Unknown
Psalm 139:13-16 (Living Bible) “You (Christ) made all the delicate, inner parts of my body ad knit them together in my mother’s womb…You were there while I was being formed…You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.”
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) “We are Christ’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which Christ prepared in advance for us to do.”
I was made for a Cosmic Mission. It says you’re Christ’s workmanship.
I did a little research this week to discover how unique your workmanship really is. Di d you know that your brain can store one hundred trillion facts?
That when necessary your mind can handle fifteen thousand decisions a second?
Like when your digestive system is working, it’s making all those decisions after you eat. (If you’re eating pizza, it’s 20,000 decisions a second!)
That your touch can detect one-10,000’ths of a centimetre?
And that your taste can taste one part of quinine in two million parts of water?
That’s how sensitive Christ designed you. Your workmanship really is amazing. I don’t understand how anybody could study medicine and not believe in a creator. It’s pretty incredible.
Notice it says “We’re Christ’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus…” “… to do good works.” You were created, you were put on this earth to make a contribution, not just to take up space. You were put on this earth to leave it a better place, to make some kind of contribution with your life. Christ planned you before you were born. You were made for a purpose.
Job 10:8 (Good News Bible) “(Christ’s) hands formed me and shaped me.”
Your make up determines your ministry, your shape determines your mission in life.
How has Christ shaped me?
S – Spiritual gifts
1 Corinthians 7:7 (NIV) “Each one has his own gift from Christ; one has this gift, another has that.”
Supernatural abilities that Christ gives you the moment you become a believer in order to fulfil His mission for your life.
Some of you don’t even know you’ve got spiritual gifts. You’ve never unwrapped them but you have them. He gives you these spiritual abilities the moment you become a believer.
But I need to be honest with you. Some of you don’t have any spiritual gifts. You’re not believers yet. You haven’t stepped across the line. You haven’t established that relationship to Christ through Jesus Christ. But the moment you do, you will be given those spiritual gifts, which are abilities to help you fulfil your purpose in life. Every Christian has at least one.
H – Heart
Proverbs 4:23 (NIV) Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
This is your motivations, your interests, your core passions, the things that “turn your crank.” Have you noticed that some things really interest you and other things bore you to tears?
Have you noticed that people have different heartbeats? Every human being has a different physical heartbeat. They all beat differently just like you have a different thumbprint.
Every human being has a different emotional heartbeat. The person setting next to you I’m sure does not get excited about some of the things you get excited about. It’s just the way Christ shaped us.
A – Abilities
Romans 12:6 (Living Bible) “Christ has given each of us the ability to do certain things well…”
Those are the natural abilities you were given the moment you were born. And everybody has some natural abilities. Some of you are really good at numbers/words; people/animals; and some of you were born with natural athletic ability/uncoordinated! We’re all made differently. Mechanical abilities, leadership abilities and musical abilities. We can have fun here! Great voices and you can sing/prison singers – you’re always behind a few bars and never have the right key. You couldn’t carry a tune if it were in a hand bag! Admit it! You have one of those voices that need’s to be cultivated – in other words ploughed under!
P – Personality
1 Corinthians 12:6 (Phillips) “Christ works through different people in different ways…”
Christ shapes you by giving you unique personality. And some of your personalities are very unique. Christ loves variety; you’ve probably figured that out by now. Even when they try to classify personalities, it never really works because you are a blend, a combination, a mosaic of all kinds of different things.
Personality quiz
For instance when you go swimming do you like to plunge right in or do you like to test the water and wade in? Typically plungers marry waders.
When playing a game, do you like to play for high stakes or do you like to play for peanuts?
How many of you would say, “I love to be organized!” How many of you would say, “Organization cramps my style”? What about spontaneity?
Change: How many of you would say, “I really like routine. I like things to be set up, a system.” How many of you would say, “I like variety. I like things to be different.” It’s not right or wrong. We’re just different.
The way you make decisions: Do you make decisions primarily by thinking through or by just feeling it out? By thinking about it or by gut feeling?
Outgoing or being shy or reserved: How many would say, “I tend to be extroverted”? How many of you would say, “I’m introverted”? (The real introverts didn’t raise their hands.)
Julie and I are the opposite on each of these!
The point is that Christ uses different personalities to get His work done. He gives you Spiritual gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality.
E – Experiences
Romans 8:28 (Living Bible) “All that happens to us is working for our good if we love Christ…”
Obviously Christ gives us lots of different kinds of experiences.
Vocational experiences – jobs that we’ve had in the past that shape our lives;
Educational experiences – the things we’ve learned through schools and seminars and things around us that have shaped our lives;
Spiritual experiences – things at church, camps, retreats, conferences, tapes, people we’ve heard on the radio, quiet times with the Lord; and most important of all,
Painful experiences – Christ has shaped you through painful experiences in your life. Christ never wastes a hurt and sometimes your greatest ministry comes out of your pain, your tragedy, your failure, and your mistakes.
That was the answer to the question – How has Christ shaped me for my cosmic mission?
What Does Christ want to me to do with my SHAPE in Mission?
Four things He wants you to do as we look at His word.
1. CHRIST WANTS ME TO DISCOVER MY SHAPE
Until you start living out your SHAPE you’re going to be frustrated by life. You’ll feel like, “I’m a square peg in a round hole.”
How do you discover your SHAPE? Two ways:
1. By Examining my Past
One of the keys to understanding Christ’s will for your life in the future is to look at your past. Why? Because Christ has already been working in your life up to this day.
So, long before you knew Christ, long before you’d even heard of Jesus Christ, long before you stepped across the line and developed a relationship with Jesus, Christ was working in your life giving you experiences, giving you interests, giving you aptitudes and abilities and talents and putting you in opportunities to learn and grow.
He’s been doing this all along and if you’ll look back on your life you will find that a certain pattern emerges, that there’s certain things that you do well.
And not only do you do them well but you like to do them. Would you agree that there are some things you do well but you don’t like to do? Sure. There are some things you can learn to do well but that doesn’t mean you like to do them. We’re talking about motivated abilities, which are the things that really shape you.
What I want you to do is go back and look at your life in ten year periods: 0-10, teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties…. Try to find five or so experiences in your life during each ten-year period where you go back and look at that and say, “During that period of my life what did I do well? It doesn’t matter if it were well rewarded, big or small, significant or insignificant, whether other people recognized it or not. What did I do well and what did I do well and enjoyed doing it?” Look for that and you’ll find a certain pattern starting to reveal itself.
So here’s part of your homework: If you want to understand Christ’s will for your future, always examine Christ’s work in your past. Learn from your experiences.
Galatians 3:4 (New Century Version) “Were all your experiences wasted? I hope not.”
Romans 12:3 (Phillips) “Try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities.”
The other way you discover what your real SHAPE is, is by trying out different options.
2. By Experimenting!
People come to me all the time saying, “Isn’t there some test I can take to tell me what my spiritual gifts are, what my abilities are, what my basic SHAPE is? Isn’t there a test I can take?” The answer is no. There is no test that’s going to tell you your life purpose and your shape. Why? Because every test is standardized and every human being is unique. You’re like your thumbprint. There are all kinds of different talents.
When you start experimenting you’ll discover that other people often see your shape before you do. That’s why it’s important to be a part of a church and that’s why it’s important to be a part of a small group or life group.
How do you do this? Examine your past and experiment in the present. But that’s just the first step. After you begin to discover what your shape is then realise…
2. CHRIST WANTS ME TO ACCEPT MY Shape
He wants me to accept my SHAPE.
This is an issue that many of you still haven’t come to grips with. You are basically rejecting who Christ made you to be. All over the world are people who are trying to spend their entire lives being someone or some thing they’re not really.
When you spend your life trying to be someone you’re not or something you’re not. That’s called stress. And it builds up in you.
Many of us start out as originals and end up as carbon copies of other people!
There are two traps that cause you to reject your own shape. One of them is comparing and the other is conforming. People do this all the time. COMPARING
I have noticed that one area that people tend to reject more than any other area in their lives is their heredity. So many people say, “Life would be great if I just had different parents… If I just had more perfect parents?!”
Christ sovereignly chose your mother and sovereignly chose your father to be your parents. I’m not talking about what kind of parent they were whether they were a good one or bad one, a wise one or unwise one, whether they were there for you or whether they abandoned you, whether you were loved or you were rejected, whether you were abused. I’m not talking about the kind of parent they were.
I’m saying that Christ sovereignly chose a certain woman in this world and a certain man in this world to be your parents. Why? Because each of them contributed 23 chromosomes and an infinite variety of DNA which they put together in a mix which only those people could have produced to make you. And otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.
So regardless of their parenting skills, regardless of hurt, regardless of pain, regardless of rejection, or anything else, Christ chose your mother and your father to produce you because He wanted out a certain combination of DNA and chromosomes and those two people in that infinite variety of combination could have only produced you. Until you are able to accept your heritage, you’re going to miss Christ’s mission for your life. Because you run from it!
One of the contributors to the epidemic of depression in Australia today is the confusion of identities.
One of the contributors to the epidemic of depression in Australia today is the confusion of identities.
I meet people all the time who are trying to be somebody or something that they’re not. I have met tall people who want to be shorter; no hair/ who want a lot of hair; curly hair / straight; dark skinned / light skin; women who are trying to be men / men who are trying to be women!
It’s no wonder everybody’s depressed because this confused identify says “Christ, You blew it! I don’t like being me!” And you miss your SHAPE.
And you miss the satisfaction of being what Christ called you to be.
Romans 9:20 (Jerusalem Bible) “What right do you have as a human being to cross-examine Christ? The pot has no right to say to the potter: ‘Why did you make me this shape?’ A potter can do whatever he likes with the clay.”
1 Corinthians 7:17 (NIV) “Each one should retain the place in life that the Lord has assigned him to and to which Christ has called him.”
Stop comparing yourself to other people. Accept your shape.
The other thing is stop conforming to other people.
Have you noticed that not only does Christ have a plan for your life but so do a lot of other people? If you really want to fill Christ’s purpose for your life, then you’re going to have to say no to some of the roles and expectations and positions that other people place on you that Christ didn’t intend for you to have. You have to say no to some people.
When you understand SHAPE it is such a tremendous guilt reliever that you don’t have to please everybody. This has been good for me. You can imagine the expectation’s on my life as the minister of a church like this. I cannot do every wedding, funeral, dedicate every house, personally counsel everybody! I’d love to. I wish I could. But it’s obvious I can’t do that, the size of our church.
I have had to come to the realization that I’m not the answer to very person’s problem in the church let alone the world!
And that’s true with you too. You’ve got to learn to accept yourself. Accept your SHAPE.
3. Christ WANTS ME TO ENJOY MY SHAPE
When you get in your SHAPE and fulfil what Christ made you to be and find your niche, it feels good. Ecclesiastes 5 says “To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life, this is a gift from Christ. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, of Christ has given them reasons for joy.” Christ wants you to enjoy your shape.
Philippians 2:13 (Amplified) “It is Christ who is at work within you energizing and creating in you the power and desire to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”
There are three powerful benefits of fulfilling your shape for ministry in this world.
1. You feel energized.
2. You get confidence.
Do you know where confidence comes from? It comes from two Latin words con and fideo, which mean in Latin, “with faith”. You don’t get confidence by reading, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” self-help books.
That doesn’t last. You get confidence from having faith in Christ’s purpose and plan for your life. When you are “with faith” you will have con fideo. You will have confidence because you know this is what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.
3. You have significance and satisfaction.
Last week I gave you a definition of success. Let me give you another one. Success is being who Christ shaped me to be.
That brings us to the fourth thing Christ wants you to do with your shape….
4. Christ WANTS Me TO DEVELOP MY Shape
Once you discover it, he wants you to develop it. SHAPE is kind of like a muscle. With a muscle you either use it or you lose it. Any muscle that is not used atrophies. But the more you develop a muscle, the stronger it gets. These musicians who play here on stage every week, they weren’t that good when they first started, when they first discovered they had a talent. But it is through practice and development that they strengthened their shape.
2 Timothy 1:6 (New Century Version) “Keep using the gift that Christ gave you and let it grow as a small flame grows into a fire.”
1 Peter 4:10 (Living Bible) “Christ has given each of you special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others Christ’s blessings.”
The most important thing in your entire life, the most important decision you’ll ever have to make is to establish a relationship with Christ through His Son, Jesus Christ. I hope you’ve already done that. If you haven’t done that, you’re not even to first base yet. Today, you need to say, “Jesus Christ, help me get to know You, to have a relationship and not a religion.” Once you’ve done that, the second most important task in your life bar none – is to discover the SHAPE that Christ gave you and then begin to fulfil your life purpose.
Today, I want us to pray a prayer of dedication. Before we go any further in this series say “Christ, I want You to take my life and my SHAPE and use it. Lord, I offer my life to You. Everything I’ve been through use it for Your glory. That means the good, the bad, the painful, the shameful and even the hurt. Everything that I’ve been through. Use them for Your glory.” AMEN
