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‘It’s that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test.’ Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it’s important to keep mentally alert. If you don’t use it, you lose it! Answer on your outline sheet.
1. What do you put in a toaster?
Answer: ‘bread.’ If you said ‘toast,’ give up now and do something else. Try not to hurt yourself.
2. Say ’silk’ five times. Now spell ’silk.’ What do cows drink?
Answer: Cows drink water. If you said ‘milk,’ don’t attempt the next question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat.
3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from?
Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass. If you said ‘green bricks,’ why are you still reading these???
4. It’s twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over Germany (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany .) Anyway, during the flight, TWO engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure. Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane fatally crashes smack in the middle of ‘no man’s land’ between East Germany and West Germany . Where would you bury the survivors? East Germany, West Germany, or no man’s land’?
Answer: You don’t bury survivors.
5. Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from Houston to Dallas. In Conroe, 17 people get on the bus; In Huntsville, six people get off the bus and nine people get on. In Bryan, two people get off and four get on. In Hearne, 11 people get off and 16 people get on. In Waco, three people get off and five people get on In Ft. Worth, six people get off and three get on You then arrive in Dallas. What was the name of the bus driver?
Answer: Oh, for crying out loud! Don’t you remember your own name? It was YOU!!
LET’S BEGIN WITH A QUESTION… WHO ARE YOU?
1 Chron. 29:14 "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.
Ephes. 2:10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Job 10:8 "Your hands shaped me and made me.
You are God’s Masterpiece!
God SHAPED you for significance!
At the Pan American Games, diver Greg Louganis was asked how he coped with the stress of international diving competition. He replied that he climbs to the board, takes a deep breath, and thinks, "Even if I blow this dive, my mother will still love me." Then he goes for excellence. At the beginning of each day, how good it would be for each of us to take a deep breath, say, "Even if I blow this dive, God will still love me", and then, assured of grace, go into the day seeking a perfect 10!
Are you in S.H.A.P.E.
S.H.A.P.E. is an acrostic which identifies the areas of our lives that God puts together so we can serve Him by serving others.
I. SPIRITUAL GIFTS
a. 1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.
b. God has a set of special gifts He wants to give you
c. When you have a personal relationship with God, He gives you specific gifts designed to allow you to help other people.
If you have a talent, use it in every which way possible. Don't hoard it. Don't dole it out like a miser. Spend it lavishly like a millionaire intent on going broke. You have your gifts not so much for your own sake as for the sake of others. You are like an apple tree that produces fruit not for its own consumption but for the consumption of others. Your gifts are given so you can bless others by ministering to them. If you have the gift of teaching, you have it so others in the body will be taught. If you have the gift of hospitality, it is because others need the gracious welcome they receive from you. If even one gifted person fails to function, the body of Christ is deprived of a ministry it needs to function well.
d. 1 Cor 14:1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts …
e. 1 Cor 14:12 Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts , try to excel in gifts that build up the church.
f. Rom 11:29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
II. HEART
a. Proverbs 27:19 As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.
b. Your heart … your desires … hopes … interests … ambitions … dreams … all add up to what we call your heart.
c. I love you with all my heart.
d. Another word for Heart is PASSION.
e. What are you passionate about?
f. What floats your boat?
g. Luke 4:8 …'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"
h. Strive to excel in whatever you do!
When Dwight L. Moody was in London during one of his famous evangelistic tours, several British clergymen visited him. They wanted to know how and why this poorly educated American was so effective in winning throngs of people to Christ. Moody took the three men to the window of his hotel room and asked each in turn what he saw. One by one, the men described the people in the park below. Then Moody looked out the window with tears rolling down his cheeks. “What do you see, Mr. Moody?” asked one of the men. “I see countless thousands of souls that will one day spend eternity in hell if they do not find the Savior.” Obviously, D. L. Moody saw people differently than the average observer does. And because he saw eternal souls where others saw only people strolling in a park, Moody approached life with a different agenda.
III. ABILITIES
a. Exodus 36:2 Then Moses summoned … every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.
b. What are your abilities?
c. Many people respond that they don’t have any ABILITIES. Did you know that your brain can store 100 trillion facts. Your mind can handle 15,000 decisions a second. Your nose can smell up to 10,000 different odors. Your touch can detect an item 1/25,000 of an inch thick…. You are made up of abilities!
d. Every ability can be used for good or it can be used for bad.
e. You can build up or you can tear down.
f. Natural abilities
g. What are you good at?
h.Play an instrument? Sing? Teach? Work with children?
i. Mechanic … carpenter.. what?
Think of how good God is! He gives us the physical, mental, and spiritual ability to work in his kingdom, and then he rewards us for doing it!
IV. PERSONALITY
a. 1 Cor. 12:4-6 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. [5] There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. [6] There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
b. There are people you connect with.
c. You have the ability to influence those you connect with.
d. Your personality is a your gifts and talents intersecting other people’s lives.
If you approach each new person in a spirit of adventure, you will find yourself endlessly fascinated by the new channels of thought and experience and personality that you encounter. Eleanor Roosevelt
Are you willing to let your personality be taken over by another, even if that other be the Spirit of God himself? When the Spirit takes charge of your life he expects unquestioning obedience in everything. He will not tolerate in you the self-sins even though they are permitted and excused by most Christians.... You will find the Spirit to be in sharp opposition to the easy ways of the world. He will be jealous over you for good. He will not allow you to boast or swagger or show off. He will take the direction of your life away from you. He will reserve the right to test you, to discipline you, to chasten you for your soul's sake. He may strip you of many of those borderline pleasures which are to you a source of refined evil. Through it all he will enfold you in a love so vast, so mighty, so all-embracing, so wondrous that your very losses will seem like gains and your small pains like pleasure.
e. Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
f. In favor with men is PERSONALITY
V. EXPERIENCES
An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom. "Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, "Say something." The dean looks at them and says, "I should have taken the money."
a. Family experiences … Educational experiences … Vocational experiences … Spiritual experiences … Ministry experiences … Painful experiences.
b. Experiences both good and bad can be used in your ministry.
c. I don’t believe that God sends bad things upon us but when bad things come our way God gives us the ability to learn His truths through the experience. These truths are treasures which we can share with those traveling the same roads we have walked and stumbled upon.
d. Rom 8:28-29 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
e. Your experiences give you EMPATHY with others facing the same challenges.
f. Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly.
WHO ARE YOU?
YOU ARE YOU!
Isaiah 43:21 … the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.
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