In this third and final installment, Carl identifies the importance of discovering our hidden talents and gifts, at the various stages of life. As we mature, we have the opportunity to glorify God with our talents. The reality is, many people are sitting on the sidelines waiting on God, but in actuality, God is waiting on them! We cannot walk on water if we’re not willing to get out of the boat! God is looking to us, to take the first step. Maybe it’s time to take that risk; the one that’s been nagging you for years. Let’s join Carl now as we conclude this series…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friend, it is my sincere desire that you find God’s purpose for your life, but it’s going to take some effort, friend. It’s going to take you seeking him in prayer, in your devotional time, reading the word, listening to your heart, looking at your natural skills and abilities and even talents and putting them to good use. It’s not something that’s like a once and for all thing. Finding God’s will is an ongoing thread that we unravel as we pursue the Lord. This is something that we need to pursue for the rest of our lives, friend. Life is too short for dress rehearsals, friend. This is the real deal. You only get one shot at it. You know, some people are not ready to get out of the boat, and some people are well past due, and they need to get out of that boat. Peter’s heart wanted to get out of that boat, but he wasn’t ready. He began to sink, okay? He was a little premature in his water walking faith.
But friend, there’s some people out there, God wants to move in your life, and you’re waiting for everything to be perfect, and that’s not how it works. As the farmer says, there’s never a good time to sow. It’s time to get on with it. Join me now, live in session. What would you do if money was no object? If money was no issue, and you had all the money in the world, what would you do? See, that takes money out of the equation, and that reveals your deepest desire, right? What do you enjoy doing regularly? What are your natural talents? What skills have you learned? All right? If we honor God, he’ll give us the desires of our heart, but as we honor him, he’s going to bless us, friend. It’s not just for his glory, he’s going to bless you as well.
Being in the center of God’s will has to be the best place of all. Hallelujah. Because there’s peace there. You can even take persecution in God’s will, because you know that you’re doing his will. It’s like, you know what, I can take that, man, because this is what God told me to do, and he’s going to bring me through. I trust in him. Amen? The biggest question of all is this, what is the one thing holding you back from the very thing that God has called you to do? There’s usually one thing. Oh, it’s my family, it’s my kids, my job. I mean, if I leave my job, then the world will end. No, I’ve known people who’ve complained about their job for years, and God just fired them. It was like, I can’t believe someone fired me. What am I going to do now? It’s like, you’ve been complaining about that job for like five years, and now you’re out of it.
Now you need to find what God wants you to do, man, because some people want that security of a job. Friend, I’m all for jobs. I’m all for working. I’m not saying that. Don’t get me wrong, okay? But sometimes God is saying, you know what? I’ve got a better job for you. What are you doing here? You’re just making a trade-off. You’re selling your time for something less. You need to come up higher. Well, if I come up higher, it’s scary. I might have to be more character-driven. I might have to give up some pastimes. I might have to dedicate more time in study. Yeah, that’s true, but we got to pay the price. Amen? Sometimes people aren’t willing to pay the price to get to the next step, all right? I sound like Tony Robbins tonight. Pay the price, kids, and you can get somewhere in life. Amen? I mean, that sounds like some sort of motivational speech, okay? It isn’t. We have to pay the price. I remember Perry Stone was saying one time, he turned up at this church. He said, I’m the new assistant pastor. Nice to meet you. They’re like, great.
So what do I do? He said, well, you clean the toilets for two weeks. That’s what you’re going to do first. What? I’m the assistant pastor, man. I don’t clean toilets. It’s like, yeah, you do clean toilets. That was a character test for Perry, and he did it, okay? He ended up doing it for like two months instead of two weeks, and he stuck with it, all right? But there’s many people who want to get to here, and they’re not willing to do what it takes to get to here. They want to have that shiny badge on the door. I’m the dude, man. That’s the menial tasks for the peons. I don’t do that. Putting out chairs for a service and packing stuff away? No. That’s not me. I’m the anointed man of God. Amen? Some people think like that. So taking a risk. Someone said faith is spelt R-I-S-K, a risk. Christians should be the biggest risk takers in this world. I mean, business people have failed twice as many times as they’ve been successful, right? Some of them even declare bankruptcy like multiple times. Don’t advocate that, okay? But sometimes in life, we got to take a risk. We got to get out of the boat. We got to get out of our comfort zone.
This Saturday, we’ll be going downtown and sharing the faith of people on 16th Street. We’ll be handing out flyers and praying for people. Ooh, pastor, that sounds really uncomfortable. Yes, it is. It’s really uncomfortable. Yeah. Street ministry isn’t always easy. In fact, you might get persecuted. But the truth is, friend, God’s going to protect you. Amen? Okay? We stand in faith with whatever we do. We’re going to praise and worship for about 30 minutes. We’re going to pray and then leave. We’re going to be in the right mindset. We’re going to have the anointing of God. We’re going to go there in peace. Amen? So we have to be adequately prepared for stuff in life. We have to do the character things God is calling us to do to give up this habit. I’m reminded of Joyce Meyer, kind of a funny story. But she was teaching Bible study for like 18 years or something. And it’s like, Lord, I’ve taught Bible study for like 18 years and I’ve had 30 people and nothing’s changed. She’s like, what’s the deal? And this is kind of weird.
But he said, Joyce, when you go to the grocery store, put your shopping cart back in the holder, will you? And I know that sounds trivial, guys, and maybe even foolishness. But God cares about the small things. Because when you represent him at a higher level, people are looking at you, man, like, man, that guy hasn’t shaved in two weeks and he’s wearing weird pants. I mean, I’m getting convicted right now. I’m getting convicted. But you need to trim the beard. Amen? So I woke up there. Genesis 12:1 says, God told Abraham to go where I will tell you. He didn’t even say where he was going. He said, take your fat. No, no, no. Don’t take your family, leave a lot behind and leave all the wealth because he was wealthy to begin with. By the way, Abraham had it all. Leave all that stuff and go into the desert and then I’ll tell you where to go. What? Are you kidding me? There’s some pretty scary things that God can tell us to do sometime and it just don’t look like he’s there.
Speaking from experience. Amen. So are you still in the boat, friend? Has God asked you to do something five years ago and you’re sitting on it, right? Like that old dog on the porch. The nail is a little uncomfortable, but it’s not uncomfortable enough to move. I’m just going to sit on the nail. That’s what it is with some people. God’s like, look, I prodded you before. You should be doing this and you’re still in that other job or you’re still doing this. You know what I’m talking about, friend? I can’t tell you personally what it is. The Lord is going to talk to you. Is it a habit you need to give up? Is it hurting you? All right. Is it one of your friends you may need to say goodbye to because they keep pulling you back into the world? I don’t know what it is, friend.
But when we choose not to step out of the boat and do what the Lord says, we’re losing out on a blessing. We’re losing out on God’s perfect will and we don’t want to do that. You know, life’s going too fast. I’m in my mid forties, man. I can remember when I was 21. My life was ahead of me, boy. Now I look back and praise the Lord. What I’m saying is time is the most precious thing on earth because it’s what we have a limited amount of, right? We don’t want to spend life in the wrong vocation. We don’t want to be doing something we shouldn’t be doing, right? So let’s review. A servant’s heart. Some people want to advance without paying the price. Are you willing to pay the price, friend, for what God has called you to do? We have to be able to do that. Someone said, how can you tell if you have a servant heart or a servant attitude? Answer, by the way you react when you’re treated like one. Oh, how are you going to react when you’re treated like a servant? What’s that program on TV where the CEO goes into KFC and just acts like the regular guy? Have you seen that? Amazing. Undercover boss.
So you’ve got the CEO with his cap and he’s taking the orders and no one knows this is the head of the organization and they’re seeing how people are reacting to him and vice versa. That’s the way it is with the Lord, amen, because he’s all seeing and all knowing, right? People can put on a show for long enough but there’s going to be a time when it shows over and I’m going to be myself, whatever myself is. So when we give Jesus his rightful place as Lord of our lives, his lordship will be expressed in the way we serve others, right? It said, for the son of man also came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He gave. That’s our attitude. It should be our attitude. Opportunities to do something for somebody else, not just us, right? The me spirit. It’s all about me. It’s all about me. No, it’s not. Okay, how many people in this room are happy where they’re in their job right now, where they’re working? Good. That’s good. That’s awesome to find something you’re good at and it’s a blessing. Hallelujah. If you’re not that person, seek the lord about it. God will judge us based on what we could have done for him with the gifts and talents he gave us. The parable of the talents. He’s going to compare you to your potential, not to the potential of somebody else.
And the truth is, unless we’re put in certain situations, we don’t always know that we have that talent. Somebody may not think they’re very good at organizing but they may be put in a position of leadership and then all of a sudden they’ve got these skills that were hidden inside of them but the lord booted you out because you weren’t going to make that first move. He threw you there into the briar patch or whatever and you just flipped out. You’re like, oh man, I got to do this quick and all of a sudden you started pulling from different skills and talents that you had that you didn’t even know unless you were put in that situation. So motive is everything in God’s kingdom. What are we motivated by? Why are we doing things? Are we doing things to appear good before people and to be impressive or are we really motivated to seek the lord and be pure in our motive to please him? There’s a difference there. Some people will do stuff to look good. That’s not how we should be. Here’s the deal.
I can throw all this information at you for hours and hours but I’m not going to, amen? Let’s enter into a time of prayer and let’s ask the lord if there’s anything he wants us to do, he’ll make it clear. He’ll speak to us. Whether it’s in this time, whether it’s tonight in a dream, whether it’s in your private devotional time, he will reveal to you that one thing that has been dormant, that one thing you’ve ignored for years and he’s going to say, now I want you to turn your attention to your cousin who needs to hear about Jesus. You’re friendly with your cousin but you’ve not approached him. That could be a word for someone. That’s what I’m getting.
There’s a cousin who’d like to know more about the kingdom of God but your politeness is running out. It’s time to confront him and say, hey, we need to talk friend because there’s a savior you need to meet. Okay, let’s pray. Father God, I thank you right now for the hearts of the people that you are speaking to them of the one thing that has laid dormant in their lives, the one thing that needs to be addressed, the one thing that you’ve reminded of them for many a year, month or week and you’re showing it to them right now, Father. I believe that. I thank you, Holy Spirit, for speaking to them in this time. You know, I’m reminded right now of when Peter walked out of the boat, something I’ve seen before. Peter said, Lord, if it be you, bid me to come. Now listen to that statement. Lord, if it be you, bid me to come. Now the only thing the Lord could say is come because it was the Lord, right? Peter put the Lord in a corner. Now you can read this yourself in the King James.
Some people are not ready to get out of the boat, friend. Peter had a little bit of faith but he began to sink because his faith wasn’t ready to walk on water. He walked a little bit and then he sank, began to sink. That’s gradual, right? How many people have walked on a swimming pool? You just go plop. You don’t begin to sink, you just go straight down, right? If the Lord asks you to get out of this boat, you’ll be ready, okay? If the Lord asks you to get out of this boat, you’ll be ready because he doesn’t want you to fail. He doesn’t want you to go plop. He doesn’t want you to sink, okay? In the instance of Peter, it was a bit of a trick question that Peter threw at the Lord. He wasn’t ready yet, okay? You’re going to have to study that one yourself. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. You’re equipping these people to get out of this boat, whatever it is you’ve shown them. You’re going to equip them with character and gifting and talent to take that next step, to start that new business, to get into ministry, to write a book, to trust God with your finances as well. That’s another act of getting out in faith and trusting God in that area. In the blessed name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
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