“Having a Talent”
By Brother Kenneth Ray
February 27th,
2011
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
First, we
need
to talk about what a talent is. I’m
sure
that everyone here can think of someone that seems to have a real
talent. Maybe a
televangelist, or a pastor, or an
elder, a musician, Michael Jordan, Beethoven…
You all have talent.
Some of you
may have talents that you don’t think are important.
Just as an example, the talent of hospitality
may not seem like much, but, believe me, to the recipient of that
hospitality,
it’s a big deal. The
definition of the
word ‘talent’ is a natural power or endowment.
I can’t
sing;
well, I can sing to my daughter, but most people wouldn’t be interested
in
hearing me sing. There
are some talents
everyone has: everyone can speak, everyone can write…
There are some talents that are common: a lot
of people can sing. There
are some
talents that are not common: not everyone can be a pilot. Really, very few people
can become pilots. God
has given you enough talent to do what
you need to do. I
can’t eat as much as
“Big Country.” Does
that mean I should
hang my head in shame? no, of course not.
There is something that only you can do.
It may not be something evangelistic, but it is
something that you can
do.
Do you know
Peter Pan’s sidekick? Tinker
Bell? Do you know what she is? Yes, she’s a fairy, but
not just any fairy;
what kind of fairy is she? I’ll
give you
a hint: it’s in her name. She’s
a
tinker. I know
this, because I’ve seen
the movie (I have a seven year old daughter).
According to the movie, at some point in a fairy’s
life, they have the
fairies form a circle around some magical objects.
Each of these objects represents a
talent. There’s one
miniature cyclone
thing, which represents power over wind; there’s a hammer, which
represents tinkers;
there’s something else that represents feeding animals…
You get the idea.
If the fairy approaches an object and it
disappears, that means that it wasn’t their talent.
If the object starts to glow and bounce up
and down, then it was their talent.
Anyway, Tinker Bell found out that she was a tinker
that way, but she
didn’t like it. She
tried to do some
other things, but it just didn’t work out.
You can’t
choose
what your talent is. Do
what you’re good
at. If you try to
do something that you
don’t have a talent for, your contribution just isn’t what it could be. Did you every try to fix
something, and leave
out one ingredient from the recipe?
Or
did you ever mix up salt and sugar? it’s easy to do, they look a lot
alike. It doesn’t
work out the same.
Romans
11:29
For
the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
The
definition of ‘gift’
is
basically the same as talent: from
<G5483>
(charizomai); a (divine) gratuity, i.e. deliverance
(from
danger or passion); (special) a (spiritual) endowment,
i.e. (subject)
religious qualification, or (objective)
miraculous faculty :-
(free) gift. The
definition of ‘calling’
is: from a shorter
form of <G2564>
(kaleo); an invitation
(figurative) :- calling. So,
a calling
is an invitation from God, and it is without repentance. No matter how much you
complain about it,
it’s yours. Stop
sitting on the bench;
get in the game; stop being a spectator.
If God has extended an invitation, then you’re
qualified, and He will
help you to do whatever it is that He has for you to do.
James
1:17
every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above…
God
is not
giving out second-rate gifts. You
know
who the most important person on a basketball team is? the towel boy. If he doesn’t do a good
job of mopping up the
sweat, then one of the star players is going to slip and fall and
injure their
million-dollar bodies. God
didn’t give
people in the Bible talents just to have; He gave them to them to use. He gave them talents to
help others. Utilize
your talent.
Where I
work, we
have a machine that matches paint.
It
can calculate how much of which colors need to be mixed together to
match a
specific color. Ken
Avellino has a
talent for doing the same thing. You
may
think that’s no big deal. To
the man who
owns the boat that Ken is painting, that’s a big deal.
Ephesians
4:8 …and
gave gifts unto men.
Ephesians
4:11-12
And he gave some,
apostles; and some, prophets…
These
two verses
are talking about the same people.
They
are both talking about you, church.
I’m
glad Parrish is loud, because I know it’s sincere.
I was sitting right beside our bishop one
time, and I heard Parrish from a distance, and then I heard somebody
behind me
say, “Tone it down.” That’s
like telling
a mechanic to shut down his shop.
That’s
not edifying the body by worshipping or not worshipping. We all have talents; you
should not try to
snuff them out. Different
is not
wrong. We used to
be a church; now we’re
a fellowship. We
shouldn’t try to rebuild
what once was. We
should use our talents
within this new framework. Don’t
say,
“Well, this isn’t what we did before.”
Matthew
5:16 …see
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Whether
you have
a talent for scrapbooking, or facebooking or cook booking, glorify God
in your
talent. The other
night I held a door
open for a lady who was coming out of Applebee’s; she said, “Your
mother raised
you right.” I
didn’t tell her that I did
what I did because of God. Sometimes
keeping silent is a talent that needs to be utilized.
Ephesians
4:16
…the whole body, fitly
joined together and compacted by that…
When
we all
contribute, the body of Christ is fitly joined together and compacted
by our
talents all being added together.
When
we don’t, it’s like sand sifting through the screen.
Take the challenge, seek it out.
If you need help, then Jesus is on the main
line, tell Him what you want. He’s
got
great customer service, but sometimes His wait time varies (but He
always
answers on time).
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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