A Different Perspective Official Podcast

When the people around us start behaving badly, as they invariably do, we sometimes want to use that as an excuse for us to end up stooping down to the same level. And at the end of the day – that just doesn't work.

We pretty much all understand the concept of the lowest common denominator. You look across a group of people and you pitch your message or your idea or whatever at the lowest common denominator. TV does that all the time. It dumbs down the complex issues of life. It turns values into spin, people into stereotypes. And you know something? We do it too. We have a tendency to pitch our approach or our behaviour or our principles or our ethics at the lowest common denominator.

We can be in a group of people, say at work, and we can have the best intentions, the best ethics. But when things start getting competitive or feral, when people start tearing one another apart (as they do in work situations), we want to stoop down to that level and get involved. Principles, ethics – out the window. It's the law of the jungle buddy. Kill or be killed.

This is the last program in a four-week series that I've called, "Living the Life God Always Intended". Living life to the full, living a life of deep satisfaction, of peace and contentment, even through the bad days, and the good days. God has a plan. God has a plan for your life, God has a plan for my life. It's a good plan. It's a plan of blessing, it's a plan of peace, it's a plan of joy, it's a plan of love, a plan of grace. And for me, it's all about getting close to Him.

I used to think it was self-help, hard work, trying to change myself and it doesn't work! Change this, change that in me. It would last a while but I'd always end up going back to my bad habits. I'm as smart as they come but I discovered I couldn't change me. And then when I met Jesus, finally the penny dropped. Duh!

It's about getting close to Him. It's about drawing close to God and spending time with Him in the morning. I'm a different person after that. His living water just washes over me, it's fresh, it's life, it's peace and I can go into that jungle and you know, I don't much feel like devouring people anymore. Being first, being top dog, winning is no longer my number one priority. I love that saying that "It's a dog-eat-dog world and there's plenty of dog to go around". Some people just live to win: to beat others, to make money, to be the top salesman, whatever.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to set goals and to achieve things. But when we get this competitive spirit, this spirit that says, "I have to win at all costs and if you have to lose in order for me to win, then so be it. I'm going to devour you and chew you up." When we live life like that, it doesn't bring us peace and joy and satisfaction. Now, we may not naturally be like that but we get into that sort of environment and other people tend to drag us down. We want to become one of the pack.

I used to have a saying, "Don't get angry; get even." And finally God gave me a revelation. If you live that sort of life you won't have God's peace, won't have God's joy, and won't have God's satisfaction in life. When we tread on people and beat them and defeat them and drive them into the ground, come on, where's the joy in that? Where's the peace in that? Whatever happened to living the life God always intended?

And when other people are behaving badly we have this tendency to behave badly too; not to let them drag us down. We rationalise that. We say, "Well, I need to protect myself." Jesus said:

He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52)

Paul the Apostle in Galatians said:

Don't grow tired of doing what's right because we will reap a harvest in due time. (Galatians 6:9)

When other people are off their rockers and behaving badly that's precisely the time to be different. One of the things I learned in seventeen years of consulting in the IT industry, is that behaviour is often situational. In other words, when people are in pressure cookers, when people are under stress they do things and they say things that will hurt us. But those things are driven by the circumstances, by what's going on in their lives, by the argument they had at home with their spouse, or the difficult kid, or the pressure they're under to make money, or the growing interest rates on their mortgage or whatever.

Situations drive people's behaviour. And so when you have a set of circumstances of commercial pressure or work pressure, that's when you will see what people are made of. And while they are all tearing one another apart, you and I can be the peacemaker. We can refuse to play that game. We can go on doing good, go on delivering, go on speaking well of people behind their backs, go on being kind and reliable and honest and frank and decent. Don't grow tired of what is right for we will reap at harvest time. God is in that place.

James writes in his letter in the New Testament:

God's wisdom, the wisdom from above is pure, it's peaceable and gentle and willing to yield and full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. (James 3:17)

You know our problem sometimes? We're not willing to yield, we're not willing to come second, we're not willing for someone else to get the better of us, we're not willing for someone else to win, we're not willing to lose our reputations by not playing the ugly game. The wisdom from above is pure and peaceable and gentle and willing to yield and full of mercy and good fruits, wouldn't you want to be around someone like that in a crisis?

Imagine that you and I are that person when everyone else is doing that 'dog eat dog' thing. Now that's living the life that God always intended. That's where you get peace and joy and contentment and God honours that. The people around us mightn't, and maybe by living like that we might appear to lose. We might lose a battle, we might get laughed at, we might … everything. But it's living the life God always intended. Peter the Apostle wrote:

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

When the world is having a go, when people are going berserk and tearing one another apart … in the middle of that place we put our trust in Jesus and He will give us a harvest at harvest time.

Living the life isn't about winning every battle. Some battles aren't worth winning, and some battles give us hollow victories. It's not about being dumbed down and dragged down and stooping down to the lowest common denominator. Jesus has got a plan for my life and for your life. It's a plan of victory and peace and joy and sailing through the storm with a certainty and a faith and a relationship and a trust in Jesus. That's life … that's living … that's the life God always intended.

Everyone goes through stormy times in life. And when we're bobbing around like corks in the ocean, what we really need is a solid rock beneath our feet. But what if God means us, you and me, to be that solid rock in someone's life?

I hate being on the water in a boat. I don't mind swimming, I don't mind being beside the water looking and I don't mind diving under the water but I absolutely hate being on the water in a boat. Up and down, up and down … I get sick! I can just feel the waves of nausea crashing over me … up and down. I've always preferred terra firma, the more firma the less terra … up and down.

Now, if you enjoy the water, God bless you but not this little black duck. No way! I like to have a rock beneath my feet, solid, firm, no movement, no up and down. To me there's nothing more terrifying than looking out over an angry, stormy ocean, grey water, white caps, wind howling. The ocean's a scary place in a storm don't you think? There are storms in life too. And today on the program we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at what it means for us, for you and me, to be the rock beneath someone's feet.

This week, and over the last few weeks, we've been looking at what it means to live the life that God always intended. God has this great plan of joy and peace and grace and wisdom for us to live through all the things – whatever they are, ups and downs – that God has planned. Life has its downs. There's beautiful poem called 'The Weaver'. You may have heard me read this before but let me share it again.

Life is but a weaving between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily. Sometime He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride, Forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not 'til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Will God unroll His canvas and explain the reasons why The dark threads were as needful in the weaver's skilful hands As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned.

It's the reality of life isn't it? Amongst the richness and the joy and the blessing, sometimes there's the odd dark thread as well. And so much of what we do in life is about being servants rather than being served. I spent most of my life living for "me" but I was never satisfied. And these days I'm living for Him – for Jesus and other people, and for you – and I am the happiest man, the most blessed man on this planet. I wouldn't be doing anything else because God is just blessing me through this life of laying it down so that I can take it up again in Him. Jesus said,

"I didn't come to be served but to serve."(Matthew 20:28)

And that's where the satisfaction is in life

Today, we're going to look at another practical way that we can serve someone else. One of the most wonderful things that we can be for someone is a rock beneath their feet in the midst of one of life's storms. A storm out on an angry ocean is a horrible thing but a storm when your feet are on solid ground, well it's not overly pleasant but it's not as bad as being on the ocean.

Looking back at my life, I hated Christians and everything they stood for, before I met Jesus. The important things in life were clearly money and career and the big flash car and the success. And that had consequences. They caused a storm of mammoth proportions in my life. And on the dark days I felt like a cork bobbing around in this angry ocean in the middle of a storm. And here's the funny thing, the Christians, who I hated in my life (there were three of them), they were the ones that stepped up to the plate and gave me a home to live in, gave me support, gave me encouragement and gave me Jesus. They were the rock beneath my feet. I can't much remember what they said but I will never, for all eternity, forget what they did for me.

We all need solid foundations. So many people have cracks in their foundations. So many people are living life-like that cork bobbing around in an angry ocean feeling as though they're going to drown. A storm comes and people struggle. You see it, don't you? And often those people aren't the easiest people to be around. I know I wasn't when I was like that. Often they're dysfunctional and they're not pretty and they're not nice and they're upset but we can step up to the plate and we can be their rock in a storm. What an amazing privilege!

Jesus said:

Everyone will know that you're one of my disciples if you have that sort of love for each other. (John 13:35)

Unconditional love, love that hangs in there, love that's solid, love that's immovable, love that says to someone, "Doesn't matter how bad your life gets, it doesn't matter how bad that storm blows, it doesn't matter how much you feel like you're going to drown, I will be your rock, I will be the solid foundations beneath your feet."

What about someone near you? Someone in your life – a family member, a friend, a work colleague, a neighbour, someone at your local Church or football club or dance class, or one of the parents of the other kids at school – who is going through a storm and just needs a friend, just needs unconditional love, just needs someone to put their arms around them and say, "I understand. It's okay, I'm here."

That's part of living the life God always intended. It's being Jesus to them. And it's difficult some days, it's not beautiful some days. Those people aren't pretty some days but what an incredible privilege, what an incredible satisfaction.

Those three Christians I was talking about before who were my rocks, now look at what God has done through me and is doing through me and continues to do in me and they know they were a part of that. Every time I open my mouth on this side of the microphone, their ministry is ministering to you. Their love to me is flowing to you, because I learned what the love of Christ was from them. I learned who Jesus was through them being the rock beneath my feet.

It's amazing! And when we live the life God always intended, Jesus calls us into that place to serve in a practical, hands-dirty, sleeves-rolled-up love to give them the love of Christ. Jesus said to Peter, the Apostle:

On this rock I will build my Church. (Matthew 16:18)

And Peter was this impetuous man who opened his mouth before he engaged his mind and he was a fisherman but he was passionate, he was real, he wasn't perfect but he was prepared to step out of the boat and trust Jesus and walk on the water through the storm and Jesus said:

Now this is the sort of man that I can use as a rock to build my Church on."

Get out of the boat, get out in the storm, go be a rock that someone else can stand on. That is living the life God always intended.

What's Providence? Well, it's when God goes ahead of us and prepares the way. Pretty cool. But what if – I mean, just think about this – what if you and I could do that for other people? What if you and I could be God's providence for them?

I was looking up in the dictionary the other day the word "providence" because I wanted to know exactly what the word meant. Like most people, I'd always thought that providence was God's provision, but literally, the meaning of the word is this:

Care and preparation that takes place in advance. Foresight, wisdom that goes ahead of you.

Isn't that cool? God's providence is Him going ahead of us, with all His wisdom and knowledge and love and grace, and preparing the way, smoothing the path so that by the time you and I walk into that place everything's ready. Ah, it's awesome! That's what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote:

We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

Well, imagine just for a minute if we could do that for other people, if God used us to be His providence for someone else. What would the world look like then?

Over these last few weeks we've been looking at living the life that God always intended. Now, sometimes when I say that, people picture one long holiday, luxury and wealth and health and happiness, but that's not it. Life's for living, all the ups and downs, all the good times and the bad times. There's this rich fabric that we call "life", and you and I, we're people with gifts and talents and unless we exercise those in life, there's no satisfaction.

And no matter what our gifts and talents are, real satisfaction comes from serving other people. Whether you're an artist or a musician or a brain surgeon or a shop attendant or a mum or whatever. Isn't it about impacting other people's lives? When you're a parent and seeing your kids grow and become wonderful and mature adults who contribute to society, as they say, to give to other people.

This week we're looking at living a life of service; serving other people, practical ways of doing that, of making a difference just like Jesus did. When Jesus came and He said:

I didn't come to be served, I'm the Son of God, I came to serve you, I came to die for you, I came to give my life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)

Yesterday, as a really practical way of doing that – of living a life of service, we looked at the fact that when we let people be – when we let them just be who they are with all their strengths and weaknesses, when we let people be – God sets us free. I don't think my day is meant to be ruined by other people's weaknesses. There's enough in me of my own that I have to deal with without putting up with someone else's. And so there are people who are quite different to me in my life and I value their strengths and I love them in their weaknesses.

And ninety-nine times out of one hundred those weaknesses just wash straight past, because God wants us to be mature and lacking in nothing. God wants us to have joy and peace and that comes when we lay down our lives and we say, "That person drives me nuts some days, but I love them and I'll serve them and I'll bless them."

Today, we're looking at going ahead of people, exceeding their expectations. And if we're going to live the life God always intended, what if God intended for us to be His providence in other people's lives? Remember, providence is when God goes ahead – when He sends His wisdom and His love and His mercy and His grace and His power ahead of us to get things ready – so by the time we walk into them they're exactly the way God meant for them to be.

What if God used you or me to be His providence in someone else's life? When we think about it, that's what we do for our kids. As mums and dads we have greater wisdom because of our years of experience, so we let them walk through things and experience consequences while being there for them. We think ahead for them. That's how they learn, that's how they grow in a safe, loving situation. We do that. We're programmed to do that as mums and dads.

What if we did that for other people too? What would that look like? What if we just compensated for their weaknesses before they happened? What if we covered up for them when they fail? What if we supported them when they fell over? What if we opened doors for them to other people? Pro-actively doing things that go ahead to help them? What a world, what a relationship!

Let me share a story with you. When God laid this whole radio thing on my heart I didn't know anyone in radio. I just had a call from God, "Oh God, where do I start?" The answer was, I started recording programs in a studio and not a single station had agreed to take them. We'd put down three or four months worth of programs. You had to have a few months worth done before any station would even talk to you.

One day Christianityworks, our ministry, was moving offices from office A to office B and I was carrying some really heavy boxes, down the corridor. I had recorded these few months of programs and I'm lugging this box down the hallway talking to God, "Lord, how are you going to get these programs out there? What's the plan, Lord? I have no idea!" Truly I didn't, and God spoke to me so clearly that day. He said, "Go and talk to the guy behind that glass partition."

You see our old office was in a shared office area where there were other ministries and that guy was a man called Nathan Brown. He was the Australian head of Michael Youssef's ministry, Leading the Way. Now traditional wisdom, worldly wisdom says, "Well that's kind of the competition. He's another radio ministry and they try and get their programs on radio stations." Now I don't see the world that way, didn't particularly know Nathan very well but God just impressed it on me to go and talk to him.

So I put the box in my car and came back in again and knocked on Nathan's door. And I sat down and I just shared my heart with him. Nathan was overjoyed. He said, "I would love to help you." And he opened doors for our ministry through his relationships with so many stations. Chances are you're listening to this program because Nathan was involved somewhere. Today, our programs are being heard in over 1200 radio stations around the globe.

Nathan was God's providence for this ministry and for me. This man had an open heart, a heart to serve, a heart of enthusiasm, a heart to share his wisdom and experience and relationships and to open doors. Now he looks at what God's done through that and the guy is just overjoyed at having been used by God to be a part of that. Isn't that a beautiful story?

It's hard sometimes to help people, it's difficult sometimes but God's love and God's wisdom is pro-active. That means God just doesn't sit around waiting for us to get our act sorted out. God goes ahead of us before we even think of things, and He does things for us so that when we walk into them we're blessed.

We know love by this, that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Providence is pro-active and it's not always easy to do. And sometimes people don't appreciate it and sometimes people are difficult. But when God taps us on the shoulder and says, "Go help that one. Go open a door for that one. Go bless that one", you'd better go.

Because like Nathan, you know, it's just an awesome feeling when you get a sense that God touched you by His Spirit and called us into a place just to do something little that we could do. And then God uses that and multiplies it and blesses so many people when we do that. Come on! It's not always easy but are you living the life that God always intended? Come on!

Other people can frankly drive us nuts. But they are who they are – and here's a thought, when we let them be, God sets us free. Great theory – but how does it actually work?

Over the last three weeks or so we've been talking about living the life God always intended. We have one chance at this life, that's it. It's not a dress rehearsal. And what's so incredibly sad for me is to run into people, so many people, who aren't enjoying their lives. That's not to say we don't go through some rough patches. Obviously, we do, but by and large, life's there for living, for making a difference, for touching other people. There's incredible satisfaction in that.

So this week, we're kind of having a poke around in that, looking at what it means to live a life of serving other people. Today, we're going to explore one way, a practical thing that we can do to serve other people. It's so simple, it's so profound it will touch people so deeply, it's amazing. Here it is, just let them be. Let them be who they are. Let them be what God made them to be. And it turns out when we let them be, God sets us free.

We're all different, have you noticed? We're good and bad at different things. We like different things. I like this colour, you like that colour. You like that taste, I like this taste. You like those clothes, I like these clothes. So different. And sometimes we get annoyed by those differences. Maybe you've heard me talk about this in the past but it's a big issue.

One of the biggest things that ruin our lives is other people being who they are. Their differences grate and annoy and drive us nuts. You know what I mean. But the fact is, we're all different and the fact is, we always have to live with those sorts of people around us. God makes sure of it. God never puts us in a group where everybody is just completely the same. Let's face it, that would be boring to start with, but God wants steel to sharpen steel. God wants us to learn to humble ourselves and to get on with other people.

I had a recent experience. I was involved in a really large piece of work, a big complex project. And I was the key man doing the job and there were other people around me, helping me. It was a huge job. It took a lot of months to do. And what I'm good at is communicating, telling a story. I think in concepts and stories not detail but the job involved an enormous amount of detail and what I really appreciated were the people around me. They quickly understood the things that I was good at and also the fact that I wasn't good at ferreting out and sorting through a lot of the detail. And so they served me and they helped me with the things that I wasn't good at.

They could have criticised me, they could have complained, they could have attacked me. Instead, they helped me and when that happens, it so validates who we are. It's wonderful to work in an organisation like I do and to experience those things. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12, figures it out. He said (my paraphrase):

We're all different. We all have different motivations and abilities. Some people are good communicators, others are good teachers, and others are good encouragers, others are good leaders, others are good at caring for other people and serving. Others are real givers and yet others are great at showing mercy. (Romans 12: 6-8)

But the flip side is, we all have weaknesses. Communicators like me, want to talk over people. Encouragers want to encourage so much that they end up running other people's lives for them. People who are good at caring and showing mercy, well, sometimes are not the best time managers. And on top of that, we all have our own foibles; we all have our own 'Achilles heel', the things that we do wrong. So when we have people around who are different what does it look like to live the life God always intended?

How do you do that, when people's weaknesses disrupt our peace and joy that God wants us to have? You know, you have a great time with God in the morning, Yes! Hallelujah! And then you deal with someone in the middle of the day and they drive you nuts and that peace has gone and that joy is gone. If we want to live the life that God always intended, we have to let people be. And when we let people be, God sets us free.

I have enough of my own faults without your faults ruining my day. In fact, if I let your faults and your weaknesses ruin my day then I'm adding your faults to mine. And if I let the next person's weaknesses rub me the wrong way, I'm adding those to my load. And the next person after that, I'm adding those to my load. I've got enough of my own to carry around I don't need to carry yours with me too… and the next persons and the next persons and the next persons.

My time with God in the morning is a powerful way of changing who I am and living the day for Christ, to be a blessing, to live a life of joy and peace. And when I pick up your load and the next person's load, it ruins my peace.

I've made a decision. I'm going to let you be who you are, will you let me be who I am? When that weakness that rubs us the wrong way comes at us just let it be, just turn the other cheek and let it be. When we let people be, God sets us free. The moment we stop trying to change people, complain about them, whinge about them, get angry about them, get hurt because they offended us, our lives change.

Why is it that God makes such a big thing about forgiveness? Jesus, when He was teaching His Disciples the Lord's Prayer said,

Forgive us as we forgive others. (Matthew 6:12)

Wake up! Let those others be! Accept them just the way they are. And you know something, that's a form of service. When we do that it puts them before us and people sense that, they notice that. When I say, "You know something, it's okay for you to not be a really good time manager, even though that rubs me the wrong way, because you know something, I'm not very good pastorally but you are and we need both of us on this team." When I say that, I'm validating who you are or who the next person is.

Get a revelation! You and I have enough weaknesses and failures of our own without letting our next person's weaknesses and failures ruin our day. Come on! I know people who are smart and clever and intelligent and good at what they do but they spend their whole time whingeing and complaining about other people. They're touchy, they're sensitive. When you are touchy and sensitive, you don't have joy, you don't have peace. You're setting yourself up in the centre of the universe and saying, "Because this person doesn't fit with my view of who they should be, I'm going to get offended."

Well, just as well Jesus didn't do that on the cross with you and me. If I sound like maybe I'm getting into your face today, maybe that's because it's time to do that. Living the life that God always intended is about living our lives with other people and for other people just the way Jesus lived His life for you and for me. And as we lay down our lives for them, our rights for them, our self-righteousness for them, God changes us, God sets us free. Doing this stuff costs us. It costs us our lives but the prize is life itself.

Bottom line … if we want to live the life God always intended we need to accept people just the way they are – willingly, kindly, gently, patiently, day after day, week after week. When we let people be, God sets us free.

There's nothing worse than going to a coffee shop for a good cuppa and getting bad service. And it turns out that we're all in the service business one way or another. How we serve others, makes a difference.

There's nothing worse than going somewhere, a shop or a cafe or a restaurant, even a ride in a taxi and you get bad service. There's this little cafe close to home where my wife, Jacqui and I, love going. We know the owner and we just get good coffee there. But there's one woman that works there that's so surly. She never smiles. She never says, "Hello." She never recognises us. We have the same coffee every time and each time she asks us, "What will you have?" instead of saying, "Just the usual?"

Now everyone's entitled to a bad day every now and then, and sometimes people are going through rough patches in their lives. But in this case, I've just come to the conclusion that this poor woman is in the wrong job. And you know, whatever we do and however we do it, we're all somehow in the service business – at work, at home. The thing that makes society and the economy go round, is the fact that we all do things for other people. What a shame to spend your life serving other people, while all the time they're looking at us thinking, "Boy isn't that one in the wrong job!"

Over the last few weeks we've been looking at what it means to live the life that God always intended. We're born, we eat, we sleep, we go to work and then we die and that's life. It's like that for all of us. And sure, there's routine and there's drudgery, like that woman in the coffee shop. I mean, I don't think she wakes up every morning thinking, "Wow, it's back to the coffee shop again! I just can't wait until Berni and Jacqui come down so I can get their skim flat whites and their one muffin that they cut in half to share."

I think it's really sad. Life is for living and living has so much to do with serving other people. Just think about the economy again. We all make money by doing specialised things that other people can't do. We do it for them, so we get paid and that's how we make money. And other people do things for us that we can't do, so they get paid and that's how they make money.

It turns out, how much we enjoy serving others, has a lot to do with what we get out of life, whether it's a paid job or a stay at home parent bringing up kids or whatever. There's this important principle that says, "It's not so much of what I pour into my life that gives me satisfaction, but it's what I pour out of my life, what I give, what I sacrifice."

Now, a lot of people aren't good at giving or serving. And in a sense, you know, just quietly between you and me, we can all be a bit selfish sometimes, can't we? But when we serve other people, it makes such an incredible difference, not just in their lives, which is wonderful, enough but in our lives.

I want to tell you about a startling piece of service that I received recently; in fact, it started a few months ago. For the last quarter of a century I've been using the same, pre-electric shave lotion. Now Berni's not much into lotions and potions, I have to tell you, but this lotion just makes the horrible job of shaving every morning a bit more pleasant. And I went to a few of the big department stores that normally stock this thing and they were completely out.

Now you know department stores these days, they have hardly any staff on, particularly during the week and it's pretty hard sometimes to get any service, let alone good service. But this woman, Margaret, she said, "Well there's none there and we normally have some. Mr Dymet I'll investigate it for you and give me your phone number and I'll call you back."

"Yeah, right." Who's been called back by someone who works in a department store lately? Doesn't happen very often does it? It turned out there was some new packaging and so this stuff wasn't available for a few months but the miracle is, within two days she actually called me back to tell me. Well that was the last I heard and she said it will be available in a few months time and that was it.

But just the other day, four months later, my phone rings, "Mr Dymet it's Margaret here, from the department store. Those things you were after, they've just come in. Now we haven't got many and they're half the price they used to be, so would you like me to set a couple of bottles aside for you? That should keep you going for a couple of years."

Can you believe that? I was completely gob-smacked! It is so rare these days to get that sort of service out of anyone.

I keep telling people about it. And it's like that right across life – at work, at school, at home – people are rushing around, they're just in it for themselves. People don't much want to serve one another anymore. So when we serve them, really serve them, exceed their expectations, go the extra mile, it stands out from the crowd. It speaks volumes about what we think of them. It touches them and they tell other people, just like I just told you about Margaret. Margaret's story has now gone around eighty countries across the world because she went the extra mile.

My kind of service is not working in a shop or a café. I spent seventeen years as a consultant in the Information Technology industry and some days were really hard. But the satisfaction came from helping clients through really difficult projects, getting to the end knowing that I'd played a small part and I'd brought the things I know I could bring and work with other people with unique skills and help to guide the project to successful conclusion.

Come on! Jesus said:

I'm the Son of God and I came not to be served but to serve. (Matthew 20:28)

Jesus always turns our selfishness upside down; it's why a lot of people got upset with Him when He was wandering around Galilee and Judea. Jesus has this way putting His finger on something and going right to the nub of it. He is the Son of God, He had every right to come to be served and not to serve and He said, "No, no actually I didn't come to be served, I came to serve you, to give my life as a ransom for many." We know He did, what an amazing concept!!

But what about us giving our lives, to serve other people? It's going to cost something. It means that I'm not the centre of the universe anymore; it means that some days it won't be convenient; it means that some days it will hurt; it means that some days people may not appreciate or even notice that we're serving them. But Jesus is saying:

Be like me. I gave my life up for you. I gave up my rights for you. I gave up all the glory that I'm entitled, for you to let some men beat me and spit on me, nail me on the cross so that you could have eternal life.

That's God. That's Jesus. And when we live that life of service, we end up bringing Jesus to people. We end up touching them with His love. And the crazy thing is, we try and cling onto our lives, our comforts and our rights and life's hollow, it's empty. Those who try and save their lives will lose them but when we pour ourselves out for others – lose our rights and comforts and entitlements – and all of a sudden life becomes richer and more meaningful and real. Those who lose their lives for Jesus' sake will gain them (Luke 17:33).

The rest of this week on the program, we'll look at some really practical ways that we can serve others, that not only blesses them in the most amazing way, but in doing, that blesses us. In taking the risk and stepping out saying, "Jesus, I'm prepared to lay down my life for You. I'm prepared not to have the last say in an argument. I'm prepared not to win. I'm prepared to lose for You. I'm prepared to be no-one for You. I'm prepared to lose my reputation for You" – take that sort of a step, that sort of life and all of a sudden we're living the life that God always intended.

No man is an island … actually, it's true of women too. But sometimes, it seems like the rest of the world is pretty much ready to desert us. And when we feel all alone, we wonder if we still have anything useful that we can do. So … do we give up, or do we keep going?

You know there are parts of the Bible that I'm prone to skimming over. For instance the genealogies. They're so long and boring and dry, particularly the one that goes on for pages and pages at the beginning of 1 Chronicles in the Old Testament. Who has time to read that? But one man did, a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson and he stumbles across the prayer of Jabez, one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible and of course he wrote the book, "The Prayer of Jabez".

And that's how often it is with those bits we'd rather just skim over. The introductions to Paul's letters or epistles in the New Testament, we always want to skim over those. But there is such a richness and power in those, we do so at our own peril. And finally the bits that I used to be prone to skimming over were some of the personal notes at the end of Paul's letters.

He'd write all the rich, meaty theological stuff that you and I can apply to our lives and then almost like a p.s. at the end of a letter he kind of writes to say, "Say gidday to Fred and tell Betty to come and visit me soon and give my regards to all my friends in wherever it is." You know, all that stuff. But just the other day as we were exploring what it means to rekindle the amazing gift that God has placed within each one of us, we read this in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16:

That all Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

So as we draw to the end of Paul's letter and we get to that personal bit I'm going to resist the temptation to skip over that bit because as is always the case there are some gems hidden in there that the Holy Spirit wants us to take and write on our hearts.

Paul sets out his purpose of his letter to his young protégé Timothy way back in chapter 1. Timothy's going through some terribly tough times so Paul reminds him of all that trouble that God's gone to, to get him to this point in his life. And he writes, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

This letter is about rekindling the gift that God has put into each one of us and using it for the glory of God. Why? Not only because doing that is so incredibly satisfying and fulfilling, which it is, but because the time is short and people are going to a Christ-less eternity as we saw yesterday on the program. And I pray that you, like me, have been powerfully encouraged and motivated to rekindle the gift that God has placed within you over these past weeks as we've let God's Word transform us.

So, here we are drawing to the end of the letter, and we get to this personal bit. What does the Holy Spirit have to say to us through this if indeed every Scripture is inspired by God and is useful in our lives? Well let's have a bit of a read about what Paul has to say on the personal front, 2 Timothy chapter 4 beginning at verse 9. He says to Timothy:

Do your best to come to me soon for Demas in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful in my ministry.

I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books and above all the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm, the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. You also must be aware of him for he is strongly opposed to the message.

At my first defence no one came to support me but all deserted me, may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lions mouth, the Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom, to him be the glory for ever and ever, amen.

That's quite a devastating story, isn't it? All these people who've done Paul harm and deserted him and left him, remember at this point after many years of ministry in Jesus name across the known world it's pretty much the end of his career. Paul is now on death row in a Roman dungeon. He's escaped execution and all that stuff and the lions a few times. He's been through court hearing after court hearing, he's served the Lord so faithfully and through so many trials and tribulations and now this, everyone's deserted him.

God's people, the very ones who should have stood by his side, the very people who should have been there for him have either deserted him on mass or as in the case of Alexander the coppersmith, have done him great harm. Can I tell you something? There is nothing, absolutely nothing that is more damaging than when the people who are close to you, the people you should have been able to trust, the people who should be caring for you and standing with you in your distress, God's people after all, desert you and betray you.

Our immediate response to that is, "This shouldn't be happening!" And when it does it ranks right up there as our number one excuse for not exercising the amazing gift that God has given us for His glory. It's our top excuse as we conclude that well if all those other Christians in my Church can't get their act together, why should I?

Have you ever had that thought running through your head, as though because others lose the plot it must therefore be fine and dandy in God's eyes for us to lose the plot as well? For us to put our gifts and abilities on ice and let countless people head off to a Christ-less eternity. Let me ask you, is that what Paul did? No! He relied on the Lord and even when he's locked up, chained to a Roman guard, this is what he does, he uses the opportunity to tell the Romans about Jesus. We read about it in Philippians chapter 1 beginning at verse 12. He writes to the Philippians:

I want you to know beloved that what has happened to me has actually helped us spread the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ and most of these brothers and sisters having been made confident in the Lord by my imprisonment dare to speak the word with greater boldness and without fear.

Don't you love that? Would the time appear favourable there, chained up in a prison? Probably not and yet Paul used his gifts and his abilities to turn that around for good and bring Jesus to his jailers for goodness sake.

I want to encourage you today not to let anything, any disappointment, any adversity, any betrayal stop you from taking your gift, your unique ability back out of the locker and putting it to work right where you are for the glory of God. Don't wait for a better time, don't wait for the storm to clear, don't wait for God to put you in a much better place. Start using your unique gifting right now to be as Christ to a world that desperately needs a saviour whether they realise it or not.

Because in all likelihood there's someone close to you, someone that God has deliberately put in your proximity space who needs to hear about this amazing Jesus through your unique ability to tell them, through your gift of service or your gift of encouragement or whatever it is that is your gift, your shtick in life. And one day you'll meet them on the other side of eternity and you'll have all eternity to rejoice in Christ with them. That's the plan and it's a fantastic plan.

It's a plan where God wants to use us just where we are, just the way He's made us, in exactly the circumstances we find ourselves in, in order to tell people about the saving love of Jesus. Remember Jesus didn't turn back from the Cross because the time wasn't good; Jesus went to the Cross because He knew that's the one thing we needed of Him.

Friend, use your gift, tell people about that Jesus.

For anyone who believes in this Jesus, one of the things that God wants us to do is to keep on shining His light into this world. Sometimes we look at our circumstances – the conditions around us and things seem far from favourable. So do we stop, or do we keep shining the light of Christ into this world?

Over these last few weeks we've been chatting about rekindling the gift that God's put within us. And you know the exciting thing about that? When we use our gifts, I mean when we take the things that we've been given in our make up and put them to work, it is just so incredibly satisfying. I know myself, one of the things I really enjoy doing is playing the piano.

In my young years I practised hard, all the scales and arpeggios, sat the exams practical and theory. But when I moved away from my parent's home I went years, maybe twenty years without playing the piano much at all. Eventually my mother gave me the grand piano we had out in the music room and when it arrived at my home I started playing again. These days it sits in my study where I pray, where I write my books, where I prepare these radio messages and a few times each day I'll go and play for ten minutes or so and it is such a delight and a joy to do that.

I mean, that's just one small, almost trivial example. But as we've been chatting over these last few weeks I know I've been emphasising the fact that our God-given gift is meant to be a blessing to other people. I'm blessed through your gift, the things that you can do that I can't do and hopefully you're blessed through mine. That's how it's supposed to work and it does.

But there's something so incredibly special about the enjoyment, the fulfilment that we get when we use our gift and we see the impact in other people's lives. All my life I was looking for fulfilment in things I could get and I didn't realise that fulfilment comes when we take the things we have and give them away to bless other people.

About eighteen months ago a young teenager from a broken home contacted me in response to one of these radio messages that she heard on her local station. She's only thirteen at the time and going through a really terrible time at home but she also had a hunger for God. And so she asked me some questions and I was able to share a few things with her and within weeks she gave her life to Jesus and she was filled with His Holy Spirit and she had a joy and an excitement in her that she had never experienced.

Well I was praying for her the other day so I sent her a quick email to find out how she was going. She came straight back to tell me that she was powering on with God, that her whole life had been changed. Now look, I just had a small part to play in what God was doing but the joy and the sense of satisfaction that I gained from knowing that God had used me, me of all people, this fifty-two year old man who's never met this young teenager, who isn't what you'd call made to be involved in youth ministry, it still makes me smile.

Does that make sense? It's so easy to forget that we have to use it and when we do even though it can be really hard work, using our God-given gift is so fulfilling. And to emphasis this the Apostle Paul is writing to his young protégé Timothy encouraging him to rekindle the gift that Gods put within him has this to say. 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning at verse 4:

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom I solemnly urge you proclaim the message. Be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable, convince, rebuke, encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine but have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.

As for you always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of a evangelist, carry out your ministry to the full. As for me I am already being poured out as a libation and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith, from now on there is a reserve for me, the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

And right here Paul is giving Timothy and us focus on the big picture. One day soon Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. Time is short and because of that I solemnly urge you to keep telling people about Jesus irrespective of whether the time appears to be favourable or not. Be persistent, keep telling people, convince, rebuke, encourage with the utmost patience, whatever it takes.

Now Timothy's gift, the one that he was being called to rekindle was the gift of teaching and preaching. Praise God, not everyone in his family is a preacher and a teacher but do you see how this applies equally to each one of us irrespective of what our particular gifting happens to be. If you're an encourager it applies equally to you, if you're a giver it applies to you too, if you're a compassionate pastoral person it applies equally to you.

There is great joy and satisfaction in exercising our gifts, sure there is but what we want to do is we want to pull back and take a breather when the time appears to be unfavourable. "No!", says Paul, the time is short. I mean Paul was at the end of his life here, the sense of satisfaction he has running the race and fighting the good fight, Paul was at the end, Timothy was still in the main thrust of it and he was saying to Timothy, "People are dying, people are going to a Christ-less eternity."

Jesus is planning on coming back some time soon to judge the living and the dead. God has put each one of us where He's put us with whatever gift that He's given to us in order to make a difference in this world. In order to bring people to know Jesus, in order to see them growing, to see them realise their giftings and start using those. And we need to be doing that because the time is coming when people won't put up with sound teaching, they'll have itching ears, they'll accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, they'll turn away from listening to the truth and wandering away to some myth.

Isn't that the truth? It's something that we see all the time, people chasing after this and chasing after that. People trying to pull alongside so called guru's who tell them what they want to hear. Jesus never told people what they wanted to hear. Now He was very sensitive to where someone was at and where they were coming from but He didn't dress it up, He didn't put any spin on His message because truth is truth.

There is a heaven, there is a hell and many, many are heading the wrong way however enticing that way may seem to appear to them right now. Have you ever watched the news and heard some so- called Christian leader tickling people's ears with the sort of stuff they want to hear? Just the other evening I saw a Christian denominational leader standing side by side with a Buddhist monk and a Jewish leader and leaders of other religions proclaiming that there was more that binds them together than pulls them apart.

That's not what Jesus said, that's not the truth. The thing that puts Christianity out on it's own is that it is based on the truth that Jesus is the only way, that no one will come to the Father except through Him and this is the reason that we need to continue living out our giftings, each one of us, for the glory of God.

I know that there are those listening who've turned back; I know that there are those listening who've lost sight of their gifting, their one particular God given gift all together. And today I believe that God is speaking especially to you through His Word. I believe that today God is calling you back to the plans and the purposes that He has for you.

And before you tell me that it's all too hard, that there's too much weighing against you let me say this. Inevitably when we've seen amazing breakthroughs in the lives of people here at Christianityworks – young Ami who recently was pulled back from the brink of suicide – the time for proclaiming Christ was not favourable at all, we just went and did it and you know what we discovered, we discovered that Gods grace was more than sufficient for us.

You know what I've noticed? It's awfully easy to lose our way in life. We each have this God–given gift or ability and we head off into life with our dream for using it. And then the cares of the world take over and we're off on the wrong track. How do we stay focussed? How do we get our lives back on track?

One of the people with whom I have been greatly blessed in my life is my good friend and mentor Graham. Graham would be twenty odd years older than me I guess. We first met when he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the army and I was a brash young Captain. We hit it off and within a few years he and I and a couple of other ex military sorts were involved as partners in a Management and IT Consulting firm.

So for almost two decades I worked with Graham and benefited so much from his wisdom and his insight. To this day he is seriously one of the wisest men that I have ever met and if you're a regular listener to this program much of the wisdom that I'm able to share with you came to me through my friendship with Graham.

Sadly mentorship is something of a lost art these days, at least in the western world and here I am now in my fifties and as I reflect on life I realise that none of us can do it all on our own. We need to be surrounded by wisdom from somewhere else. When the going gets tough and when we're tempted to race off in this direction or that direction, having some wise trusted counsellors close by, well you just can't put a price on that, you just can't. And as we continue our look today at rekindling the gift that God has placed within each one of us I'd really like to chat about that with you some more.

Because when the going gets tough and when we're tempted to pull off the path that God prepared for us, to use our God-given gifts for His glory, then right there in that place we need some good advice.

If you were with me yesterday on the program you will recall that we again looked at this whole thing of rekindling the gift that lies within, rekindling the flame, rekindling our dreams through the Apostle Paul's second letter to Timothy his young protégé. And the thing that Paul talks a lot about was the adversity that Tim was facing. Let's have another listen, 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1:

You must understand this that in the last days distressing times are going to come because people are going to be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying it's power.

Avoid them for among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all their desires, who are always being instructed but can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

What a list. I mean there's pretty ugly stuff I think you'd agree. We don't expect to find those people in our Churches or our families or our work colleagues or amongst our friends but they are definitely there. People who want to stand in our way, people who want to tell us we're not really that gifted, people who'll do absolutely anything to stop us from living out our God given gifting as a leader or a teacher or an encourager or however it is that God has made each one of us.

And it's because of this brutal reality that Paul says to Timothy, 'Look, for this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift, the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.' Because God doesn't want us to stop using the gift that He's given us. Well, all good in theory but when we're in the heat of the battle, when the emotion and the exhaustion and the misinformation, when the fog of war envelops us how do we stay on track? What do we need to do to maintain the course that the Lord our God has set for us?

Well that's the question that Paul now goes on to answer for Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 10:

You've observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and suffering, the things that happen to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured yet the Lord rescued me from them all.

Indeed all who want to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted but wicked people and imposters will go from bad to worse deceiving others and being deceived but as for you continue in what you've learned and firmly believe knowing from whom you've learnt it and how from childhood you've known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

All Scripture is inspired by God, it's useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

Well, he goes back to what I was saying earlier about having a mentor, and in this case the first thing Paul says to his protégé Timothy is, "Look Tim I know it's tough but remember me, remember your mentor, remember the things you saw me doing through the trials and the persecutions. Trials and persecutions by the way that you too are going to have to travel through at some time. Tim follow my example."

And as I look around and look back on my journey God has put some people like that in my life. Graham of course who I mentioned earlier, Phil the pastor of the first Church I went to when I became a Christian. What a powerful example that humble man has been in my life. My good friend James and several others and these are people who have acted as, well as signposts in my life. Keeping me on track to use the gifting that Gods entrusted to me.

Are any of those people perfect? Of course they're not and yet God has used them mightily in my life, to tell you the truth I wouldn't be here with you had He not put them along my path because I'm sure I would have wandered off in completely the wrong direction 'cause that's what we do isn't it?

And the second thing, the second thing that God calls us to use powerfully to stay on course is His Word, the Word of God:

As for you (says Paul to Timothy) continue in what you've learned and firmly believe knowing from whom you've learned it and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is inspired by God, it is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work.

So many people imagine that they can follow Jesus without reading His Word, the Bible, for themselves and I'm sorry if you're one of those people who subscribes to that school but it is just plain wrong. God has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to preserve with an unparalleled degree of accuracy the sixty-six Books of the Old and New Testaments so that you and I will what? Use them as a door stop or an ornament on a bookshelf? No. So that you and I will open them up and read them and allow God to transform our lives through His wisdom and His counsel and His truth.

We need wisdom from above and it comes to us when we drink it in from God's Word the Bible and it comes to us as it's reflected off other godly men and women right into the dark patch that we may be in right at the moment.

My friend as I often say, you cannot make it even through kindergarten on a twenty or thirty minute teaching session once a week so why do we Christians imagine that we can make it through life based on one short sermon every Sunday? Because we can't. The Lord our God is so passionate about seeing us rekindle that gift that He's placed within each one of us. So passionate.

He knows about the adversity, He knows about the temptation for us to turn back and give up. And so He's given us sign posts – godly men and women – and above all He's given us His Word to keep us on His path so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

We each have a God–given gift or ability – something that we're able to do better than just about anybody else that we know. But it's a funny thing – when we run into opposition and trials in life – the first thing we want to do sometimes is to stop using that gift. To stop living out who God made us to be. Why is that?

Now I don't know if you've picked this up in your life but life ain't always easy, have you noticed that? We kind of figure to ourselves it should be, at least it should be easier than what it is. And yeah there are some great things that happen in life, they really do but there's always something there, some adversity that seemingly takes the shine off things.

I'll tell you what that does to us, it discourages us. It starts to tear away at the hopes and the dreams that we've had for our lives and as we've observed over this past week on the program we each have hopes and dreams and more often than not our dreams are built on the foundation of the gifting that God has woven into our DNA.

I have a dear friend, Keith, in fact Keith and I have written a book together, and his particular gifting is to be a teacher. Now he doesn't stand up in front of a classroom and lecture, that's not Keith at all. He's more your life coach, not a self appointed franchise owning life coach like those you find on the internet but a natural gifted life coach.

People come to him naturally for advice and encouragement and he helps them understand their own giftings and abilities to get their lives back on track. It's a God given gift that Keith has and his hopes and his dreams for the rest of his life are built on this foundation of his gifting. It's a part of who he is. He understands that, he knows the stuff he's good at and loves, absolutely loves doing the things that he is good at.

Back in the 1980's he suffered a surfing accident, broke his neck and he was almost killed firstly by the surfing accident and secondly when the rescue helicopter crashed. And some days Keith suffers terrible migraine headaches, totally debilitating. I called him the other day and he sounded like death warmed up. He told me later that he really thought he was going to die that day the pain was just so bad.

But here's the thing about Keith, the adversity doesn't distract him from living out the special gift of teaching and encouragement that God's given him. The adversity doesn't rob him of his dreams that he has for blessing other people through this God given gift.

Do you remember last week we chatted about this whole gifting thing through the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé Timothy? And these were the two verses that in particular leapt out, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 which says:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 14:

Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

See Timothy was struggling obviously in this adversity of pastoring a growing Church and he was at risk of losing sight of his God given gifts. So the Apostle Paul writes to him exalting him to rekindle that gift and to guard the good treasure entrusted to him. Why? Well because adversity was tearing away at him and today we're going to have a look at the adversity that he was facing in his life and his ministry.

Have a listen to what Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. He says:

You have to understand that in these last days distressing times are going to come because people are going to be lovers of themselves and money and boasters and arrogant and abusive and disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying it's power.

Timothy avoid them for among them are those who make their way to the households and captivates silly women overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires who are always being instructed but can never arrive at the knowledge of the truth.

As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses so these people of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress because as in the case of those two men their folly will become plain to everyone.

I love the way that Paul starts off his advice to Timothy about this adversity. He says, look you must understand this that in these last days distressing times will come. It seems that Timothy, perhaps like you and me, wasn't expecting adversity. It's not something we hope for or look forward to and invariably one of adversity's biggest impacts on us is that sense of surprise.

But Paul's saying, "Look young man this is the reality, this is what's going to happen, don't be surprised. People are going to come against you and what a list, listen to it again. They're going to be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power."

Wow, what a list. Now tell me do you expect to find those people in your Church or in your family or in your circle of friends or in your workplace? Is that what you expect? No. But Paul's saying, don't be surprised, they are there and more often than not they are going to be a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing, they're going to hold to the outward form of godliness, like pretend to believe in God but denying it's power on the inside. In other words they're going to pretend that they're holier than thou but in reality they're out there to tear you down because on the inside they deny the power of God.

And this is the context, this is the reality, this is the opposition which causes Paul to say to Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Do you see? Adversity isn't our excuse to give up on doing good. Adversity and criticism and opposition don't give us cause to give up using our God-given gift to love and to bless and to encourage and to comfort those around us. To the contrary, it's the reality in which we live, it's the reality in which Timothy was operating, it's the reality in which Paul was operating, it's the reality in which you and I operate. And I believe that in this reality, in the harsh, cold light of day with people like this around us, not all of them but some of them, God is calling you and God is calling me to rekindle the flame, to rekindle the gift that He placed within each one of us when He handcrafted every strand of our DNA when we were in our mother's womb. And that's what I encourage you to do today.

Because I know without a shadow of a doubt that for some the dream of using their God-given gift has grown cold. I know without a shadow of a doubt that there are some who have pulled off the path that God has chosen for them because it's all just become too hard. Because there's all these people around them that tear them down, that criticise them, that hurt them. Oh surely God doesn't want me to use my gift in this place, surely.

Imagine for a moment, just imagine where you and I would be today if Jesus had turned back from the cross because it was all too hard. Adversity is the very place where we are called to grow and exercise our gift because here's the thing, the gift we have from God, that one special ability that we have to make a difference in other people's lives invariably turns out expressing the love of God to those people who benefit from our gift.

Whether, as in Keith's case as he coaches people back onto the path that God has for their life, or as in my case as I use my gift of story telling to share the good news of Jesus with you and others, or as in your case as you use that special gift that God has given you to bless others. Adversity is not our excuse for giving up on our God given gift, it's the trigger to use it more to bless others because where there is opposition and adversity there, right there in that place more love and more grace is actually required.

Each one of us has something that we're good at; something we enjoy doing; some God–given gift or ability that we just excel at. But all too often, it's been buried under years of neglect. And so many, many people live their lives, without ever living out their dreams. But what if God never meant for that to happen?

Over the past week we've been chatting about rekindling the flame, the passion in our hearts for being about the business of God. The business that God's left us here on earth for, His business, God's business. Many, many Christians love Jesus and they want to follow Him but they've lost their way. Not so much because they don't love the Lord but because the way they spend their lives and their resources and their time isn't what God had intended.

What we believe and what we do are meant to be linked. That's why faith without works is dead. What does that mean? It means that if we believe in something with all our hearts and yet we fail to live it out eventually what we believe will start to die and that's what's happening for many people who've set out on this journey of loving Jesus and following Him. Their faith has begun to die because they've lost focus on what they are meant to be doing.

Interesting how that strikes home, interesting how we sometimes focus on our faith and we forget about living it out and then wonder why our faith is dying. Why we feel like a rudderless ship on the ocean being tossed this way and that way.

Now, can I say that's something that many people go through and so those who don't believe in Jesus look at us and what they end up seeing is a hypocrite, what they see is someone who's living out a disconnect between what they profess to be true and how they live. So this week we're continuing on our journey of rekindling this flame.

And if you were able to join me last week on the program you'll recall that what we've been doing is opening up the second letter that the wise old Apostle Paul wrote back in the 1st century to his young protégé Timothy. It seems that young Tim was having the same problem. Timothy was pastoring a Church and as anyone who's ever tried to do that will tell you, that quite simply is not an easy job. It would be much easier without the people of course but I guess that wouldn't be the point. And there are two verses in particular that really leapt out for me in what Paul was saying to Timothy. The first was 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 where Paul says

For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.

And then down to verse 14:

Guard the good treasure that has been entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

It comes back to this concept, that each one of us has been given a special gift or ability by God that's been handcrafted into our DNA by God Himself and He's done that with a purpose. In Timothy's case that gift was preaching and teaching so I relate really well to what Paul's saying to Timothy in this letter and clearly Timothy was finding the going tough as we'll see over the course of this week.

He was facing quite a bit of stiff opposition from all sorts of different people and when things are tough it's so easy to lose focus isn't it? It's so easy to forget that God's given us this special gift that God means for us to exercise and to use this gift that Gods plans and purposes for this world and for the people around us and indeed for you and me are intricately linked to the exercising of that special gift or ability that God has given us.

Is that really true you might ask? Do I really have a gift and is it really important in the scheme of things for me to use them? My answer to that is absolutely you do and absolutely it is.

Today we're going to journey off somewhere else to another of Paul's letters, indeed his letters to the Roman Church and I want to share with you a passage that you may find familiar because while I was reading it the other day something leapt off the page for me and into my heart, something that I'd never seen before despite the fact that I've written a whole book that revolves around this passage. Have a listen to it, it's Romans chapter 12 beginning at verse 4:

For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function. So we who are many are one in the body of Christ and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. Let love be genuine and hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with mutual affection, out do one another in showing honour, do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Now what this is all about here is explaining how we as men, women and children who love Jesus should live together in fellowship and a community of faith. That's how God changes us, that's how God transforms us, in a community. Here He uses the analogy of the body of Christ but how does that community function?

Well, quite simply Paul's saying, "Guys, we're all different. One of you has been put here by God to speak His will into the community of faith, that's what prophecy is all about. Another's been put here to minister, to serve. Another to teach. Another to exalt or encourage. Another to give. Another to lead. Another to show compassion."

You look at this list of seven gifts and it's pretty comprehensive, it's the way things are meant to be but that's not so much the angle I want to come at this particular passage today. As I said I've written a whole book about this to help people locate their particular motivational gifting or as we might say today, their personality type. It's called incidentally, that book, "My Personality GPS" and GPS being a locating device.

But will you please notice with me what Paul says that each of the people with these different gifts should do and we all have at least one of them in our make up. The prophet should do what? Prophecy according to his or her faith. The minister or server should do what? Minister. The teacher should? Teach. The leader should? Lead diligently. The giver should? Give generously. The one with compassion should show? Compassion with cheerfulness.

In other words God is saying here through Paul, "Would you please live out the gift that I've given you?" Do what God made you to do, do you see that? It's right there in the text. God is commanding us to be, to live out who He made us to be. Why is it that so many people are unhappy? Well it's this, it's because they're trying to be someone else, they're trying to do things that they were never meant to do. And it's by living out this one particular gift that we've been given that we end up showing genuine love and notice with me how Paul finishes off this particular passage.

Do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord.

Be zealous, be ardent in using your particular gift to serve God. Why are so many of us finding it hard to live out our faith? Why have so many of us lost our passion? Why has the flame gone out in so many a Christ followers' heart? Because we've stopped living out the gift that God gave us. It's something we all struggle with; Timothy was struggling with it which is why Paul writes to him to remind him to rekindle the gift of God that is within him through the laying on of Paul's hands.

And friend today I believe God is reminding me and God is reminding you, I don't know what your circumstances are but I will bet a penny to a pound that there are so many things in your circumstances that are screaming at you that it's not the right time to use your gift, that you've lost it, that you should do something else, that the comfortable job you're in is what you should be doing.

Friend it is time to get back on focus, it is time to get back on purpose because Gods plan is to bring a lost and hurting world back to Him and that plan involves you using your special particular gift to be part of that. It includes your gifts and your abilities. Gods plan is to work through the person that He has made you to be, to share His mighty love with the people in your life. That my friend is the plan.