The act of Worship Part 3

Worshipping God With Your Gift

Last week we started studying “the act of worship,” and today we will be examining the importance of worshipping God with all our gifts. Note, this isn’t about the material gifts you bring into the arena of worship (anything you offer up to God), but those natural gifts and abilities that God Himself has blessed you with. Please understand, in order to worship God with any of the gifts He has so graciously placed in you, you must first recognise your uniqueness.

As a child of God, you were born pre-packed - ready to exhibit God and display His glory. God predestined your entire life, and in so doing, He determined your assignment and gave you the tools to get the job done. Hence, you came pre-packaged, pre-assigned and pre-programmed. You are an original, one of a kind - totally unique! God in His infinite wisdom made just one version of you. He custom designed you for a one-of-a-kind assignment. The story of your life should be a celebration of your uniqueness! Why? Because you are a divine spark! You have an uncommon call to an uncommon life! In fact, you can do something no one else can do, in a fashion no one else can do it. You are the only you God has made!

I like what Max Lucado says, “God packed you on purpose for a purpose.” Now, if this is news to you then you’re probably finding it a strain worshipping Him. Because, worshipping isn’t merely about understanding God, but understanding what God has done for you! God empowers us with gifts so that we can make Him known, but also that we may worship Him with those gifts. I believe this is actually pleasing to God. After all, God is not in the cloning business. He never prefabs or mass-produces people. There’s no slapdash creativity with God!
Remember this, “You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be.”

God is constantly at work in you to help you want to do, and be able to do, what is pleasing to Him [Philippians 2:13]. God wants every believer to fulfil his destiny. When examining the act of worship last week we noted that true worshipers [the kind that God is seeking] are transparent - there is no falseness or hypocrisy present. Too many Christians want to be someone else, so they create a persona that they think is pleasing to God [or to others]. But God never called you to be anyone other than you. When it comes to being you, on the stage of life, you were tailor-made for the part. So speak your lines with confidence, as you worship Him in every instance.

In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-15), before the “talent” meant skill or ability it meant money. It represented that largest unit of accounting in the Greek currency - 10,000 dunarii. According to the Parable of the Workers, one denarius represented a day’s fair wages [Matthew 20:2]. Multiply your daily wage by 10,000, and you discover the value of a talent or ability. If you earn £30,000 a year and you annually work 260 days, you actually make about £115 a day. A talent in your case is valued at 10,000 times £115, or £1,150,000.

Bringing this into perspective. Suppose a person earns £30,000 a year for forty years. His lifetime earnings are £1,200,000, only £50,000 more than a talent. One talent then, equals a lifetime of earnings. This is a lot of money and a key point in this parable. God didn’t entrust you with a £1 talent or a £5 skill / ability. Consider yourself a million-pound investment - in many cases, a muti-million pound enterprise. God has given you gifts, not miserly but super-abuntantly. And not randomly, but carefully: “to each according to his own unique ability.” No one else has your unique talents. No one! God elevates you from the mass of mediocrity by matching your special abilities to your custom-made assignments. But the question is this, “What are you doing with your talents - your gifts?

Now let’s contrast the reaction of the third servant in the parable with that of the first two. The faithful servants “went and traded”, but the fearful one “went and dug.” The first two invested. The last one buried. He made the most tragic and common miscalculation of giftedness. He failed to benefit the Master with his talent. Notice, the only mistake he made was not to risk making one! All people have talents [natural abilities], and this parable assures as much. But how many of you have invested your gifts to profit the Master?

Many people discover “what” they have been given - their talents. Some even luck-out and discover “where” to use their talents most effectively. But why? Why did God give you that unique package - why did He equip you as He did? Not many truly grasp the significance of this. So I challenge you.....

Accountant, how do you explain your number sense? Investor, why can you read the stock market like a book? Linguist, why do foreign languages liberate your tongue? Musician, why do you create melodies and perform them so easily? And, home-maker, why can you make your household purr like a Rolls-Royce? Why? For what purpose did God graciously and generously provide you with these gifts? So people will love or admire you? Pay you a big salary? Give you special benefits and tell others of your skills? No! God gave you gifts so that you can honour Him with them. Worshipping God with your talent gives God the honour for providing you with it. And you can honour Him whatever the talent and wherever you choose to use it!

Each time you do your very best to thank God for giving you your gift or ability, you worship Him with it. When you acknowledge God as the source of your ability or skill, you reveal Him to others. Don’t waste your years embellishing your own image. People don’t need to see you - they need to see Jesus!

Besides God promises no applause for self-promoters. But great reward and commendation awaits those who promote God: “Well done My good and faithful servant.”

The worshipper has a special place reserved just for him / her. How do we know this? Because God is seeking such people. Therefore, if He is searching for true worshippers, then surely it will please Him when He finds one?

Chris Demetriou, 06/11/2005