[music] Welcome to the Craig T. Owens Audio Blog with Craig's blog posts in audio format to go. Craig's new book, When Sheet Bite, is available now at CraigTowens.com. What's your passion? We will be more likely to persevere through the challenging times when we are doing what we are gifted to do. One of the ways we discover our God-giftedness is by what thrills us. Here are three things to notice. This is the third message in our series Living in Your Gift Zone. If you would like to watch the video of this sermon, I've shared that link in the show notes. We have been in this series for a couple of weeks called Living in Your Gift Zone, and I want to just recap a couple of things for you just as a reminder. We have talked about how God has gifted all of us, but that we sometimes want to shrink that down. We want to live in our comfort zone. Usually our comfort zone is much smaller than our gift zone, because it does feel uncomfortable when we step out. We have to remember that we have been gifted by God, which means that we are the gift that he wants to use to give other people, to benefit other people. I've said before, as we step out of our comfort zone, by its very definition, if you step outside of a comfort zone, it feels uncomfortable. Here's the thing. God calls us to step out into our gift zone. He's never going to want to stretch us or take us farther than that, so even though we feel uncomfortable, it's only going to be uncomfortable for a moment. Because you're going to say, "Oh, man, what's going to happen when I step out here?" But as soon as you step outside of the comfort zone into the gift zone, God is going to so minister to your spirit, and you're going to see the tangible results of operating in more of your gift zone, that you're going to say, "Why didn't I do this before?" Why didn't I step out like this before? That first step is the scariest step. It's the most uncomfortable step, but I promise you, if you'll take that step right on the heels of that, that God is going to show you what he wants to do. Now, last week, I gave you some homework assignments, two things to think about. The first one was ask the Holy Spirit to show you where maybe you've discounted a gift. You see something maybe in your own life, but you go, "Would that even make a difference anywhere?" It's not that big of a deal. It couldn't possibly be that important. You've sort of discounted the gift that God's given you. We don't want to talk bad about God's gifts, so we need to change our thinking about that first. And then the second thing that I asked you to think about was, "What do you love doing?" We're going to unpack that a little bit more today, because that's one of the indications of the area that God has gifted us. Now, you've probably experienced this in your life. Some people will have, you might hear this debate about what motivates people, the carrot or the stick, holding out a reward or the fear of punishment, like not, "I'm not going to do that, or I'm going to do that because I don't want to be punished for it." Well, I found it, you probably have too, that being motivated by rewards is far greater than trying to avoid the punishment. Everybody wants to do something to get a reward for it, because that is one of those things that you say, "I get to do this." If you're doing something just to avoid the punishment, you're saying, "Well, I really, I have to do this. I don't want to do it, but I have to do it because I don't want to have the punishment inflicted on me later." So rewards always are better than the punishment, and rewards, the thing that is going to reward all of us, as you probably know, if you've had kids, your kids will be motivated by different things. Different rewards will motivate your kids in different ways. That's probably the same thing for us too, that what might be a reward for me, you might say, "Yeah, I could take it or leave it," for that thing, but all of us have this different thing that motivates us, and again, those are indications of what our area of giftedness is. So we, in the Bible, we sometimes, we look at the end of the story, and we see the results, and we say, "Well, that's great," but so we see something like a King David. We see him, one of his first things that he is noted for, before he was king, it's just as a shepherd boy, and he killed a giant. So, that's pretty amazing, but you know, when he shows up at the battlefield, the Philistine champion, Goliath, comes out, and he says, "Okay, who's going to fight me? Who wants to take me on?" One-on-one combat, "If you can defeat me, we'll surrender to you." And then he began to, he says, "I defy the God of the Israelites." And at first, you might think, "Well, that's what probably motivated David, is that he got a little ticked off about that." Well, that was part of it, but I want you to notice something else. And he heard Goliath saying this, "He turns to the people that are there, and he asks them what the reward is, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes the disgrace from Israel." And even when his brother tried to silence him, he just kept going right on, he turned to somebody else and asked them the same question, and they repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him." Saul had said, "I've got a reward for the one who will go out there in single combat and defeat Goliath. Here's going to be the rewards for that person." And even though David was upset about God's name being defiled, he also said, "Is there a reward for me?" You know what happens when we pursue God? There is a reward. There's a reward if we feel the smile of his blessing when he says, "You're doing exactly what I created you to do." There are no records of giant killers like David had. We have one in Caleb. He takes on some giants, but you see David after he killed a giant, then you start seeing all these other people that were surrounding David that they start killing giants too. They say, "Hey, David can do that. We can do it too." He broke the stereotype that people had, but he was motivated by the reward he could get. Paul talked to all of us about, he says, "Do you not know that in a race, all runners run, but only one gets the prize?" And so he tells us, "You run in a way that you're going to get the reward. Get the prize." There's a reward at the end if you run this wet race well. If you sit down on the side, you're not going to finish the race, you are not going to get a reward. And all the way at the end of Paul's life, he used this same thing as he writes to his friend Timothy, he says, "Now therein is in store for me the crown of righteousness, the reward, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day." And then he says, "But it's not just for me. It's not only to me. It's also for all who have longed for his appearing. All of us can run for the reward. We don't just say, "Well, I just got to get through this. You're going to have a hard time staying motivated in the hard times. What about even Jesus himself? He's the writer of Hebrews says, because of the joy, because of the reward that was awaiting him for his father to say, "Well done, Jesus endured the cross disregarding its shame." And now he has seated in the place of honor besides God's throne. Or in Philippians, Paul says it this way, "Because Jesus persevered and endured through that, therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven on earth and under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Jesus talks about the rewards that his servants will receive. And he says, "I'm coming, and I'm bringing my rewards with me. We are motivated by what reward we can get." Again, what reward motivates me? What reward motivates you? It's going to be aligned with the way that God has wired you, the gift that he's given you. What is motivating for me might not be motivating for you. And vice versa, every one of us are created with our own unique gift package. So while we are exploring what our giftedness is and what God wants to do with us, then we have to remember not only is the reward greater than the punishment, but we also have to remember that why we are doing what we're doing is far greater than what we're actually doing. The motivation behind what we're doing is greater than what we're actually doing. So God talked to the Israelites back in Isaiah, he said, "You've got your calendar. You've got your checklist. You know, okay, this is a sacrifice day. This is a feast day. This is a day for fasting. This is a day for doing this. You've got your checklist. But in Isaiah chapter 1, he really says, "Your multitude of sacrifices, what are they to me? You're checking them off on your list. It's not what you're doing," because then he goes on in Isaiah chapter 1 and really a lot of the rest of the book of Isaiah and he says, "I want you to explore your heart. Why are you doing this? Why are you showing up for this sacrifice? Is your heart there or is it just your body that's just showing up? Is it I get to do this or is it I have to do this? Well, I'm just going to do this so God doesn't punish me. Or do I get to do this thing because this is going to bring God glory on earth. This is going to build his kingdom. This is going to show who he is. Jesus pointed out the same thing in Matthew chapter 7. He says, "There'll be some people that will come to me and say, 'Look at what we did.'" And Jesus is going to say, "I don't know you because I'm looking at why you did what you did. You didn't do it to bring glory to me. You did it to bring glory to yourself. You did it to look good, to have a reputation, have a name for yourself. But you didn't do it because you were concerned about my honor or my glory. You did it because you were concerned about yourself." So why we're doing what we're doing is more important than what we're actually doing. So why do we want to do this? Jesus gave us this, we call it the Great Commission. All of us are called to preach the gospel everywhere, to make disciples, to build up the body of Christ. But how each of us do that is going to be different based on our gifts. So one of the first things we've got to be very cautious of is the warning I already gave you of is discounting our gifts. The other thing is an over-elevation of our gifts, but we usually do that by looking at other people. Like look what they're doing, oh I'm doing more than they are. Oh look what they're doing, they're really slacking. We're looking at other people. We don't want to do that because every, like we talked about last week and we use the example of enzymes in our body, there's not one of those things that's dispensable, not one of those things that can be put to the side. We'd have an unhealthy body, it's the same thing in the body of Christ. Think about it in the Old Testament, the people wanted to, they're building a physical temple. You can come and touch it, right? There were the bricks that were there and the gold and the silver and the precious stone and the tapestry. You could actually touch the temple. Think about some of the people that were involved in that. You had David the warrior who brought freedom to the people, he created this buffer zone of freedom where people could worship God. He also as kind of spoils of the war, he said to his son Solomon, here I brought you gold, I brought you silver, I brought you all these materials that you need to build the temple. But then God said, "Yeah but David, you're not the one to build the temple." So Solomon built the temple, he organized the workers, he had all of the processes in place and he built the temple. Years later the temple was in disrepair, the worship was starting to slide and a king named Josiah came on the scene and he instituted reforms, he called everybody back, he said, "Hey we're not doing what we're supposed to do. We need to do this." The people went in to, they continued to slide away from God, they went into exile. The temple was destroyed, the wall around Jerusalem was destroyed. You had a man named Ezra that came back and he started encouraging the Israelite governor and the high priest, "Hey keep doing what God's called you to do. Don't listen to these other voices that are intimidating you and telling you don't look around and say, "Oh man what are we going to make of this? It seems like a shambles." Ezra is there encouraging them but back in Babylon there's a man named Daniel who's encouraging the Babylonian rulers to look at God as the most high, as the sovereign and because of Daniel's influence these kings are looking favorably upon the exiles that are returning and giving them the supplies that they need, even allowing them to take back the articles that have been taken from the temple when it was sacked to take those things back and then you had Nehemiah that showed up and said, "Hey guys how come the wall hasn't been rebuilt? Let me help you rebuild the wall, let me organize this. Let me get this going." What would happen if any one of those guys wasn't there using his gift? What if there was no David to bring peace or to bring the supplies or if there was no Solomon to help construct the temple or no Josiah for the reforms or no Ezra or Daniel or Nehemiah? What would have happened to the temple? What's the same thing for the New Testament temple? We're not, it's not a physical building that we're building, but we're building the body of Christ and Paul says this in Ephesians, he says that we are God's masterpiece. He has created us in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things that he planned for us to do a long ago. Do we still need warriors for the kingdom of God like David fighting those spiritual battles? Yeah, because it's really hard for people that are in the midst of a spiritual battle themselves to focus on what they need to do when somebody intercedes for them and battles for them to set them free. Do we still need worshipers? Do we still need people that bring in the materials, the stones, the precious stones, the tapestry that are needed for the temple? Do we still need at times reformers? Do we need people that open doors with government officials, use their position to bring favor in different places? Do we need Ezra's and Nehemiah's to encourage and to organize and build? We still need all of those functions for the body of Christ. There's not one function that you could say, well, let's go down to the list here. This one's not that important, we can just, it doesn't matter if we have that or not. Every function is important. Ephesians, I like this out of the Amplified Bible, Paul says his intention, Christ's intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints, his consecrated people, that they should do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body, the church, that they should do the ministry of the work. All of us are doing the ministry, we're doing what needs to be done to build up the body. Or as Peter said it, God has given you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another, to build up the body of Christ. There's all kinds of examples of people using their gifts, but let me just share one with you that I read this for years. It was a long time of reading this before I caught something here. I want you to look at me with me at Acts chapter 17. Now Paul, if we back up four chapters, if we go back to Acts chapter 13 at the time he's still called Saul, Saul is with a group of people that are praying and they're worshiping God and they're seeking God's direction for what they need to do. And it says in Acts chapter 13 that the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart from me, Saul and Barnabas, to the work that I've called them to do." They're going to go and minister, they're going to spread the good news of the gospel to the places that the gospel hasn't gone before. One of those places is in, we meet in Acts chapter 17, it's Thessalonica. And they had passed through Empophilus and Apollia, Apollania, they came to Thessalonica and there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from scriptures. So he comes into Thessalonica and on the Sabbath day, so let's kind of put it in our terminology kind of modern day, he went to church. He was preaching in church and he's telling people Jesus is the Messiah. And it says on there that he did this for three Sabbath days in a row, three Sabbath days he shows up. Now later on, when Paul is writing to the church at Thessalonica, this church that he's in right here, in his second letter to them, he says, "Do you guys remember that when I was there I didn't want to be a burden to anybody and so I was again to use our terminology. I was bivocational. I worked so that there was no financial needs to take care of me. I worked so that I could preach to you guys." Okay? So they leave Thessalonica, they leave Berea, they go to another city called Corinth chapter 18. Back to this Paul left Athens and he went to Corinth. There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontius, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome, Paul went to see them. And because he was a tent maker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. Now that sounds a lot like Thessalonica, right? For three Sabbath days he's there reasoning in the synagogue. Same thing. Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue. But look at verse number five. When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, look at the next phrase, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Silas and Timothy came and they said, "Hey, you know what we can do? We can work." We'll take care of the funds, Paul, you know, we got food and lodging expenses, we realized that. And so Paul says, "Yep, so I'm making tents to cover those costs, and I'll preach when I can, I'll be in the synagogue on the Sabbath days, but the other days I got to work." Silas and Timothy show up and say, "You know what gift God's given us? We can work." And they worked and then the next phrase, Paul devoted himself exclusively. He didn't have to work anymore. Silas and Timothy were taking care of that. And then when you jump down a few verses, it tells us that for Paul stayed in Corinth doing this for 18 months, for a year and a half, he was there, ministering. And not only was the church at Corinth build up, but because that was such a strategic city, there were people that were coming to Corinth that were travelers. They were taking this message, "You'll not believe what I heard." When I was in Corinth, I sat under the ministry of this man named Paul. He told me about Jesus, and then, man, I gave my life to Jesus, except him as my Lord and Savior, and they're taking this message to all the points of the globe as they travel. But that wouldn't have been possible to that extent if Timothy and Silas had shown up and done their thing. And that's the same thing in the body of Christ, when one person holds back, the rest of the body is impoverished as a result of that. So like I said, last week I asked yourself the question, "What do I love to do?" What's one of the things that I think about, I go, "Red, I really enjoy doing that. We'll call that your passion." What thrills you? What do you just, you know, you just really, boy, when I think about doing that thing, I get really excited about doing that thing. I want to give you three thoughts, and I put it on your paper here, or in your notes, you can write this thing down. Three things that I want you to consider about your passion or what do you love to do. The first one is, when you're in the middle of doing this thing, do you think to yourself, when can I do this again, versus when is this going to be over? When will I be done, and I can move on? There's a big difference, because when can I do this again? You're saying, "I get to do this." When you're saying, "When is this going to be over? When is this going to be done?" You're really saying, "I have to do this. I really don't want to, but I have to do this. I'd rather be done doing this." Which one keeps you more motivated to stick with it? It's the one where you say, "Boy, I get to do this. I get to do this. Oh, this is great." So think about things when you're in the midst of them. What's your thought pattern? Are you thinking, "When can I do this again?" Or are you thinking, "When is this going to be over?" Second thing to think about is when you're done with it, the things that you say, "When I'm done with this, I am really tired, but I feel very fulfilled. I'm exhausted, but boy, do I feel fulfilled." Versus when I'm done with this, I'm just tired. Huge difference. So you start off with, "When can I do this again?" You get done. "Man, I'm exhausted. But boy, was that great. Man, I feel so. I still got a smile on my face even though I'm tired." Versus, "When is this going to be over?" Because I'm exhausted. I'm done. And the third thing is to think about, "Am I doing this just because I feel so good when I do it or -- and I do it without any kind of reward, any kind of pay?" Or you say, "No, I'd rather do something else." All things being equal, I'll find something else to do. And you can identify things that you say, "I love doing this. I can't wait to do it again." When I get done doing it, I have poured so much into it. Physically, I'm spent, but emotionally, spiritually, oh man, I am like ready to burst out and laughter because I'm so fulfilled, so thrilled by what I just got to do. And I would do this again and again and again, even if I never got a paycheck for it, even if I just -- I'm just doing it just to do it. Those -- that kind of motivation is the one that Jesus says, "Well done, good and faithful servant," because you are going to do good and faithful and excellent service again and again and again because you feel the smile of your master when you're doing it because you're doing what you were gifted to do. When you're doing what God has gifted you to do, that is your motivation to keep on doing it. You feel his smile, you feel his reward. I love the story of a guy -- if anybody ever sees that his really old movie, "The Chariots of Fire," so you've got this guy who goes on to become a missionary, but he's a runner. He loves running and he goes to the Olympics and he competes and he wins there, but somebody asks him, "You know, why do you run all the time?" And he says, "I feel God's smile when I run." And it was his ability to run that gave him the national prominence it did, or actually international prominence, as he won the gold medal at the Olympics, which allowed him then later on, he was able to, because of part of the notoriety of his name, that got him into audiences, that he raised the funds that he needed to go serve as a missionary. But it all started because he was a runner and he felt God's smile when he ran. See, all of us, we've looked at this verse a couple of times, we're all placed in the body of Christ exactly where we're supposed to be, we're all a part of it. We all have a gift that we have to do, and if there's one gift missing, just or one enzyme like we talked about that's missing, the whole body is impoverished as a result of that. But when everybody is doing what they're supposed to do, when everybody's using the gifts the way that God gave them the gifts to use, then the body of Christ is healthy and strong and vibrant and expanding and it's pushing back the gates of hell and it's expanding the Kingdom of Heaven, because everybody's doing what God gifted them to do. So I want you to, I'm going to give you another homework assignment this week, I want you to think about those three things. Think about activities, things that you do, that while you're doing them, you're thinking to yourself, boy, when do I get to do this again? When you're done, you say, I gave my very best, I'm totally spent, I'm exhausted physically, but emotionally, spiritually, I feel so full. I feel fulfilled at doing that, and then you say, boy, I do this again and again and again and again and again. I do this as though we're my living, even if I was never getting paid to do it. Those are great indicators of what your area of giftedness is, what's the passion that God has placed in your heart, I get to do this. This is amazing that God wired me to do this, and as you step out, just be prepared. It's only momentary discomfort, momentary uncomfort as I step out of my comfort zone, but immediately you'll feel the smile of God as you stretch out of that comfort zone into more of your gift zone, and you'll have that feeling of, well, when do I get to do this again? Because you're in that area. Lord, I pray that you'd help us, help us to be able to identify these places where you've gifted us. You've gifted us on purpose and for a purpose. You want us to feel our fulfillment in doing what you've created us to do, to feel your smile, and you are going to be glorified in that. When we are doing things, not because we say, I just have to do these, or I'm doing them because I don't want to get punished for this, but when we're saying, I'm doing this because I get to do this, and it's going to bring my Savior and my King so much glory, and I feel His smile when I do it, and it just fulfills me to be able to participate in His Kingdom like this. So help all of us to be able to identify those places where you have given us your passion for these things. Help us to be able to identify that. Holy Spirit, may we be so tuned into your voice that even if we're doing something that we've done a hundred times before, a thousand times before, and never really thought about it. Maybe in that moment, Holy Spirit, we could just hear your gentle voice just saying this, this thing right here. This is the thing. Do you feel how fulfilled you are right now as you're doing this? Do you feel my smile right now where you're doing this? Remind us of those areas where you've gifted us or we're passionate for your Kingdom and for your glory. Help us this week to learn more about that gifting so that we don't just live in a comfort zone, but we live in a gift zone that brings you all of the glory, expands your Kingdom. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you, friends. Have fun this week. Exploring that. Craig's new book, When Sheep Bite, is available now. To order, go to CraigTowens.com. [music] [MUSIC PLAYING]
