The Prodigal Father

Posted on by scottcatchot


Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

If you open up your Bibles to Luke chapter 15, you are going to see a heading right above verse 11. In almost every translation sitting in your laps or on your phones, that heading reads: “The Parable of the Prodigal Son.”


We know this story.

We’ve painted it on church walls, we’ve sung songs about it, we’ve heard it preached since we were children in Sunday School. It is so deeply embedded in our religious subconscious that we think we know exactly what it’s about. We look at that heading and we say, “Ah, yes. The story of the rebellious kid who blew it, and the good father who let him back in.”


But I want to start this morning with a bit of a shock to our system: Those headings in your Bible are lying to you.


Well, let me rephrase that. They aren’t lying, but they are editorial additions.

They were written by publishers and translators centuries after Luke penned these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus never gave this story a title. And by focusing entirely on the word “prodigal” as an accusation against a rebellious teenager, we have missed the entire point of the explosive bomb Jesus dropped into the middle of first-century religious culture.


Let’s talk about that word: Prodigal.


If I asked you to define “prodigal” right now, most of you would use words like sinful, rebellious, wayward, dirty, or wicked. But that’s actually not what the word means.

If you open up the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the primary definition of “prodigal” is this: recklessly wasteful; extravagant; spending resources to a degree that is completely unmeasured and unrestrained.
Now, it’s true that the younger son was deeply prodigal with his sin. He was recklessly wasteful with his inheritance, his character, and his family heritage.


I want to invite you to look past the subtitle in your Bible and look at the actual mechanics of the story. Because if “prodigal” means recklessly wasteful, extravagant, and lavishly unrestrained, then I submit to you that the most prodigal character in this entire story is not the son.


The son wastes an inheritance; the Father wastes mercy.
The son spends money; the Father spends grace.
The son is extravagant in his rebellion; the Father is reckless in His love.


Welcome to the story of The Prodigal Father.


To understand how shocking this story truly is, we have to understand why Jesus told it. Look at how Luke chapter 15 begins. This is the setup for the trap Jesus is about to spring:


“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” — Luke 15:1-2


Picture the scene. You have two distinct groups of people standing around Jesus.


On one side, you have the “sinners.” These are the tax collectors—not the white-collar accountants of our day, but state-sanctioned thieves who extorted their own people for Roman profit. You have the prostitutes, the ritualistically unclean, the people who haven’t been inside a synagogue in decades. They know they are dirty. They know they don’t deserve God. Yet, they are drawn to Jesus. They are crowding around Him.


On the other side, you have the Pharisees and scribes. These are the religious elites. They have memorized the Torah, which is the 1st 5 books of the O.T. They don’t miss the tithe. They have built an entire lifestyle around flawless performance and rigid personal control. And they are absolutely furious. They are muttering under their breath: “Why does He spend time with people like that? Why does He eat with them?”

See, In the ancient East, eating a meal with someone wasn’t just a casual lunch; it was an act of covenantal acceptance. They were saying, “Jesus, by validating them, You are insulting us.”


So Jesus decides to tell a story. Actually, He tells three stories in a row: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and finally, a story about a father with two sons.


Notice that. We always call it the story of the single prodigal son, but verse 11 begins: “There was a man who had two sons.”


Jesus is setting a trap. He knows the tax collectors and sinners are going to identify perfectly with the younger brother. And He knows the Pharisees are going to look at the older brother and say, “That’s right, that’s a good, hardworking boy, his mamma must sure be proud.”
And right when both groups are fully locked into the story, Jesus turns the mirror on all of them—and on us.


Let’s look at the younger brother first. Verse 12 tells us he comes to his father and says: “Father, give me the share of the estate that belongs to me.”


In the cultural context of the ancient Middle East, this request is seismic. It is an unthinkable insult. In that culture, an inheritance was only distributed after the patriarch died. By asking for his share now, the younger son is fundamentally saying to his father: “Dad, I wish you were dead. I don’t want you. I just want what you can give me.”


How many of us do the exact same thing with God?


We want the blessings, but we don’t want the Father. We want peace, we want purpose, we want financial security,maybe a good looking ministry, we want a ticket to heaven when we die—but we don’t want intimacy. We don’t want The LORD in absolute control of everything in our life. We want the inheritance without total surrender.


And the father in the story does something terrifying: instead of looking at him and saying what you talking about Willis.? He lets him go.

A traditional Middle Eastern patriarch would have struck the boy across the face and driven him out of the house empty-handed. He lets him go. He divides the property; the eldest son always got double portion inheritance and gives the boy his freedom. Because love cannot be forced. God will let you walk away if that’s what your heart insists on.


Psalm 37:4. delight yourself in the lord and He will give you the desire s of your heart. Be careful what you wish for.


The Bible says the boy takes everything, goes to a “far country,” and dissipates his life on loose, decadent living. The money flows. The parties are loud. The friends are plenty. The world applauds.
But here is the unchanging law of living like that: Eventually, the money runs out.

Verse 14 says a severe famine hit that country, and he began to be in need. He ends up taking a job feeding pigs. For a first-century Jewish audience listening to Jesus, this is the absolute rock bottom. The pig was the ultimate symbol of defilement. He is sitting in a pigpen, starving, filthy, covered in mud and animal waste, looking at the pods the pigs are eating, wishing he could fill his stomach with them

The people who loved his money are gone. The applause has stopped. The illusion of freedom has turned into absolute slavery. Sin always over-promises and under-delivers. It advertises a penthouse; it leaves you in a pigpen. then comes verse 17, one of the most beautiful phrases in all of Scripture: “When he came to himself…”

Sin is a form of spiritual insanity. It convinces us that independence from God is freedom, and that rebellion is wisdom. But eventually,hopefully, reality hits. The boy looks at his life and realizes, “My father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, and here I am dying of hunger!”

So he prepares a speech. He builds a self-defense mechanism made of shame and legalism. He says, “I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired servants.’”


Notice his expectation. He knows he has burned his bridges. He knows he has embarrassed the family name. He knows what he deserves. He expects strict judgment, a probationary period, legalistic conditions, and total exclusion from the family circle. He is banking on becoming a servant because he knows sonship is completely off the table.


And many of you are sitting today with that exact same speech running through your head. You think God tolerates you, but doesn’t love you. You think you’ve crossed a line, exhausted His patience, or used up your expiration date on grace. You have been approaching God like a harsh employer, waiting to work off your debt.


But watch the narrative take a breathtaking, scandalous turn. Verse 20:


“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.” — Luke 15:20


How did the father see him while he was still a long way off?


Because the father had been looking. Every single day. Every sunrise, every sunset, the father would walk out to the edge of his property, shield his eyes, and look down that long, dusty road, wondering, “Is today the day my boy comes home?” The son may have forgotten the father for a while, but the father had never, for one single moment, forgotten the son.


And then, the father does something that would have caused the Pharisees listening to Jesus to gasp out loud: The father runs.


In the ancient Middle East, a dignified patriarch never ran. It was considered deeply humiliating. To run, a man would have to lift up his long robes, exposing his ankles and legs, completely compromising his patriarchal dignity. Middle Eastern fathers walked slowly and majestically. Children ran. Servants ran. Desperate people ran. Wealthy landowners did not run. It was considered deeply shameful.


Why did the father run?


Certainly out of love, yes. But historical context tells us something deeper. In that culture, if a Jewish boy lost his family’s inheritance among Gentiles and tried to return home, the village would perform a ceremony called the Kezazah. The cutting off ceremony. The villagers would gather, smash a clay pot at the boy’s feet, and yell, “You are cut off from your people!” He would be publicly shamed and ostracized, excommunicated forever.


The father sees his boy walking over the hill. He looks at his son’s torn clothes, his bare feet, his posture of defeat. The father realizes that if the village sees him first, they will destroy him. That is what the world does, it kicks you when you are down. So the father lifts up his robes, shatters his own dignity, and sprints down the dirt road. He reaches the boy before the village can get to him. He intercepts the shame. He absorbs the disgrace.


The son tries to start his rehearsed speech: “Father, I have sinned… I am no longer worthy…”
But before he can even finish the sentence, before he can say “make me a hired servant,” grace cuts him off. The Father interrupts him with an outpouring of extravagant restoration.


He yells to the servants: “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him!” The robe represents honor and righteousness; it’s the father’s own garment. “Put a ring on his finger!” The ring was the family signet ring, representing authority and full reinstatement into the family business. “Put sandals on his feet!” Servants went barefoot; only sons wore shoes. “And bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast!”


This is not calculated, measured forgiveness. This is reckless, wasteful, extravagant grace. The son expected probation; he received a party. He expected rejection; he received a ring. He expected to be a servant; he was restored as a son.


Grace always arrives before worthiness.


If the story ended there, it would be a beautiful, comforting message. But Jesus doesn’t stop. He turns his gaze directly to the Pharisees, because now it’s time to talk about the second lost son.


The older brother is out in the field. He walks back toward the house, and he hears music and dancing. He calls one of the servants and asks what’s going on.

The servant says, “Your brother has come, and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound.”


Look at verse 28: “But he became angry and was not willing to go in.”


This is also a massive cultural insult in their day.
Think about it, because the younger brother already spent his entire 1/3 portion, everything remaining belongs to the elder brother. The older brother is furious because the father is literally throwing a party using assets (the calf, the food, the resources) that now legally belong to him


The younger brother was lost in rebellion, but the older brother was lost in religion. One left home physically; one left home emotionally. One broke all the rules; one worshipped the rules. One was far away geographically; one was far away spiritually while standing right in the backyard.

The father leaves the party—notice the grace of the father here again, he leaves the celebration to pursue the older son just like he ran to meet the younger son—and he begins to plead with him.


Listen to the older brother’s bitter response in verse 29:
“Look! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends; but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.”


Look at his language. It high lughts his frustration and lack of respect. He doesn’t say “Father.” He says, “Look!” He doesn’t say “my brother.” He says, “this son of yours.”
His entire identity is rooted in his performance. “I have served you. I have never disobeyed. Look at my track record! Look at my resume!” It’s almost like He views his father’s house as a servant quarters rather than a home. He doesn’t seem to want the father either; he just wanted a goat to party with his friends. He wanted recognition based on achievement.


And because his heart was filled with self-righteousness, he was absolutely offended by grace. See Grace always offends people who think they have earned their way to the table. The older brother is furious because the father is giving away for free what he had spent his entire life trying to earn. I am sure no one here has ever gotten frustrated looking at what The father was blessing someone else with in comparison to what they have…Jesus is only talking to the Pharisees here right?


Let me tell you This is the great danger for those of us who have been in church a long time. You can have proximity without intimacy. You can do the duty without ever having the delight. You can keep all the rules and still completely miss the Father’s heart.


The father looks at this bitter, religious boy, and speaks with unbelievable tenderness: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.”


He reminds him of his position. He doesn’t answer his resentment with rejection. He invites him into the joy.


Church, this is not just an ancient Middle Eastern story told to shock first-century leaders. This is an active, living reality happening right now in our world.


I want to share a story:
There once was a young man , who like many young men, had found himself discontent with how his parents had run things so as soon as he could, he moved out. Don’t get me wrong, his parents raised him in church, he had grown up as involved in pretty much everything that was ever going on at the church. However, the flip side was that in spite of all this the home life was still very dysfunctional in many ways and he was ready for a fresh start where he could just follow all his own rules.

So one week before his 18th birthday, this young man got in his loaded up car and set out from Biloxi, Ms. Heading to Texas. Things were planned out and he was going to be his own man. Earlier in the year he had gone through MEPS and had signed a delayed entry for the Marine Corps. All he had to do was bide his time until Feb. His plan was to attend a Junior College for one semester, because this allowed him to go into the Service as a Lance Corporal

. Yep Life was planned out and no one was going to tell Him what to do anymore. He even had his own garage apartment waiting for him because this nice pastor and his family invited him to live with them in Texas. Well for a while things were going pretty good, he was his own man. Sure the pastor kept giving him chores to do, but since he was living in the garage apartment rent free it was the least he could do. In reality it was a lot like bartering.

Well one day this young man got caught up with his friends and pretty much goofed off all day instead of taking care of the list of things he was supposed to do at the church. When he got home that evening the pastor asked him to sit with him out on the front porch.

It was a nice early evening, the pastor sat in the porch swing and the young man sat in a rocking chair across from the porch swing. As you would expect the pastor asked him why he had not taken care of the things at the church. So the young man eloquently explained to him how things had come up that in all reality were out of his control that drew him away from the church and he just never got back to it in time.

Well the pastor sat there nodding and seemed to understand perfectly, but then he got a quizzical look on his face and said, You are lying to me” Of course the young man denied it, but then the pastor said, “no the Holy Spirit is telling me you are lying to me.” The young man thought, “really now you want to start talking to people again God, and about this, seriously?”

You could see the color changing in the pastors face like a thermometer rising. HE was mad. He looks at the young man and says, “Stand Up” Well the young man knew what was coming next, he had been on the receiving end of anger many times before and he was done with it.

So he stood up, arms at his side and with fists clinched, stared right into the pastor’s eye fully thinking he knew what was coming next.

So there I was, yes if you have not already guessed, the young man was me, there I was standing with fists clenched staring at the pastor. I remember thinking this is it, if this pastor lays a hand on me I am knocking him off this porch and I am gone. I am tired of giving myself time after time to just have it blow up in my face.What happened next blew me away.

He took a step toward me and pulled me into one of the strongest, warmest hugs I have ever experienced. I stood there dumbfounded as he explained to me how he loved me and thought of me as his son and could not throw me out any more than he could one of his daughters and for the very same reasons was why he had high expectations and standards for me. This was something new and unexpected.


I experienced something profound, I experienced the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of a prodigal God. My external circumstances didn’t fix themselves overnight. I still had bills to pay; I still had broken relationships to navigate. But the definitive turning point of my life had begun and a change happened on that day that set forth a new path for my life, even in regards to the military. I ended up spending the next two years living with this family, learning daily what it means to receive the unconditional love of the Prodigal Father.


The Bible guarantees this truth for every single one of us. In Acts chapter 10, verse 34, Peter stands up and declares: “Now I really understand that God doesn’t show favoritism.”


What the Father did for both sons in the parable, what he has done and still does for me, and what He has done for millions of broken travelers throughout human history, I’m telling you He is standing ready to do for you here today.


Jesus ends this parable with one of the most brilliant literary moves in history: He leaves it on a cliffhanger.
We know the younger son put on the robe and went inside. But the story ends with the father standing outside in the yard, pleading with the older brother to drop his pride and come into the party. We never find out if the older brother swallowed his resentment and joined the celebration, or if he stayed outside in the cold, holding onto his self-righteousness.


Do you know why Jesus left the story open-ended?
My thoughts are because He was looking right at the Pharisees—just like He is looking right at you and me today—and He is saying, “How do you want the story to end?”
This parable forces us to look squarely into the mirror this morning and ask a definitive question: Which son are you?


Some of you reading are like the younger son. You are living in a far away country. Maybe physically, maybe emotionally, maybe secretly while sitting in these chairs. You have wasted years, you have burned bridges, you carry deep, heavy shame, and you are terrified of rejection. You’ve been trying to clean yourself up before you approach God.


Hear me clearly: Stop trying to fix yourself. You do not need to be clean to come to the Father; the Father embraces you in your filth and cleanses you with His love. Turn around. He is already running down the road toward you.


Others of you are more like the older brother. You don’t miss a Sunday. You know the scriptures. You work hard. But your heart has grown cold and hard. You are bitter, you are judgmental, you are comparing your performance to everyone else’s flaws, you are living in religion instead of relationship. You need to repent just as much as the rebellious wanderer needs to repent.


Whether your sin is obvious like the younger brother or hidden like the older brother, the invitation from the Prodigal Father is exactly the same today: Come home.


The road is open. The cross of Jesus Christ was God running down the road to absorb your shame. The empty tomb is the confirmation that the feast is ready. The robe of righteousness is waiting, the ring of authority is available, and heaven is waiting to throw a party over you.
How do you want your story to end?

A living Sacrifice, Are You Using Your Gifts?

Posted on by scottcatchot

Today’s society is getting better at realizing everyone in some way has worth. However, many times the pendulum swings way too far and it has become a world of people getting trophies and accolades just for showing up, not for actually doing a great job. Just the other day I drove past a Karate Dojo whose sign read, “Everybody is a Winner, Every kid is special.” I get the sentiment, but couldn’t help hearing Syndrome from the first Incredibles movie, “Everyone can be super, and when everyone’s super, no one will be.”  Though the driving idea behind it is probably good, That idea too far in of itself can be damaging as well because of its lack to prepare people for the realities of life as well as the fact you should be doing everything to the best of your ability. A key truth that was evident in my 15 years of teaching school, you needed to raise expectations for kids and they would meet them, when you lowered the bar, well they just quit trying as hard.  Thus the motivating factor  has more to do with personal integrity than pleasing others.

Nevertheless I digress. Where I am going with these thoughts today starts in the book of Romans, 12:1-8, which reads: 

1I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

I have really enjoyed the Sister Act movies over the years, going back and maybe not watching the entire movie , though I have, but also through the magic of YouTube re-watching specific clips. The main actress,  Whoopi Goldberg has for many years co-hosted a comedy show called Comic Relief. It is a charity event whose purpose is to help the nation’s homeless and is only one of the many charitable projects in which she is involved. She was asked in a reader’s digest interview why she is so charitable. She answered,  “I fear waking up in the morning and finding out my life was all for nothing. We are here for a reason. I believe a bit of the reason is to throw little torches out to lead people through the dark.”
Though Whoopi Goldberg is far from being a theologian, and I rarely agree with her opinion on many topics. Nevertheless her  comment has truth to it. We are all  driven to search for significance. We Want our lives to count for something. All the attention, all the wealth, all the notoriety the world has to offer really doesn’t satisfy that need. Solomon said, “God has set eternity in the heart.” So ultimate significance is found only in giving one’s self to Jesus Christ because only Jesus Christ can grant eternal life.


Only Jesus Christ can satisfy that spiritual hunger of the soul and only Jesus Christ is really the torch to lead people out of darkness into the light. I pray Whoopi discovers that truth. Jesus said, “Whoever will seek to save his life will lose it but whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s will find it.”


That is the context we need to remember  as we look at the earlier  scripture in light of God’s provision. This passage talks about a proper evaluation of our strengths, our talents, which are to be used for a purpose,  God’s glory. If we understand and apply four principles from this section, it will really help us to find eternal significance.

God has provided for us what we need, when we need it, from unexpected places and in infinite ways. God has filled the world with people who can each do their own amazing things. No one can do everything, but collectively, we can do anything. Each one of these abilities are their own miracle. The body of Christ is there to help each other and meet needs in the world.  When  you run up against something that you can’t do, and it is going to happen time and time again,  God has provided someone else out there, who can. So why do we see so many needs not being met? Well the first of this verse talks about there being a proper way to use them. This is where the principles come in that I mentioned. 


Number 1: Set the right  priorities.
Verse 1: “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.”


God could have disowned us but instead He chose us, He adopted us, He redeemed us, He sealed us as His very own. This love should lead us to desire to please Him, not to impress people. He says, “Don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” In other words, “don’t let the world mold you, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will prove what God’s will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will.”


You see, the world around us is obsessed with image. What will people say? What will people think? But the active Christian renews the mind. We change our thinking. What becomes important is what God thinks. Is this activity on my calendar pleasing to Him? Is this check I am writing good stewardship of his money? Is this conversation accomplishing His will? Is this thought pattern honoring Him? When we seek the praise of God more than the praise of man, some people in the world will not understand and they will try to squeeze us back into their mold.


Jerome Hines was an extremely gifted singer and as a young man his goal was to sing in the opera. He made all the necessary sacrifices. He took lessons. He learned several different languages until he realized his dream and sang with the Metropolitan Opera. But one day, Jerome Hines heard George Beverly Shea sing in that mellow voice, “I’d rather have Jesus than anything the world affords today.” The Holy Spirit  got to Hines and led him to give his life to Jesus Christ. From that time on, he continued to sing in the opera but he no longer sang for the advancement of Jerome Hines or to please people. He looked for an opportunity to give glory to God.


Several years later, Jerome Hines was offered a role he had always wanted. He signed the contract. He practiced for months. But when he went to the opera house for the first rehearsal, he was surprised to witness a lewd dance in the performance. When he inquired about it, he was informed that they had modernized the opera and that dance was a part of the new choreography. Hines said, “I won’t sing if they have that dance.”


The general manager of the Metropolitan Opera informed him if he did not participate he was breaking his contract and he would be ostracized by management and blackballed from the opera but Hines stood his ground and he withdrew. He said, “I won’t use my talent to draw people in to see something like that.” His stance cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and the role of a lifetime. He had decided that he really would rather have Jesus than anything the world affords today.


Does God have this kind of priority in your life? If you put God first in the use of your talent, you will be in  God’s will but the world may not understand. So when it comes to the use of your talent, remember your priorities. You use your gift to please God, not to impress people.


Number 2: Evaluate your gifts realistically.


Verse 3 says: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. But rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”


Oftentimes people think more highly of themselves than they ought. We have all been around these kinds of people, seen them on TV, or even acted that way at times. When you think too highly of your talent, it can actually be detrimental.  Proverbs 16:18 warns pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

It’s important to have a balance in this area, False humility, or even actually  thinking too low of yourself can be a detriment to the gift as well. Do you remember when God challenged Moses to go before Pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelite slaves? Moses felt inadequate and he said, “Oh no, God, they won’t believe me. I am not a very good speaker. Would you send somebody else.” The Bible does not say that God was pleased with Moses because of his humility. It says the wrath of God was kindled against Moses because of his lack of faith. An inferiority complex is not humility. Humility is finding out what God has gifted you to do and doing it with abandonment for His glory and not your own.


I read a great anecdote that made me laugh so I want to share. David Stephens of the Dallas Morning News tells a story about Frank Samansky, a Notre Dame center back in the 40s. Samansky had been called in as a witness in a civil suit at South Bend. The judge asked him, “Are you on the Notre Dame football team?” And Samansky said, “Yes, your Honor, I am.” The judge said, “What position do you play.” He said, “I am a center.” The judge asked, “Are you any good?” And Samansky squirmed and finally he said, “Your Honor, I am the best center Notre Dame has ever had.”


Coach Frank Leahey was really surprised. He said Samansky had always been modest and unassuming. So when the proceedings were over, Leahey took Samansky aside and said “Why would you say you are the best center that Notre Dame ever had?” Samansky, blushing, said, “I hated to do it, coach, but after all I was under oath.”


In order to perform well there has to be some degree of confidence and belief in one’s self. Sir Lawrence Olivier, the actor, was asked what it took to be a good actor and he said, “Humility enough to prepare and confidence enough to pull it off.” So we have a responsibility as God’s people not to think too highly of ourselves or too lowly of ourselves but we are to think of ourselves objectively. Think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. If  you are not sure what your gifts and talents are, there are a variety of different aptitude tests such as Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment, Spiritual gift inventories, and other things if you are interested I can point you toward. The main thing is realizing you have gifts, and god wants you to use them. 


Number 3 : Don’t  compare yourself with other people.


Just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. One of the primary reasons people  feel insignificant is due to comparing ourselves to others.

I can be guilty of this. Looking at preachers like Billy Graham, John Maxwell,  TD Jakes, .


even ones closer to home like  Jeff Collins, Bill Byers, or Danny Rodriguez I can easily feel like I don’t measure up.

Now when I compare myself to other preachers I often  get down on myself. Wonder why my ministry isn’t like this? Why is my path harder and no ( insert whatever here). We all have a tendency to compare ourselves with those in our field who have more influence or more popularity or a bigger title or somebody who is making more money. As a result, we are never satisfied. We are jealous. Never quite feeling as significant as we would like. But this passage urges us not to fall into that trap of comparing and competing with one another because just as a body has different members with different functions, so we have different gifts but one body. 


When God created this physical body He knew exactly what He was doing. He gave us two eyes so we would have peripheral vision. He gave us two ears so we could hear in stereo. He gave us two nostrils so that even in the midst of allergy season  we would have a 50/50 chance of breathing out of one of them. He knew  what he was doing when he created this physical body and He knew what He was doing when He created His church. Like members of the body we all have different gifts. I can’t minister to all the people in all the places that you can. You have areas of influence and connections no one else could ever reach.


So some are gifted to preach, some to serve, some to teach, some to encourage, some to make money and give, some to lead, some to show mercy. Once you understand that, you are more likely to quit competing with others.


But we not only have different gifts — we have different measures of the same gift. He says in verse 6, if a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. Some have the gift of preaching with five talents and some the gift of preaching with one talent. Some people are so gifted in singing they ought to sing on national television and some people are gifted enough to sing in the choir while others just make a joyful noise and should keep the loud songs to the shower.


We need to evaluate not only where our strengths are but to have a realistic assessment of the degree of our gift. The one Talent person should not be comparing himself with a five talent person or else he is always going to feel jealous. The five Talent person should not be comparing herself with the one Talent person or she is going to get lazy or have a condescending spirit. We have different measures of the same gift.




Final One (Number 4) : Remain focused in the area of your strength.


Romans 12:6 does it say the following? “If a man’s gift is prophesying then let him learn to serve. If a man’s gift is teaching, let him go on to encourage. If a woman is good with giving encouragement then let her learn to contribute to the needs of others.” 

That is not what it says, is it? It says if your gift is prophesying, that is what you are supposed to do. Prophesy. If your gift is teaching, you stay with teaching.
It goes on to say you do it generously. You do it diligently. You do it cheerfully. That sounds so basic but it is amazing how many people get off focus. When you have discovered your primary area of giftedness, stay focused in your area of strength and your area of passion and you will be fulfilled.


I saw school teachers who are excellent in the classroom so they get bumped up to counseling and then to administration. They don’t feel quite as comfortable in that role but they get paid more money so they stay with it. It reminds me of in the Original Star Trek movies,

Kirk is promoted to Admiral. He has definitely earned it. HE hates it. The best thing that happens to him is he gets demoted to Captain and put back on a Starship where his talents  shine, even if the actors were a bit over the top. 


Whatever God has gifted you to do and whatever is your passion in life, you focus on that and develop that to the best of your ability. Find your gift and your passion in life and give yourself diligently and cheerfully to it. It may not be what others want for you. It may not be what you dreamed about when you were a child but if it is what God ordained and gifted you to do you will find significance and be energized by it. I read an interesting phrase this week, “We can’t be anything we want to be. But we must be what God ordained us to be.”


I think we do our children a real disservice when we tell them “you can be anything you want to be and you can do anything you want to do” because that is not true. They may not be intellectually gifted enough to be a doctor, hands not steady enough to be a surgeon.  They may not be talented enough to be the artist that they dream of being. They may not be big enough or agile enough physically to be the professional athlete that they would like to be. I had a student one time who told me she was going to be a nurse and maybe go on to be a doctor. I told her I doubt it, especially the current  way she was going. She got so mad and said, Who are you to tell me that? “I said I am the teacher who grades your assignments, or should I say lack thereof? Unless you make major changes in your work and study ethic, you won’t become a nurse or doctor because it requires too much.

Hard work only carries us so far if there is a lack of talent. I loved basketball, wanted to play, was even on a team for a while, granted it was a grocery store league, but I was not that good regardless of how much I wanted to be good. 

We can’t be just anything we want to be. We must be what God has gifted us and ordained us to be. The flip side is we shouldn’t ignore and squander the gifts we are given by not using them,

In addition, we should not be a hindrance to other people using their gift because it is a gift you don’t understand.

Let me tell you another Story. It is about buying a vintage Volkswagen Beetle. It was a great deal and I  really wanted it. It would have been the perfect first car for our daughter.  My wife had a dream about it and said the purchase did not sit easy with her.  I was upset. I really wanted the vehicle. However, I  acknowledged her concern and honored her wishes as we are a family together. I  later got a call saying that the entire oil pan dropped off the vehicle and other issues happened that messed it up. Honoring and recognizing my wife’s gift saved us a lot of trouble. 

God has provided for us in infinite ways through the body of Christ, each of us are a part of the infinite provision through  — the gifts God has given — and then giving ourselves fully in that area for the glory of God and not self.


I want to close with a thought from Rick Warren. Regardless of your thoughts on him, this was solid advice. He said, God gave me the gift to preach not for my benefit but for yours. If I don’t use my gift, I will cheat you. God gave you a gift, not for your benefit but for other people. If you don’t use your gift, you cheat others.


God has given different gifts to the body for the building up of the body. When you use your gift fully for the glory of God, you begin to light little torches along the way to show people through the darkness to the light of Jesus Christ and become part of how he provides what we need, when we need it, from unexpected places, in infinite ways.