Rick Warren - Using Your Abilities—Part One

Hello everybody, This is Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Thank you so much for

joining us today, and if you're brand new, welcome to the Daily Hope

family. We hope you'll enjoy the teachings of Pastor Rick Warren right here.

I'm so excited for all of you to learn about your shape. It might

not be the shape you're thinking of right now. Rick loves to use acrostics

and this one is shape your shape, your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities,

personality and experiences. And one of the reasons I love this series and

have shared it with so many friends is because Rick talks about the way God

wired you and why you need not just know your shape, but how to

use it to do the things that God designed you to do. So let's

get right into it. Here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called

Using your Abilities. God has never made copies of anything. He only makes

you originals. He's never made a copy of a tree, never made a

copy of a plant, never made a copy of an animal, never made

a copy of a human being. You are unique. There's nobody else in

the world like you, never has been, never will be. God uniquely

designed you as an original. Why because originals are always worth more than copies.

God said, before you were born, I planned you, I thought

you out. I have a purpose and a plan for your life, and

I have uniquely shaped you for a specific purpose that before you were born,

God showse who your parents would be, what DNA combination you would have,

and He made you you so you could accomplish what he wants you to accomplish

in the world. And God doesn't want you to be anybody else. He

wants you to be you, the Bible says in job there on your outline,

Chapter ten, verse eight, God's hands shaped me and made me.

And God planned you for a purpose and heed you. Now we use this

little crossteach shape shape to represent the five things that make you you, five

things that make you different from everybody else. First, you have spiritual gifts,

and we looked at that a couple weeks ago. What am I gifted

to do? And then God has put in you a unique heart beat a

heart which is what do I love to do? And today we're going to

look at your abilities. What am I naturally able to do? What are

my natural abilities? Next week we're going to look at your personality, and

then the following week, we're going to look at your experiences, good,

bad, positive, negative, how God uses them all to shape you for

his purpose. So what we're going to do today is I'm going to give

you an overview of what the Bible says, what God says about your natural

abilities, and how and why He wants you to use them. Now,

what do you need to know about your abilities? Well, first, there

are two important verses. The first one they're on your outline, Romans twelve,

verse six. Read it with me. God has given each of us

the ability to do certain things. Well, now that's obvious. What it

says there is that there are no no talent people. You may say,

well, I don't have any talents. Well, you're wrong, I don't

have any abilities. You're wrong. The problem with you is that you know

what you're not good at better than you know what you're good at. If

I were to say to you, give me fifty things you're not good at,

you come up with a list pretty quickly. If I said give me

fifty things you're good at, you'd have hard time doing it. The average

human being has between five hundred and eight hundred abilities. Study after study after

study have shown this You have at least five hundred different abilities in your body.

Most of them you don't even know you've got. They just come naturally

to you. You don't even think of them as abilities. But you have

that ability. And part of my job as your pastor is to help you

discover talent that you don't even know you've got, abilities that you don't even

know you've got, and help them put them into service for God and for

good in the world. So there are no no talent people. Everybody has

abilities, hundreds and hundreds of them. But we all have different abilities.

We all have a different shape. Now you've noticed that physically, haven't you.

We all just look around. We're all shaped differently. Some of you

are shaped like basketball players, and some of your shape like racehorse jockeys.

Some of us are shaped like bodybuilders like me. Some of us are shaped

like ballerinas, like Doug Fields. But we all have different shapes. The

problem is when you go to school, they treat us all the same way,

and we don't learn the same way. We don't look the same way,

we don't have the same abilities, interest heart, shape, all these

things. So we all take these standardized tests like the SAT or the act

or the psat and all these and those things only judge one form of intelligence.

We now know that there are at least eight or nine different types of

intelligence. And as a result, they try to force us all to learn

the same way, And we don't learn the same way, and we don't

have the same abilities. We have different abilities, and they're all important.

Once upon a time there were some animals who decided to start a school for

animals, and they decided that the courses would include running, climbing, swimming,

and flying. And then they decided that all of the animals should take

all of the courses. Now that's where the problem started. Now, the

duck was better than his teacher in swimming, but he only made passing grades

in flying, and it was very poor and running, So they made him

drop swimming and stay after school to practice running. This caused his web feet

to be badly warrants. His grade dropped to average in swimming, but everybody

felt less threatened and more comfortable with that, except the duck. Now,

the rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but because of

so much makeup work in swimming, he caught pneumonia had to drop out of

school. The squirrel showed outstanding ability in climbing, but he was extremely frustrated

in flying class because the teacher insisted that he start from the ground up rather

than from the tree top down. He developed the Charlie horses from over extension,

so he only got a sea in climbing in a d in running.

Now the eagle was the problem student, which was disciplined for being a nonconformist.

For instance, in climbing classes, he could beat all the others to

the top of the tree, but he insisted on using his own way to

get there. Finally, because he refused to participate in swimming class, he

was expelled. The point is that God designs specific animals to excel in specific

areas, and he doesn't expect them all to do all the other things.

And when you expect everybody to fit into the same mold, all you're going

to get is frustration, discouragement, mediocrity, and failure. A duck is

made to be a duck, not made to be something else. And you

were made to be you. And God has given you unique abilities, and

he wants you to use them the way he intended for you to use them.

Now, your abilities are the map to God's will for your life.

Your abilities are the map. It points the direction. When you know what

you're good at, then you can know what God wants you to do with

your life. Look at what this next Bible verse says. God will equip

you with all you need for doing his will. Now notice it doesn't say

that God will give you all the abilities you want that other people have,

like I want to sing like her and look like him and think like her.

And God doesn't say, well, you can just have any ow ability.

No, He pre planned the abilities you were given, and he wants

you to be you. If he didn't want you to be you, he

wouldn't have made you. So He doesn't want you comparing with anybody else and

trying to be somebody else. You give him pleasure, You give him glory.

You make God smile when you use the gifts he gave you in the

way that He gave them to you. So the Bible says, I will

give you all you need for doing his will. God does not give you

abilities to do something he doesn't ask you to do. On the other hand,

if He asks you to do something, he always gives you the ability

to do it. So how do you decide what you're supposed to do with

your life? What classes should I take in school? Who should I marry?

What kind of career? Should you? Look at your shape? What

has God wired me to be and to do? It? Points you in

the right direction, because, as I said, every abilities from God,

all of them are important. It's not an accident, and they intentionally picked

them. I actually went through the scriptures one time, and I read through

the entire Bible, making a list of all of the abilities that God says

I use for my will and I bless in the world. And I made

a list. Here's just a very small list. It's probably ten times that

list. I'll just read a view. God says, want I get honor

through athletic ability. It's in the Bible. Through artistic ability, through architectural

ability. God says I use in the world administering ability, baking, boat

building, candy making, I like that one, debating, designing, embalming,

embroidering, engraving. God says, I use poetic ability people who write

poems. Farming, fishing, gardening, leading, managing is an ability I

give to people. Masonry, molding, musical These are all in the bob

making weapons, needlework, painting, planning, philosophizing, playing Xbox machinist.

Just thought I'd slipped that one in there. Inventing, ability, carpentry,

sailing, ability, selling, soldiering, tailoring, teaching, tent making,

writing, and on and on. All of these abilities came from God.

All of these abilities can be used by God. And all of these abilities

have a purpose on this planet. And God says, I gave you your

abilities, and that gives you a good direction. Now I want you to

write this down on your outline. My abilities match my call. My abilities

match my call. Now some people you hear about them saying, well,

I'm called of God in the ministry. Well, every believer, every person

is called by God into ministry. Some people think a calling is something that

you do if you're going to be a priest or a nun, or if

you're going to be a minister or missionary, that God gives you a call.

Every person is called by God. First we're called to salvation and second

we're called to service. So you have a calling on your life, You

have a vocation, you have a life mission and a life message and a

life goal and a life purpose. That's your calling in life. And how

do you know what your calling is? Look at your shape, your spiritual

gifts, your heart, and then your abilities. In other words, what

I'm able to do God wants me to do with my life. Now,

God expects you to use the God given abilities He's given you in six ways.

I want you to write these down. These are what God wants you

to do with the abilities he gave you. He didn't give your abilities just

to use on yourself. There are six reasons and six things He wants you

to do with your abilities. Number one, my abilities are to be used

to honor God. First. Your abilities, whether it's embalming or embroidering,

they're to be used to honor God. And the Bible says this, whatever

you do, do it all for the glory of God. Now that means

any of those abilities I just listed and every other one can be used for

God's glory. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

They're all important. Carpentry is as important as teaching, and masonry is as

important as preaching, and managing is as important as music. They're all important.

There are no unimportant abilities. God says, I spread them all out,

and they're all important. To me. So that means you can honor

God by repairing cars. You can honor God by balancing books. You can

honor God by helping people find a home and sell it to them. You

can honor God by making music or making meals, or managing an office or

a million other ways. Whatever you do, he says, do it for

the Lord, as if you're doing it for God and not for men.

And he says, bring do it for God's honor. Now he says,

not only did I give you abilities to honor me, but second to serve

others. That's the second reason. Your abilities were for the benefit of other

people. And God says they're not just for your benefit. First Peter,

chapter four, verse ten says, this God has given each of you some

special abilities. Look at this verse. Be sure to use them to make

a ton of money. Oh that's the reviled substandard perversion translation. Let me

read it again. God has given each of you some special abilities. Be

sure to use them to what help each other, circle that help each other,

passing on to others. God's many kinds of blessing. So with your

abilities, you don't just honor God, you serve other people. Now,

nobody is good at everything. Everybody want to agree on that one. Nobody

is good at everything. What that means is you need me, I need

you, You need the person sitting next to you, they need you,

and other people. Nobody is that has every talent. There are no superstar

perfection people who can say to the world I don't need anybody else. The

person who says that doesn't realize how needy they are. We need each other.

And during forty days of community, we talked about this, how we're

better together. I need you in my life, you need me in your

life. We need each other because I'm good at some things and you're good

at some things, and the people next to you are good at somethings.

And that's why you need a small group, and it's why you need a

church family, and why it works good in teams. We need each other.

We're better together. Now, if you want to be successful in life,

and who doesn't, I want you to be successful in life. My

goal is to help you be a success. Here's the key to success.

Build on your strength so that your weakness has become irrelevant. Every successful person

does this. You build on your strengths so that your weakness has become irrelevant.

Now. That means you work on what you're good at and just make

it better. Nobody is good at everything. And let me give you a

second rule of success. Team up with people who are good at what you're

not good at. Team up with people who compliment you. One of the

reasons this church grew is because I built the staff of people who are better

than me in things that I'm not good at, and in all of our

pastors. I'm good at some things, but Tom's good at some things that

I'm not good at, and Glenn is good at some things that Tom's not

good at, and Doug Fields is good at some things that No, he's

not good at anything. Doug feels is good at making jokes of his pastor.

That's what he's really good at. He's really good. Doug has to

get to humor. Everybody want to agree with that, oh yeah, And

everybody has something to contribute, and nobody has it all together. So we

need each other now. This, by the way, friends, is one

of the purposes of marriage. That in marriage we are put together to compliment

each other's strengths and to compensate for each other's weaknesses. What happens is.

We don't compensate for each other's weaknesses. We criticize each other's weaknesses. That's

all what marriage is for. You married a sinner, she married a bigger

one. When you put two sinners together, how can you have a perfect

relationship? There are no perfect relationships. Everybody's got weaknesses, and in a

marriage, you compliment each other's strengths, and you compensate for each other's weaknesses.

For instance, let's say, in doing the bills and in budgeting,

how many of you in your family the guy does the bills in budget and

budgeting? Got I see your hands? All right? Some of you are

just scared to raise your hand. Okay. How many of you in your

marriage the wife? The woman does the bills in budgeting? Okay, all

right? Question who should do it? Which one's right? The one who

does it better? Duh? Okay, that's not like in the Bible,

there's some role that says, here's what the guy's supposed to do, here's

what the girl's supposed to Now, who's ever better? You compensate for each

other's weaknesses. That's why I always let Kye drive. She's a much more

careful driver than I am. You know, I get distracted. I'm looking

over here. Hey, what about let's change the world. How about turning

the corner honey, you know, the absent minded professor kind of thing.

This also works at work for maximum effectiveness. You have a business, you

want your you want your company to be effective. Here's the key. Staff

by shape. Find out what people's shape is and put them in the position

that they're good at. And when you do that, then you don't have

to manage them. You don't have to supervise them, you don't have to

reward them, you don't have to motivate why because they're doing what they love

to do and they're good at it, and it just moves ahead. And

that's what we do in all of our late ministries. We find people who

are good at certain things that go with it. Go. Thank you so

much for joining us on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope today. Hey, I'm wondering,

have you ever asked the question, what does God want me to do

with my life? If you're like me, of course you have and you're

not alone. God intentionally created you to fulfill a unique purpose. It's so

important that you discover how you can live the full and abundant life that God

designed just for you in the Shape to make a Difference Bible study. It

was created by Pastor Rick and taught by Pastor Eric Reith. Now, in

this study, you're going to see how the Acrostic shape, which stands for

spearrtual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experiences. And it will reveal

how God wired you and how you can use your shape to do the things

that God made you to do. This is a six session video and workbook

study and it's going to help clarify to you your future goals and it shows

you how you can have the most fulfilling life possible, a life lived for

God's purposes by God's design. Now, no matter what your age is,

it's never too soon or too late to discover what God has shaped you to

do. And this life changing study kit is perfect for personal or small group

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