Introduction
We’re continuing the series today on The Purpose-Driven Life, the series we are doing on helping you find the steps for discovering, developing and fulfilling the reason God put you on this earth. We have looked at the advantages of having a purpose-driven life and we have examined the need to work out our values and see where they come from - either from culture or Christ. Today, we are going to look at the second step: Understanding how God has uniquely shaped us for a purpose.
Our Unique Shape
Our reading today, Psalm 139, along with two other verses, teach the truth of the idea that we are unique and created for a unique divine purpose.
In our Psalm we heard “You, God, made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. You were there when I was being formed. You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.” God planned me before I was born. That’s what the Bible says. In fact, it says God even scheduled every day of your life before you began to breathe. You are not an accident. God had you in mind even before you were born.
In his letter to the Ephesians St Paul writes: “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” I was made for a purpose. God not only planned in advance before you were born but made you for a purpose. And that purpose, by the way, was determined in advance. It says you’re God’s own work.
Notice it says “We are what God made us, created in Christ Jesus…” to watch television. No. It says “… to do good works.” You were created, you were put on this earth to make a contribution, not just to take up space. You were put on this earth to leave it a better place, to make some kind of contribution with your life. God planned you before you were born. You were made for a purpose.
In the book of Job we read that “God’s hands formed me and shaped me.” My shape reveals my purpose. My dog's shape reveals his purpose. He has a very thick coat, because Labradors were bred for retrieving things in the icy waters of Canada, he has a long nose because dogs rely on the sense of smell more than any other sense in order to get food. His purpose - to retrieve things in water is revealed through his shape. In human beings, as in dogs, the way you were formed, determines how you are to function. And God has shaped you for a unique purpose.
The SHAPE Acrostic
But there is another level to our shape. On the notes on the reverse side of the hymn sheet you can see that the word Shape is spelt out. Each letter of the word shape stands for an important aspect of ourselves that we need to discover, in order to discern God's purpose for our lives.
S – stands for Spiritual gifts.
Spiritual gifts are the supernatural abilities that God gives you the moment you become a believer in order to fulfill God's won purpose in your life. God gives you specific talents, multiple spiritual gifts the moment you become a believer. Many of you don’t even know you’ve got spiritual gifts. You’ve never unwrapped them but you have them. God gives you these spiritual abilities the moment you become a believer. Some people find spiritual gift questionnaires useful tools to discern them, others don't and prefer to be more reflective. The fact remains we all have spiritual gifts - mine are around teaching, administration, discernment and leadership. These are gifts I have and which I see used time and time again in my own life.
H – stands for Heart.
"Heart" is a shorthand for your motivations, your interests, your core passions, the things that “light your candle.” Have you noticed that some things really interest you and other things bore you to tears? Have you noticed that some things really turn you on, really get you excited, and others you couldn’t care less about? Where do you think you got your innate interests? God gave them to you. God gave you your heart, the things that really interest you, that cause you to get passionate. Why did God do that? Because God wants you to be you.
Have you noticed that people have different heartbeats? Every human being has a different physical heartbeat. They all beat differently just like you have a different thumbprint. Every human being has a different emotional heartbeat. The person setting next to you I’m sure does not get excited about some of the things you get excited about. It’s just the way God shaped us. If we all had the same heart, if we all had the same interest, we’d all do the same thing and there would be a lot in the world that didn’t get done. So fortunately everything in the world that needs to get done, gets done because God has created some people who like balancing cheque books - happily our treasurer, Cris, is one of those. Others, I am told, like repairing cars - Smiley is amazing at this. Some time ago she said that my fanbelt was loose. I wasn't overly sure what a fanbelt was. So she said she would come and show me how to tighten it. I was very good and realized I might get dirty, or chip a nail or something, so I came to church with some old clothes to put on. Smiley arrived and by the time I had popped into my old office at St Peter's and changed, she had opened the car up, got her spanners out, tightened the fan belt and put the bonnet down again. She is really good at this - I am not. God did it that way so that everything would get done.
We have Spiritual gifts and we have Heart, the things that I love to do.
A – stands for Abilities.
These are the natural abilities you were given the moment you were born. And everybody has some natural abilities. Some of you are really good at numbers. You can add, subtract, divide — geometry you sailed through, and algebra and calculus. And others of you are saying, “Maths? ugh!!” You’re just gifted that way. Some of you are good with words. Steve Gray, who graduated this week with his Masters in Translation has a real gift with languages. He is fluent in German and French, says he is "ok" in Poland - he lived there for two years and made himself understood" and is learning Spanish "for fun". I have trouble with English! Some of you are good with people; some of you aren’t so good with people. Some of you are really good with animals. Some of you have natural athletic ability - Amy, for example, seems to thrive on physical activity, her recent trip around the world seemed to involved much swimming, canoeing, bungee jumping and much more. Some of us, on the other hand, are rather … uncoordinated. We just don’t have it when it comes to natural abilities in the area of athletics. We’re all made differently. Some of you have leadership abilities. Some of you have musical abilities – you pick up an instrument and in a few days you’re playing the thing. Some of you have great voices and you can sing. Others of us are prison singers – we’re always behind a few bars and never have the right key. We couldn’t carry a tune if it were in a bag. Admit it! We have one of those voices that needs to be cultivated – plowed under and buried!
We have different kinds of abilities. We have Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities.
P – stands for Personality. God shapes you by giving you unique personality. And some of our personalities are very unique. God loves variety; you’ve probably figured that out by now. Even when they try to classify personalities, it never really works because you are a blend, a combination, a mosaic of all kinds of different things. You can’t really be classified and categorized. There are aspects of your life that are totally beyond categorizing. We’re just different!
The point is that God uses different personalities to get all the work done in the world. God gifts you Gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality.
E – stands for Experiences. Obviously God gives us lots of different kinds of experiences. There are four kinds of experiences: Vocational experiences – jobs that we’ve had in the past that shape our lives; Educational experiences – the things we’ve learned through schools and courses and things around us that have shaped our lives; Spiritual experiences – things at church, camps, retreats, conferences, and quiet times with the Lord; and most important of all, Painful experiences – God has shaped you through painful experiences in your life. God never wastes a hurt and sometimes our greatest ministry comes out of our pain, our tragedy, our failure, and our mistakes.
God uses all of these things to shape us – these five elements.
Today, what I want to look at is, What does God want me to do with my SHAPE? I would like to offer four things that God wants us to do with our SHAPE.
1. GOD WANTS ME TO DISCOVER MY SHAPE.
Until you start living out your SHAPE you’re going to be frustrated by life. You’ll feel like, “I’m a square peg in a round hole.” Things just don’t seem to make sense until you figure out what God made you to be and then you start doing what God made you to do based on how God shaped you. If you’re shaped for one thing and you’re doing something else, you’re not going to fit. You’re going to be frustrated.
When I first left University I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I sort of had a vocation to ministry but knew that I couldn't live the celibate life that was demanded of priests in the church I grew up in. So, for a year, I decided to kill some time and worked for the civil service. I have never been as bored. I don't want to knock the civil service, it is vital for the government of our country, but it was not what I was made for. I was bored, frustrated, and bad at the job. I left after a year to go back to college to train to be a teacher and to start the process for becoming clergy.
So how do we discover your SHAPE for life? Discover your life purpose? Two ways:
1. By examining my past.
2. By experimenting in the present with different kinds of tasks.
One of the keys to understanding God’s will for your life in the future is to look at your past. Why? Because God has already been working in your life up to this day. Our reading told us that God was working in your life before you were born. While you were still in your mother’s womb, God was working in your life. So, long before you knew God, long before you’d even heard of Jesus Christ, long before you stepped across the line and developed a relationship with Jesus, God was working in your life giving you experiences, giving you interests, giving you aptitudes and abilities and talents and putting you in opportunities to learn and grow.
God’s been doing this all along and if you’ll look back on your life you will find that a certain pattern emerges, that there’s certain things that you do well.
And not only do you do them well but you like to do them. Would you agree that there are some things you do well but you don’t like to do? Sure. There are some things you can learn to do well but that doesn’t mean you like to do them. We’re talking about motivated abilities, which are the things that really shape you.
So here’s your homework: look back at your life so far, in either five or 10 year segments and work out what were the things in each stage of your life you were good at and you enjoyed doing. Look for the repetition of abilities and talents and see how God used the. In my teens I led a Christian Union at my school, at University I was always talking to people about issues around faith and life, in my ministry this is what I do a lot of. The same gifts are being used again and again and I love them.
The other way you discover what your real SHAPE is, is by trying out different options, to experiment. You have probably dozens of talents that you don’t even know you have because you’ve never tried. Some of you have artistic talent. You’d be good artists but you’ve never tried. You don’t know you’ve got that talent. Some of you have teaching talents. But you’ve never tried teaching anything so you don’t know you’re good at it. Some of you have leadership talents. Some of you have musical talents. Some of you have planning and organizing talents. You don’t even know you’ve got them because you’ve never tried.
People come to me all the time saying, “Isn’t there some test I can take to tell me what my spiritual gifts are, what my abilities are, what my basic SHAPE is? Isn’t there a test I can take?” The answer is no. There is no test that’s going to tell you your life purpose and your shape. Why? Because every test is standardized and every human being is unique. You’re like your thumbprint. There are all kinds of different talents. Spiritual gift questionnaires can be useful to determine what your gifts are, but they are not foolproof. It is better to take a longer view, and take some time, to look back at your life in segments and see what gifts and skills you have used, and have been used by God, at different stages and look for common themes.
2. GOD WANTS ME TO ACCEPT IT.
God wants me to accept my SHAPE. This is an issue that many of us still haven’t come to grips with. You are basically rejecting what God made you to be. All over the world are people who are trying to spend their entire lives being someone or some thing they’re not really. When you spend your life trying to be someone you’re not or something you’re not. That’s called stress. And it builds up in you. Most of us start out as originals and end up as carbon copies of other people. There are two traps that cause you to reject your own shape. One of them is comparing and the other is conforming. People do this all the time.
First we compare ourselves to others. We start looking at everybody else. And we tend to overvalue their ability and we tend to undervalue our abilities. We say, “If I could just… decorate my home like she does. … If I could just… close a deal like he does…. If I could just make that sell like that person does. If I could just…” And we’re always comparing. We overvalue what others are able to do and we undervalue ourselves. If you want to have satisfaction and success in life I would suggest you stop saying, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking more, “What do I do right? What do I do well?” Figure out what you’re good at and focus on that and don’t worry about what you’re not good at.
Every high achiever in life gets there by specializing. Every Olympic athlete – the guy who swims the 200-meter doesn’t go around saying, “I wish I could pole vault!” No, they specialize. They find out what are they really good at and they focus on that. And you need to do that to. You need to accept your background. You need to accept your SHAPE. If you are constantly saying, “I don’t like the way God made me,” you’re in essence rejecting God and that means you’re listening to the devil. When you say, “I don’t have enough talent… I don’t have enough this or that…” you’re basically saying, “God, you blew it. You didn’t do it right with me.”
St Paul says in his letter to the Romans “What right do you have as a human being to cross-examine God? The pot has no right to say to the potter: ‘Why did you make me this shape?’ Potters can do whatever they like with the clay.” Stop comparing yourself to other people. Accept your shape.
The other thing is stoop conforming to other people. Have you noticed that not only does God have a plan for your life but so do a lot of other people? If you really want to fill God’s purpose for your life, then you’re going to have to say no to some of the roles and expectations and positions that other people place on you that God didn’t intend for you to have. You have to say no to some people. One day you’re going to stand before God in heaven and God’s not going to say, “Did you make everybody happy?” God’s going to say, “Did you do what I made you to do?” And that means it’s ok to say no to some roles and some expectations and some goals that other people want to place on your life.
3. GOD WANTS YOU TO ENJOY IT.
When you get in your SHAPE and fulfill what God made you to be and find your niche, it feels good. Ecclesiastes 5 says “To enjoy your work and to accept your lot in life, this is a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, of God has given them reasons for joy.” God wants you to enjoy your shape.
There are three powerful benefits of fulfilling your shape for ministry in this world.
1. You feel energized. Have you noticed how little energy you have for tasks that you’re not shaped for? How, when you have to do something, you know, “This isn’t me,” you just have no energy. Yet, on he other hand, when you find a task and you can say, “This is me!” it’s fun. It’s free. It feels good. You’re enthusiastic, energetic. And God looks at you when you’re doing what God made you to do whether it’s balancing books or teaching little children or whatever and God says, “That’s my child!” and takes pleasure out of watching you be you. You get energized.
2. You get confidence. Do you know where confidence comes from? It comes from two Latin words con and fideo, which mean in Latin, “with faith”. You don’t get confidence by reading, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps” self-help books that doesn’t last. You get confidence from having faith in God’s purpose and plan for your life. When you are “with faith” you will have con fideo. You will have confidence because you know this is what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.
3. You have significance and satisfaction. You get satisfaction and delight because you feel fulfilled knowing you are what God made you to be. The bottom line is this: Last week I gave you a definition of success - fulfilling God's purpose in your life. Let me give you another one. Success is being what God shaped me to be. Regardless of what anybody else thinks, success is being what God shaped me to be. For the rest of your life you’re going to be discovering and developing your shape. The clearer it gets, the more focused your life will become. The more focused your life becomes, the better you’ll understand God's plan and purpose for you.
That brings us to the fourth thing God wants you to do with your shape….
4. GOD WANTS YOU TO DEVELOP IT.
Once you discover it, he wants you to develop it. SHAPE is kind of like a muscle. With a muscle you either use it or you lose it. Any muscle that is not used atrophies. But the more you develop a muscle, the stronger it gets.
The most important thing in your entire life, the most important decision you’ll ever have to make is to establish a relationship with God through Jesus. I hope you’ve already done that. If you haven’t done that, you’re not even to first base yet. Today, you need to say, “Jesus, help me get to know You, to have a relationship and not a religion.” Once you’ve done that, the second most important task in your life bar none – is to discover the SHAPE that God gave you and then begin to fulfill your life purpose.
God has a place for you in this world. You’re not here by accident. God has a niche and you discover that niche by looking at your SHAPE. And part of this church’s job and responsibility, as your church family is to help you discover and get on that track. When you look at the world, every wonderful achievement that’s ever been done has been done by a gifted person. Somebody used the talents that God gave them and brought about good in the world. Likewise, every disastrous problem, every destructive thing in this world has come about by somebody misusing the gifts that God gave them. For destruction or for benefit. What’s the difference? Our gifts must be dedicated back to God. What God gives to you – your talents and opportunities, the fact that you live in freedom – that’s God’s gift to you. What you do with those things is your gift back to God.
Conclusion
Living a purpose-driven life means realizing that we are created as unique human beings and that we have a particular shape - our spiritual gifts, our heart, or motivations, our abilities, our personalities and our experiences. God wants to use these five things. God wants us to discover, accept, enjoy and develop our own unique shape so that we become clearer about our purpose in life - the purpose God has designed us for.
Prayer
Loving God,
I want You to take my life and my SHAPE and use it.
Lord, I offer my life to You.
Everything I’ve been through use it for Your glory.
That means the good, the bad, the painful, the shameful, the hurt.
Everything that I’ve been through - all those experiences.
Use them for Your glory.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.