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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