July 6, 2010 Sharing 2

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith.

Good Tuesday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Today is Schools Day on the line, the day we pray for our schools, private, public, from preschool to schools of higher education and we need to pray for all who go through the doors. We also need to pray for all those who drive school buses and all the crossing guards.

Sharing 2: Philemon verse 6 - I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. (NIV)

"Talent on Loan from G O D". Now I cannot type it the way that Rush Limbaugh speaks it. When I first heard Mr. Limbaugh make that statement I thought how awful, but within a few minutes it sank into my little brain. Yes, our talent that God provides ALL of us is indeed on loan from Him and He could recall it at anytime. Back when I was just a little brat, uh, kid, I sang in the church choir, first the little kids choir then the junior choir. But when I got my job at a service station when I was 14 I worked on Sunday morning and stopped going to church and of course that took me out of the choir. My dear late mamma told me that if I gave up singing for the Lord, He might take away my voice... and He did just that, in fact I had to have my vocal chords worked on several times. Then about 17 years ago I decided to sing again for the Lord and He out of the goodness of His heart gave me my voice back. (Yes, He said to make a joyful noise.) Anyway I learned first hand that at least one of my talents was taken away and then given back by the one and only one who controls your talents, GOD.

Again each day at the close of my message I tell you to "share your blessings". Now often when we think of things related to God, such as church, we think about sharing our blessings, and folks, we need to not just think about sharing our blessings, we need to share them. So often people think that when we or when I talk about sharing blessings I am talking money only. Well think again, when I talk about sharing your blessings I talk about sharing all of those Good blessings, not just those that are dollar related. Yesterday I talked to you about what not to share, and only touched on it a tad. Today let me hit on some of the things you might share that God has blessed you with. And let me talk first about our (our = you and me) talents that might just be on loan from God. Now being a pastor at a retirement home, those homes come to mind first... Here are a few suggestions that You might share with others.

Do you knit? Maybe you could go to a local retirement or nursing home and start a knitting circle or club. How about sewing, do you sew? You could do the same thing, if you have a sewing machine you might be able to teach people to sew and/or make repairs to some of their clothing. Do you know that those in retirement homes have given up most of their possessions, including a lot of their clothes. Do you like to play games, you know like toss across, or bingo, or many card games? You could share your talents in this way by not just leading a group but maybe even teaching one. Do you play the piano? Well, you could go and lead a sing along. What about just going in to a place maybe once a week and reading to those who have trouble seeing? You know, your talents that God gave you. You could have a cooking class, or maybe set up model railroads. One local retirement home has a complete building for trains and it is a drawing card for the community. And so it goes with your talents on loan from God... You are really expected to share those talents, and while you are sharing those talents you can, yes, you can, you can witness for God. After all, it is the reason God lent you the talent in the first place. The activities departments in retirement homes and nursing homes are always looking for people to help them with activities. Also they need pushers, people to help push people in wheelchairs to meals or to activities.

Sad for me to say but so many people who God has lent talent to charge each time they go out. Now while some of them use their talents for a living, people still need to share the talents. I was lent the ability to fix cars, and while I made my living doing just that for many years, there were people who just did not have the money to fix their car. And yes, we helped those people, sometimes with big discounts, and sometimes just not charging them. Folks, we need to share with others what God has lent to us. Can you find some scripture that tells us we need to do just that? Let me know... Let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, Lord of all talents, help us today to really work the talent that You loaned us to reach out to others in the name of Jesus. Lord, today I pray for our schools and give thanks to all those who work with our schools and the talent You loaned them. Even as those teachers and coaches are paid, I pray that they give out much, much more than they are paid to teach. I pray that all people who have jobs go far beyond what they are paid to do and that they do it in the name of our Father who set them up with the talent. Our talent needs shared, and Lord, so often now I think about how we must lift those speakers when we go singing. Lord, please show us to people who You have given the talent of helping others, a talent we all should have, Lord, teach us to share and teach us to witness, Lord, teach us to teach, and Lord, may we follow in your footsteps in all we do. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings, and tomorrow we will talk more about sharing those blessings as we have Salvation Wednesday on the line. The scripture I used today from Philemon tells us about sharing our faith. What are your talents, and do you share them? Tell me about your talents and how you share them... love ya, Pastor Dan.