people is ...

2. Accept personality differences.

The Bible says a lot about this. Romans 15:7 "Accept each other just as Christ has accepted you." When you look at the twelve disciples that Jesus chose, they were as opposite as night and day. John was a very meditative, thoughtful type of person. Peter was Mr. Impulsive, Mr. Energy, Mr. Foot-in-Mouth. They had differences. Nathaniel had an easy time believing. Thomas had a difficult time believing. Simon was a Zealot -- a kind of PLO of the day. Matthew was a Roman tax collector. They wouldn't have gotten along in any social setting. God uses ordinary people and there isn't any one type of personality that God uses. He uses every type of personality. We need to accept our differences.

"Accept others just as Christ accepted you." I have discovered that people who look up to God, rarely look down on people. If you look up to God, you don't look down on people because you realize that He made them all. What does it mean to accept one another? What doe s it mean to accept your husband/wife/boyfriend/boss/whatever? It means to realize that differences are not a matter of right or wrong. They're not a matter of good or bad. They're just different. So we accept each other because God loves variety. Just look around. God loves differences.

Romans 14:13 (Phillips) "Let us stop turning critical eyes on one another. Let us rather be critical of our own conduct and see that we do nothing to make a brother stumble." To accept others differences means you don't criticize them. When you start to criticize someone else's personality who are you using as a reference point. Yourself. You're setting yourself up as the standard for all personality. And God says that's not it.

It's like a church. No church appeals to everybody. That's OK. It's not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, it's a matter of what is your personality. You need to find a church where you can say, "That's where I fit!"

Don't criticize differences, celebrate them.

Ephesians 4:2 "Generously make allowances for each other because you love each other." That verse can save your marriage. Stop trying to change your mate to be like you. God didn't want them to be like you. He made them different. He gave them that personality. You need to learn to not only be aware of differences but accept those differences. Accept the personality that God gave the people around you.

But even that's not enough. You've got to go to step three. This is real maturity if you're able to do this.

3. Appreciate personality differences

You value people's uniqueness. You see God's wisdom in making us all different. You be grateful that we're all not alike. Can you imagine what a boring place the world would be if we were all alike? God loves diversity and we need it for balance. We need to not only accept our differences but appreciate them. Value them. It takes all kinds of people for a balanced home, a balanced church, a balanced community, a balanced world.

1 Corinthians 12:27 "All of you together are the one body of Christ and each of you is a separate and necessary part of it." Circle "necessary". We're all necessary. All personality are necessary. If two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary. When you eat, you eat with a knife and a fork not two knives, not two forks. If you learn to not only be aware and accept but also appreciate the differences of the people around you it will not only make your life a whole lot easier but you'll become like Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is aware of all the personality; He made them. And He accepts them. He appreciates them. To be Christlike means to see the value in each of the differences He's given to people.

Romans 12:10 "Have a profound respect for each other." That's what God commands you to do. Appreciate. How do I have profound respect for somebody with negative characteristics? Negative qualities? You need to look behind it and see that many times a negative character trait, a negative personality problem is often a positive characteristic being misused. For instance, the person who is hyper critical may have the positive characteristic of discernment, they're just misusing it. Somebody who is bossy all the time, is misusing the positive characteristic of responsibility. Somebody who is impulsive all the time is misusing the positive characteristic of flexibility. Look behind the negative and see what is being misused. It just needs to be channeled. Many of your children, rather than trying to change their negative points, help them to realize that properly disciplined and brought under control and directed, can be the source of their very success. Because that's the way God made them.

It seems in our world, the number of dysfunctional people in our world is increasing. Why? I think it's because nobody has ever understood or accepted or appreciated what God made them to be. If you felt like "I don't think anybody understands me. I don't think anybody accepts me. I don't think anybody appreciates me." Jesus Christ does. He made you, He knows you, He cares about you, He accepts you, He values you, He died for you. If you'll give your life to Him, He will help you develop the personality He gave you to its greatest potential. If you haven't done that, do so. For those of you who are believers, God expects you, as He expects me, to obey Romans 12:10 "Have a profound respect for each other." By being aware and accepting and appreciating others you can then share God's greatest gift of Jesus Christ with people.

These three words are words we value here at Saddleback We want Saddleback to have an atmosphere that is aware of people's differences, that accepts people's differences, and that appreciates them and values the diversity. You can have unity in a church without uniformity. You can have differences without division.

We haven't said anything about how God wants to help you improve your personality. We'll do a series on that in the springtime. Homework: Make a list of your strengths and weaknesses of your personality traits. Then ask yourself two questions:

What does my personality indicate about the type of job and ministry God wants me to have? If you're an extrovert you're probably not going to be happy being a librarian. If you're into control, you're die waiting for people to return their books. On the other hand, if you're an introvert, God doesn't want you to be a greeter as a ministry. He has a ministry that's best for you. What kind of personality might God bring into my life in order to give me balance?

WORDS OWNED BY:

RICK WARREN (http://www.rickwarren.com/)

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Defrost Your Frozen ASSETS

DEFROST YOUR FROZEN ASSETS

You Are Shaped for Significance - Part 4 of 6

Eph. 2:10 & Selected

We went shopping this week for a wedding ring. I had outgrown mine. I was quite impressed by the intricacy of the designs. I would never be that patient to carve all those little things. The intricacy of the handiwork and workmanship quite astounded me.

After we'd pick out a ring, we went home and I began to study on this message and I looked at this verse, You are God's workmanship. You are intricately designed. The Bible says Ephesians 2:10 "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." God prepared in advance what you would do with your life and that's what you'll feel must fulfilled doing when you get in the center of His will for your life. The Bible says that you were formed, your were shaped, you were created uniquely by God for a purpose. He put you on earth for a reason. You're not here by accident. You are His workmanship.

How do you know what God's purpose is for your life? You look at your shape. How has God made you? How has He formed you? That's an indication of what He wants you to do with your life. We've been in a series I'm calling, "You Are Shaped for Significance". We're looking at five factors. S-H-A-P-E. Your Spiritual gift, your Heart, your Abilities, your Personality and your Experiences. These make you what you are.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (Good News) "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but God gives ability to everyone for their service." Circle "gifts", "ways" and "abilities". Three unique factors that make you, you.

We looked first at Spiritual Gifts. There are different kinds of Spiritual gifts. Then we looked at there are different ways of serving -- that you have a heart, a passion, some basic interests and motivations that drive you and cause you to be you.

Today, I want us to look at this third difference -- there are different abilities to perform service. We're all given different abilities in life. That's obvious that people are different, none of us are alike. Physically we're all shaped differently. We're all different. Some of you were never meant to be basketball players. On the other hand, there are some of you who were meant to be basketball players who were never meant to be jockeys on a race horse. You don't have the physique for it. Michael Jordan was made for basketball. The Iron Man Triathalon contest in Hawaii -- the first ten people to cross a line looked like they came out of a cookie cutter. They're identical in build and body structure. They're made for that sport. Some of you were made to be body builders. You've got the form and physique that you can pump iron and you blow up enormously. Others of us can pump iron for the rest of our lives and we'd never look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many of you are never going to be ballerinas. You're just not made that way. Because we're different we need to accept that. The problem is when we expect everybody to have the same abilities, just like it would be silly to expect everybody to look the same.

Reminds me of the story I read about the animals who decided to start a school. The courses included running, climbing, swimming, and flying. They decided that every animal should take all the courses. That's where the problem started. The duck was better than his teacher in

I. FACTS ABOUT YOUR ABILITIES

1. Every ability is given by God.

Romans 12:6 "God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well." I don't think we, as Christians, emphasize natural abilities enough. I think we over emphasize spiritual gifts to the detriment of natural abilities. Some people imply that spiritual gifts are more important than natural abilities. That's not true. If you're a Christian there isn't that much difference between spiritual gifts and natural abilities, because it all comes from God and it's all to be used for God. Sometimes you get around Christians who tend to imply that if you're just committed you can do anything you want. You know that's not true. I can be as committed as I can be but I'm still never going to sing like a lot of famous singers. You have to have the ability.

The Bible says that God has given us different abilities. It's all important. God gives the ability to do carpentry just as much as He gives the ability to preach. They are both God given abilities.

I went through the Bible this week and did an exhaustive study of the list of specific abilities that God gives. It says in the Scripture God gives this ability. Here are just a few: athletic ability, artistic ability, architectural ability, administering, baking, barbering, boat making, candy making, debating, designing, embalming, embroidering, engraving, farming, fishing, gardening, leading, managing, masonry, molding, musical, making weapons, needle work, painting, planting, poetic ability, philosophizing, machinist, inventing, carpentry, sailing, selling, being a soldier, tailoring, teaching, tent making, writing literature. Those are just a few f the many abilities that God says, "I give them to the world. I give them to people."

2. Every ability can be used for God's glory.

If God gives it, it can be used for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Anything can be done, any of the abilities given can be used for the glory for God.

Researchers have said that the average person has between 500 and 700 abilities. Many of these you don't even know about. Each of those can be used for the glory of God. You can repair a car to the glory of God. You can balance financial books to the glory of God. You can make a meal to the glory of God. You can manage an office to the glory of God. You can make a sale to the glory of God. You can catch a football to the glory of God.

Deuteronomy 8:18 "Remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth." You can make money to the glory of God. God gives the ability to some people to produce wealth. Many of you have this ability and you just don't recognize it. God says He gives you the ability to make wealth.

You're saying, "How can the ability I use in my business to make a deal, close a sale, plan a project -- how in the world can that ability be used for the glory of God?" In the first place, recognize where that ability came from. You say, "God, I realize that You gave me the ability to make these deals. You gave me the ability to engineer this project. You gave me the ability to close that sale." Recognize God. I think you bring glory to God when you act ethically and morally. You don't cheat people. I think you bring glory to God in your business when you provide a legitimate service or product that can help people. That brings glory to God. I think you bring you glory to God when you give back to Him the first ten percent of your income from the profits. That's what tithing is. God says you do that because you recognize that I'm the one who gave you the ability to get the wealth in the first place. It's not that God gets 10% back; He's letting you keep 90%. It all belongs to him and He gave you that ability. So you bring glory to God in your business.

I think God has blessed many men and women in this church with the ability to create wealth. It's obvious. You wouldn't be living in this area if you didn't have that ability. Why did God give you that ability to create wealth? He did it to bring glory to Him not just for your benefit but for the benefit of other people. I think God wants some of you to be so successful in business that you can provide major funding for the kingdom of God at Saddleback and at other places to. He's given you that ability, to make it, to use it for His glory. Every ability is given by God and every ability can be used for God's glory.

3. My abilities show God's plan for my life.

In other words, what I'm able to do is what God wants me to do. When it comes to planning your career, how do you do the right thing? With all the options, how do you know what to do? The government produces a catalogue -- the DOT catalogue -- the Dictionary of Occupational Terms. There are thousands of terms in that dictionary. It lists all kinds of different options for jobs. You look at that and it's confusing. What in the world does God want me to do with my life?"

Hebrews 13:21 "God will equip you with all you need for doing his will." God has a will for your life and what His will is includes what He gives you to do it. He doesn't ask you to do something you can't do. God did not randomly access a bunch of abilities and pile them on you. It's not by accident that you have the abilities that you've got. He specifically chose those abilities. If you're good at crafts, it's because He wanted you good at crafts. If you're good at designing, He wanted you good at designing. If you're good with people or data or other things, He made you that way for a purpose. It was intentional. A good indication of His will for your life is to simply look and see what are the abilities He's given you. Why would He give them to me and then waste them? Looking at my shape, my abilities, can point me in the right direction.

My calling and abilities match. They go together. God put you on the earth for a purpose. He placed you here for a purpose. That's your calling. You're called to know Him, serve Him, and it says, He planned in advance good works for you to do. Until you get in that plan you're going to be frustrated with your life. My calling and abilities go together. What I'm able to do is what He wants me to do. What I'm not able to do, He doesn't expect me to do. They determine His plan for my life.

A book called The C Zone says that every one of us are operating at any point in the day in one of three performance zones. It determines how you feel. The first zone is what the author calls The Panic Zone. The Panic Zone is when your abilities don't match up to the task you have. You're in over your head and you know it. You're treading water and you're going under. "What am I doing in this job? How did I get this task? I can't do it!" You're in over your head and you feel stressed out. That's what he calls The Panic Zone. If I were to ask you to preach the four Christmas Eve services, that would propel most of you into the Panic Zone. You're not equipped for that.

At the other end of the continuum he has what he calls the Drone Zone. The Drone Zone is where the task is so easy and so predictable and doesn't use your talent and ability that you're bored out of your head. There's no challenge or enjoyment. It's predictable and boring; you've got 100% ability and it's maybe using 5%-10% and you're bored.

In between those two zones -- the Panic Zone and the Drone Zone ‑- is the C Zone. Confidence, commitment and control. In the C Zone is where your abilities match the tasks that you have. You feel challenged by what you are doing, but you're not stressed out by it because you know you're in control. You can handle the situation. That's the C Zone.

Bob Buford calls this the J Zone -- it's the Joy Zone, where you really enjoy your job, your life.

I think God wants you to live your life in the C Zone. Where you are competence and confident and capable and in control and it matches what you're gifted and able to do. That's part of God's plan for your life.

4. If I don't use them, I'll lose them.

They are kind of like tax deductions. If you don't use them you'll lose them. Matthew 25:28 "Take the talent from him who didn't use it and give it to the one who has 10 talents." The idea is God says to whom much is given, much is required. Since all of our abilities came from God, then God says if I don't use the abilities He gives me, or if I misuse them, or don't use them properly, He has the right to take them back. That's what the Bible says. If you don't use the abilities, or you misuse the abilities God has given you, He has the right to take them back. This is a universal law. If I don't use something, then I eventually lose it. If I refuse to exercise, I lose muscle. If I refuse to practice, I lose talent. If I refuse to think, I lose my mind -- it goes dull. Those of you who are employers, if you have people at work and you don't use the talents, the abilities, that God has given them at work, you'll lose those people. They're not going to stay and work where they're not up to their potential. If you don't use them according to their abilities you'll lose them.

Everybody has unused abilities. All of us do. What I want to talk with you about is how to defrost your frozen assets. How to get those talents out of neutral and start using abilities. Obviously, if you've got between 500-700 of them there are many of them you're not using. One day you will give an account to God for that. More than that, you won't be fulfilled in life to the degree that God wants you to be unless you begin to defrost those frozen assets -- the talents and abilities that God has given you.

II. HOW TO DEFROST YOUR FROZEN ASSETS

Four steps from the Word of God on how to defrost those assets:

1. Estimate them

Evaluate yourself. Assess your abilities. "What it the world am I good at?" Do an evaluation and estimate what are you good at, what are you not good at. Maybe make a list. Romans 12:3 (Phillips) "Try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith God has given you." Just know what you're good at.

Recently I read an interview between Bill Moyers and Peter Drucker, the father of modern management. "What advice would you give to young people who are trying to get ready for the 21st century?" Drucker said, "Know your strengths. The most important thing is to know what you're good at. Very few people know that. All of us know what we're not good at. But the reason why so few of us know what we're good at is that it comes so easy. You sweat over what's hard to do. So knowing what you're good at is the first thing you need to know."

What has God gifted me to do? What has He given me the ability to do? I want to suggest that a spiritual task you might do in the next ten days is do an end of the year audit on your life on your abilities. Assess yourself. What am I good at? Make a list of those things. Ask yourself, "Am I putting these to use?" There's a myth that says most of you are aware of all of your abilities. That's not true. You're probably aware of only a few of your abilities. Because you're good at it, you're not aware of it when you do it. It just happens. You have far more talents and abilities than you realize. You've just scratched the surface. You're just barely living to your potential. If you're a manager, one of the traits of being a good manager, more important than ability is the ability to recognize ability in others. Most people don't know what they're good at. What really helps people is when you find somebody who has the ability to recognize ability and they can say, "Do you know what you're good at?" and to tell them. It really helps them become what God wants them to be.

There are a lot of tools you could look at. You need some kind of process of evaluation. One book I recommend, Finding a Job You can Love, by Art Miller. It's printed by Thomas Nelson. The author has spent twenty years helping people discover what God's made them to be.

2. Dedicate them

Give them back to God. Romans 12:1 "Offer yourself as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him." Offer and dedicate. Commit them back to God for His use. Say, "God, I recognize that you gave me these abilities. They all come from you. I now willingly dedicate them back to You because You not only gave them to me, You must have a plan and purpose for them. As I dedicate them to you, you'll help me understand that. I give them back to you to be used the way You want them to be used." Offer them back to God.

2 Timothy 2:21 "If you stay away from sin, Christ himself can use you for his highest purposes." Wouldn't you like to have your life used for the highest purpose? There is no greater thrill than having your life used for the highest purpose. God has given abilities that can be used rightly or wrongly. You can use them for the right motive or the wrong motive. You can use them in the right way and the wrong way. You can use your abilities for the right purpose and the wrong purpose.

God gives you the ability to organize. You can organize a rescue or you can organize a robbery. God gives you the ability to influence others. You can manipulate people or you can minister to people. You can use the abilities God's given you selfishly or you can use them unselfishly. Samson is a good example of someone who used his abilities selfishly. He was a man of tremendous abilities, most like to succeed. His life was a mess. He misused the abilities God gave him.

3. Cultivate them.

Proverbs 19:8 (Good News) "Do yourself a favor and learn all you can. Then remember what you've learned and you will prosper." Abilities require cultivation. You've got them now do something with them. Learn all you can. Practice. Develop. Take training. Improve. God has made an investment in your life by giving you abilities. He wants a return on that investment. He's given you some skills. He wants you to sharpen those skills. Sharpening your skills is a spiritual responsibility. If you're good at computers and you're a believer, you'd better be as good at them as you can possibly be. If you're good at making things with your hands, you'd better be as good as you can possibly be. If you're good at planning, study and improve and sharpen, cultivate, become a better planner. It is your responsibility before God to take what He's given you and make the most of it. One days He's going to ask you what you did with it.

One of my life verses in the Bible is "If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success." Eccl. 10:10. Skill will bring success. That is the secret of success according to the Bible. Skill. Not dedication. A lot of people are dedicated and go no where. It's skill that brings success. How do you get skill? By sharpening the abilities that God has given you. Develop those skills.

Career consultants say there are three kinds of skills:

1) There are self management skills that we all need.

2) There are functional skills which are transferable from job to job.

3) There are job specific skills that you use in each particular job.

God wants you to develop all of these.

4. Liberate them

Use them. Set them free. Don't hide them. Don't keep them under a bushel. Use the abilities God's given you. 1 Peter 4:10 "God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other." I'm amazed at some of these super star sports professionals who have an ego as big as their talent. Where in the world do they think they got that ability? Do they think they deserve it? So they're all proud that they earned it. Sure they worked at it, but God gave them the basic building materials. If He hadn't done it, they wouldn't be a super star. Those super stars were given basic abilities by God. There's no reason to be proud of it like it's all depended upon them.

Maturity is when you're able to say, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." That's emotional and spiritual maturity. "By the grace of God I'm not what I'm not! But I am what I am!" The truth is, nobody's good at everything. Nobody's great at everything. We all have weaknesses. Will Rogers said, "Everybody's ignorant, just on different subjects." God has wisely endowed each of us with different abilities so that we need each other and nobody is totally self sufficient.

Since it's true that each of us are a unique combination of abilities, gifts, heart, personality, experiences, if we're all unique in our abilities, what are the implications?

The implication for your career is build on my strengths so that my limitations become irrelevant. There are some things you're never going to be good at. I'm not talking about character. You need to always be working on your character. I'm talking about skills. There's some things you're just never going to be skilled at. Don't worry about it. Build on your strengths. Maximize who you are. Don't try to be what you're not. Team up with people who compliment you. We try to do that at Saddleback on our staff. I try to figure as we hire staff who can compliment this staff. When one person is weak then another person shores it up. We all shore up each other's weaknesses. Together we're more effective than we would be individually. If you're an employer and you want to position your business or organization for hyper growth and maximum effective then position people where they have the ability. Stop trying to put squares in round holes. Figure out what people are and put them where they'll work best. You won't have to motivate them.

What's the implication for my marriage? Obviously, we come into marriage with different abilities. As a couple, enhance each other's strengths and compensate for each other's weaknesses. That's God's plan for marriage. Instead of trying to make your mate like you, don't do it! Enhance their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. Contrary to popular opinion, when you read scripture, you'll find there is very little specific detail of job description for husbands and wives in scripture. There's no where in the Bible that says the husband is to do these 33 things and the wife is to do these 33 things. God knows we're all different. And when you come together, people with different abilities need to work it out. Whoever has the ability to do budgeting in your family ought to do the budget. The one who can't add, better stay out of the checkbook! What you're good at, let that person do it. What you're not good at, compensate for each other.

What's the implication for your family? As a parent I think one of your primary goals needs to be to help identify and develop the abilities that God has given my children. I need to help identify and develop God gave them, not the abilities I want them to have. Don't force them into a mold. I see it all the time: fathers forcing their sons into activities or sports or things that their sons have no interest in. Mothers force their daughters into classes and programs that they have no interest in. Who are you doing it for? For you or for the kid? It's your goal to help them discover the abilities God gave them not the ones you want them to have but the ones God gave them and to help them maximize that to their fullest potential.

How about your ministry? The Bible says that if you are a believer, God expects you to offer your abilities to be used in your church family. He's very clear about it. That's your ministry. There's a myth that says, "My abilities, the ones I use at work, the ones I use to make a living, really aren't needed or are unnecessary or don't fit or of no value to my church family." Where did you get an idea like that? It came from the devil. That's where it came from. The fact is, you are needed. Your talents and abilities are valuable. The very skills you use Monday through Friday can be used in ministry -- the very same ones. They are needed. I believe that God places in each church the exact people He wants to be there knowing their abilities so that church can accomplish exactly what He wants for that church. He know what He wants to happen in that church so He brings the people He wants to make it happen there. Because when God has a will, He provides the solutions for it. God has everything our church needs and God wants it to be is already here among the people. It's already here. The problem is discovering who the people are that have those talents and abilities.

My single greatest frustration as a pastor is knowing that week after week, you're setting out there with talents and ability and experience that your church family desperately needs -- desperately needs to be what God wants it to be! But since you haven't stepped forward to offer them the pastors don't know what they are. That frustrates me no end.

Consider two questions:

1. Of all people why has God brought me to this church? Why didn't He put me in some other church? He knows that what you have to offer is needed in this church to be what God wants this church to be.

2. How could offering what I have make a difference? As I studied for this message, I looked through the Old Testament at all the abilities and skills and I was amazed at the number of skills (literally hundreds and hundreds of different skills and abilities) that were used to build the tabernacle and the temple. What do you have to offer your church family? I'm not talking about just money or time. What do you have to offer in your ability? If you're here God has a place for you to be here.

We need to know what you are, who you are, what you do. It starts by giving your life to Christ. Offer yourself as a living sacrifice. The only problems with a living sacrifice is they can crawl off the altar. On Sunday we sing, "Onward Christian Soldiers" and on Monday we go AWOL! Offer it again to God.

WORDS OWNED BY:

RICK WARREN (http://www.rickwarren.com/)

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