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Putting Your Abilities To Work

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / September 18, 2006

God is by definition incredibly creative. He has created a universe with hundreds of billions of galaxies, each one containing up to a trillion stars. The current scientific estimate of the total number of stars in the universe keeps increasing and is now about 70 sextillion. That’s a number with 22 zeroes, 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

NIV Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. God knows the number of stars and I guarantee you it’s a lot more than 70 sextillion. Not only does He know how many stars there are, but He has given each one a name. Each star that God created is different. Seventy sextillion and no two alike and so each one has a unique name. And on one planet, circling one average star, in one galaxy that we call the Milky Way, composed of 300 billion stars, God created human beings in His image.

God put you together in a unique pattern. Did you know that you are created with approximately 7 octillion atoms. That’s a number with 27 zeroes 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. God knows all about you and your atoms. NIV Matthew 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. That number is somewhere between zero and one million, with most of us averaging about 150,000 hairs. God has created you with a unique SHAPE that is perfectly suited to carry out His plan for your life. One way to begin to understand the wonderful way that God has created you is with the acronym SHAPE. S – Spiritual gifts H – Heart A – Abilities P – Personality E – Experience. Each of those five aspects makes you who you are and makes you completely different than anyone else who has every lived or who will ever live.

Today I want to talk about “Putting Your Abilities To Work.” How can you use your unique SHAPE to make the impact in this world that God created you to make? You make the biggest impact with your life when who you are and what you do match, just as God intended. Today I want to further answer the question, How can you use your unique SHAPE to serve God? I’m going to focus on using your SHAPE in ministry, but the principles can be adapted to using your SHAPE in a career

To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 17, 2006 message entitled Putting Your Abilities To Work

Understanding How God Created You

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / September 12, 2006

Today I am going to talk about “Understanding How God Created You.” Why would you want to understand how God created you? The answer is that when you understand how God created you, you are much closer to figuring out what you were created to do. And when you are doing in life what you were created to do, you couldn’t live a better life.

As a human being, you are the pinnacle of God’s creation on earth. You are not just a better monkey, God created man in a class of it’s own, you were created in the very image of God. To better understand how God created you with a unique divine design, we are going to use the acronym SHAPE. S – Spiritual gifts, H – Heart, A – Abilities, P – Personality and E – Experiences. Each of those five aspects makes you who you are and makes you completely different than anyone else who has every lived or who will ever live.

God created you to use your unique SHAPE to serve Him in the various parts of your life. You use your SHAPE to serve God in your family. You use your SHAPE to serve God in your work. You should use your SHAPE to serve God in your church. Using your SHAPE to serve God in your church is called ministry. My ministry as a pastor is to equip you as a believer to fulfill your ministry. NRS Eph. 4:11-12 Pastors and teachers equip the saints for the work of ministry building up the body of Christ.

If you are a believer, you are a saint, according to the Bible, and your ministry is to serve others in the church and build them up. Being a believer is not a spectator sport, just sitting and listening to someone else teach or preach. Being a believer is a participatory sport, you get involved in helping others. Now some of you are thinking, I really don’t have the SHAPE or ability to help someone else in the church. I can’t teach, I can’t speak in public, I can’t sing, what could I do?

Let me briefly tell you my story. I became interested in science and chemistry in grade school. I pursued that passion, eventually receiving a doctorate in organic chemistry from University of California, Berkeley. While working at Monsanto as a research chemist, I felt God calling me to serve Him as a pastor. Imagine what thoughts went through my head: “God, I think you’ve made a big mistake. I don’t think the church needs any chemicals mixed. I get petrified with public speaking, just leave me in my lab mixing chemicals.” Then God began to show me some of the abilities and spiritual gifts he had given me: abilities of organization, administration, studying, communicating in writing and faith. He began to help me overcome my fear of speaking and to get better at it and here I am today, no longer mixing chemicals, but serving as a pastor.

If God can turn a chemist into a pastor, don’t count yourself out. God may not be calling you as a pastor, but He is calling you to minister. Begin to ask God to show you how the SHAPE He has given you can be used to minister in the church. Your life will never be the same. So how can you use your SHAPE to minister to others and serve God?

To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 10, 2006 message entitled Understanding How God Created You

Why Was I Created As I Am?

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / September 4, 2006

Currently we’re in a message series I’ve entitled “Created To Do What?” You were created by God with a purpose in mind, you were created with an assignment to carry out. Many people never figure out what God created them to do and they live miserable, unfulfilled lives. Other people have an idea what God created them to do but they’re afraid to do it or they don’t want to do it, so they too live miserable unfulfilled lives. To live a happy, fulfilled life, you have only one option, to do what God created you to do.

This morning some of you may think that it’s too late for you, that you’ve gone off track from God’s plan and you can’t get back on. I want to tell you this morning that it’s never too late to get back onto God’s plan for your life. God can take you from wherever you are and help you to get on track to exactly what you were created to do from this day forward.

Today I want to talk about the question “Why Was I Created As I Am?” Why do I look the way I do? Why do I have the set of abilities and gifts that I have? Why do I live in St Louis and not in China? Why do I like the things I like? Why have I gone through the things that I’ve gone through in life? T]Part of the answer to all those questions is that you were created to help others, you were created to minister. God shaped you in a special way because He has a special task, a special ministry for you.

NIV Isaiah 64:8 O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. God is the potter, you and I are the clay. God has shaped and formed you exactly the way that he wanted, you are the work of His hand. There are many different kinds of pots, each to serve a different function. So too God has created each one of us differently, because He has a different function, a different ministry for each person to fulfill.

Some of you today feel like you have gotten a raw deal in life, that the potter did not know what He was doing when he created you and placed you in your life circumstances. NIV Isaiah 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? If you as the clay tell the potter that He doesn’t know what He is doing, you will remain miserable. But today, God wants to do something new in your life. He wants you to acknowledge that God created you and He did a good job. God wants you to know deep down in your heart that you were created just as you are to do something special.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 3, 2006 message entitled Why Was I Created As I Am?

Your Assignment From God

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / August 28, 2006

You and I were created by God, you are not the product of evolution. If you and I were the product of evolution, then life would have no meaning. We would have no purpose except to live and die. However, you were created by God. Therefore your life has purpose, but what is that purpose? What are you and I supposed to do with our lives?

Today I begin a new message series called “Created To Do What?” That’s one of the most important questions anyone can ask. Doesn’t matter if your 9 or 90, you need to ask and find answers to the question “What Was I Created To Do?” As I was pondering that question I was reminded of an old song by Bob Dylan called “Gotta Serve Somebody.” You were created to serve somebody, you were created to accept an assignment for your life from somebody. You have a choice to make, who are you going to serve? The song says there are two choices of who you’re going to serve, the devil or the Lord. Dylan is right about that.

NIV Romans 6:13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. That’s the choice, offer yourself to serve sin and the devil or offer yourself to serve God. Now, most people think there are three choices in life: serve God, serve myself or serve the devil. Few people think they serve the devil, most just want to do what they want to do. The truth of the matter is whatever you don’t give to God, you give to the devil. Serving yourself, the big I, is the same as serving the devil. Only two choices in life, serving God or the devil. Both God and the devil have a plan for your life. God has an assignment for you and Satan has an assignment for you.

Today I want to talk about “Your Assignment From God.” Only by accepting God’s assignment for your life will you be doing something significant. Only by accepting God’s assignment for your life will you be part of making a difference in the world for good. Only by accepting God’s assignment for your life will all the pieces of your life fit into place. So don’t fight it any longer. This morning I want to encourage you to offer all of yourself to God, accept your assignment from God. In future messages, we’ll be talking more about what your assignment is. Today I want to answer the question, “Why accept your assignment from God?”

To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 27, 2006 message entitled Your Assignment From God

Guarding Your Church Family

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 27, 2006

Last week we talked about how fathers can lead their families. One of the things that a father must do is to guard his family from danger When you think of guarding your family, you think of guarding from an external danger. However the biggest danger to your family is not external, it’s internal. If the unity within a family is threatened, if the peace within a family becomes a conflict, the family can deteriorate from inside. The same is true of the church family, which is what I’m going to talk about today.

My message topic is “Guarding Your Church Family.” Notice that my title is guarding your church family. The way you know that you are really part of the church family here at Life Church is when you begin referring to it as my church family. Just as you don’t want anything to disrupt your physical family, so you don’t want anything to do damage to your spiritual church family. A united church family is a strong family. A safe church family is one that has the unity of the Spirit.

NIV Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This verse is addressed to every member of the church family, not just the leadership. The unity of the Spirit is something that can be lost, so every person in the church family needs to be part of guarding that unity.

I’m reminded of the story of a man named Roy Regal. Roy had a dream of playing in the Rose Bowl and his team made it there one year. In the middle of the game, Roy got his hands on the football and was determined to be the hero of the game. So without looking at the rest of his teammates, Roy ran and ran and ran, almost 100 yards before he was tackled just at the goal line. Problem was that Roy ran the wrong direction and was tackled by his teammate. That’s what happens when someone forgets about the rest of the team, when someone just thinks about themselves and not the unity and purpose of the team.

The same is true in God’s team we call the church. Every person in the church family needs to be part of working for the unity of the church, making it a better place tomorrow than it is today.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my June 25, 2006 message entitled Guarding Your Church Family

How To Restore Broken Relationships

Church, Message / By Pastor Dan Walker / June 12, 2006

Relationships are at the core of what it means to be human. Nobody wants to live life alone, nobody wants to live life without warm, loving relationships. Where do we get this strong desire for relationships? We get it from God. We were created in God’s image and God Himself consists of a relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So God created us to have a loving relationship with Himself and to have loving relationships with other people. Whether you’re a believer or not, every human being has the innate desire to have those two basic relationships with God and with people. Today I’m going to focus on our relationships with other people, but your relationship with God is actually the most important.

Last week we talked about Growing Together In A Life Group, building relationships with new people. Each of us needs to learn to build the relationships in our lives that God has blessed us with. NLT Philippians 2:1-2 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. There you have God’s will for the family of God, we should agree wholeheartedly with each other, we should love one another and we should work together with one heart and purpose. Those three things are also God’s will for your family, agreeing with one another, loving one another and working together with one purpose.

Yet sometimes things go wrong and relationships that were once warm and close become cold and distant. Relationships that were once loving become broken. What should you do when a relationship becomes broken? Should you just give up on it? Look elsewhere for a new one? I believe that relationships are worth salvaging, so today I’m going to talk about How To Restore Broken Relationships. Those who restore broken relationships are peacemakers because broken relationships lead to conflict arguments and fights.

NLT Matthew 5:9 God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. The blessing of God is upon those who work for peace the blessing of God is on those who restore broken relationships. They will be called the children of God. Why? Because peacemakers are acting like their heavenly Father who made peace with us through the death of Jesus. So now lets see what God’s Word teaches about how to restore broken relationships in your life.

Think about the relationships in your life. Some may be going good, but there may be others that are strained or completely broken. Keep the one in mind that is the biggest problem in your life right now as we look at God’s Word.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my message entitled How To Restore Broken Relationships.