The other day I was explaining golf to my son, Jared. I explained how the golfer picks just the right club for each swing and how each swing get the golfer closer and closer to the hole.  Then, on that final stroke, how the golfer putts the ball into the hole. Jared listened intently to each of my statements, and following each play, Jared curiously asked, “Then what?” To him, all we seem to do is chase the ball around but his real question was, “Then (or for) what?”

That conversation started me thinking that isn’t that what we seem to do with life sometimes?  Just chase things around. We chase our careers and ambitions.  We chase finances and money. We try so hard but we often seem to come up short. Maybe we reach the dream and get a house, cars and the dream vacation, but then we spend the rest of our lives digging ourselves out of a hole. And Jared asked the question that maybe we should be asking ourselves, “Then what?”

Sometimes, we live our lives without any purposeful destination, don’t we? We “chase the ball” without knowing “then what”, and we don’t realize the true cost. Maybe it’s a dysfunctional family, divorce, debt, or other traps. Before we can understand where we are going, we need to know who we are as Christians; otherwise, we may allow the world to influence our ways instead of following God’s design. We’re the righteousness of God, in Christ Jesus.

The next step is to know where we are going but if we keep hanging onto the old values we used to have before we became Christians, we get confused and often lose our way. The real question is, “Where are we heading?”

“You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living tell you how to live.” (Eph. 2:1-2)

At one time or another, we all have done only what we felt like doing. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose His temper and do away with us. Instead, He gives us life in Christ. By His grace, God embraces us and shows us a new destination with new purposes to live for.

For example, before meeting Joy, I had my own goals and agenda. When I fell in love with her, though, something happened. I couldn’t get my mind off of her. I knew that if I was going to experience the fullness of my new relationship with her, I had to change my ways. If I didn’t change, the marriage would be meaningless. I made the choice not to live only for myself anymore. I wanted to serve her needs.

It’s the same with Christ. When we say “Yes” and fall in love with Him, that’s wonderful but just being saved is not everything. The Lord wants us to develop a relationship with Him. How do we do that? We have to choose to live for His purposes; otherwise, we will miss out on the truly abundant life. 

“It is God Himself who has made us what we are, and... ages ago He planned that we should spend these lives in helping others” (Eph. 2:10 LB).

Notice that it does not say He created us not to spend our lives making money, getting a bigger house or driving a fancier car—but in helping others. That is what God wants us to do so where do we begin?

1.      BE WILLING TO UNWRAP YOUR GOD-GIVEN DESIGN.

God created you. His design for you is uniquely yours, and apart from how you see yourself or your past. The Bible says you are marvelous in His sight.

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous…” (Ps. 139:14 NLT)

Despite what you may think, you have the talents and gifts that are necessary to accomplish God’s purpose for your life but you need to unwrap and apply those gifts.  

“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10).

My son Jared has the gift of dance in him. It’s nothing that I taught him. It’s just a gift he was born with and it has to come out. Likewise, you have a gift that God placed in you before you were born and you need to unwrap it and begin to apply it in your life. Your gift is to be used according to God’s design:

D	ESIRE	Your gift is something that you are passionate about and it spurs you to get up each morning.
E	XPERIENCE	We all have experiences and we should use those to reach out to others in the same situation. What we go through in life is not just coincidence. God has a reason for it.  It shapes our character.
S	PIRITUAL GIFT	This is not something you can study to get or learn to have. It’s just already there. As Christians, we all have at least one spiritual ability that helps us to do things we can’t normally do on our own. First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 talk about the different spiritual gifts. Oftentimes, people don’t develop their spiritual gift because they don’t know about it. On our church website, you can take a spiritual gifts test to help identify your gifts: http://old.enewhope.org/spiritualgifts/. Then once you’ve done that, talk it over with a pastor to see how you can get plugged into a ministry that fits your gifts.
I	NDIVIDUAL STYLE	We all have unique temperaments. Some of us are more of a people-oriented while others are more task-oriented. Understanding your style will help you effectively put your gifts to work for the Kingdom.
G	ROWTH PHASE	What is your growth phase? Are you a new Christian, or a veteran?
N	ATURAL ABILITIES	We all have natural abilities.  This church has musicians, carpenters, and athletes, for example.

Putting all of these together helps us to figure out how God has designed us. New Hope also has a couple of Design classes coming up which will help further clarify things.  More details are available via the class.

You can guess all you want at what your gift is but you won’t know what you have until you un-wrap your gift. How do you un-wrap it? Get involved as volunteers. Try not to use your design as an excuse not to get involved. The way to unwrap your gift is to jump in. That’s how you find out about your strengths.

The more involved I get, the more I can see my spiritual gifts become sharper as I go along in life. I see different gifts begin to pop up because I have been involved in ministry and trying to help people. I like taking the spiritual gifts test on our website frequently. It can really help you to get started.

Everyone has to start somewhere. If all you do is watch from the grandstands, you will miss out on the greatest adventures and true miracles that God has planned for you.

2.      GOD’S MIRACLES ARE OFTEN REVEALED IN INSIGNIFICANT ACTS OF SERVICE.

We can see areas of need, or places that don’t seem as significant and we think, “That’s not important. Why should I help out over there?” Listen: no act of service offered to God is ever a waste of time.

“...don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for Him is a waste of time or effort” (1 Cor. 15:58 MSG).

Jesus went to places and did the things that people did not want to do. One of His first miracles was when He turns the water into wine at a wedding. The mother came to Jesus and told him, and said, “The wine is gone.”

Jesus ordered the servants, ‘Fill the pots with water.’ And they filled them to the brim … When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn't know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, ‘Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you've saved the best till now!’” (John 2:7-10 MSG)

We do not know exactly when the water was turned into wine, but the servants there did. They were the ones to experience the miracle. The others benefited, yes, but the ones serving actually saw it.

If you want to experience miracles, then you need to go to where there is a need and where there are servants. Every miracle in the Bible began with a need. Whenever there was a need, Jesus responded. The wine He provided was extraordinarily good. Do you see, life’s miracles are often found in the everyday moments in life?

It happened to me. I meet people nowadays, and people say, “Wow—you have really changed. You were so mean-looking, that we never wanted to talk to you.” Now, I don’t know exactly when it happened, but I do know that it was in the process of serving that I changed. I used to be a judge, and I was so arrogant and hardened. But when I got saved, Pastor Wayne kept talking about serving. They kept asking for Levites to come. I wondered what that was. This one guy, Craig Chong, would say, “Okay—we’ll meet at 3 in the morning,” and I thought, “This guy has no life!” And yet I knew I had to do something—so I chose to get involved.

I thought I could teach kids because I had a degree in elementary education; but was I ever wrong! Eventually I joined the Levites, and it helped me tremendously. I had a lot of character defects that needed to go. I can’t tell you when it happened, but—along the way I changed. One night, I remember sitting there at 2 AM, and the moon was as big as it could be, sitting right on the horizon. I was awestruck. God showed me how huge and real He is. Times like that, and other times with the brothers were the best. Serving cleaned a lot of things out of my heart. If I had thought I was above scrubbing toilets, I really would have missed out.

This can happen for you, too; but you have to be willing to find those places of need, and not just where you think you’d be good. Find a place of involvement, and watch God’s miracles start taking place in your life. Too many times we think of certain jobs as insignificant. We think, “Why would I want to usher someone to their seat or give them a bulletin?” I cannot tell you how many e-mails I get from grateful people, saying, “I really needed a hug that day, and I got not one, but ten hugs from your greeters.”

Finally, the biggest excuse I hear is that people don’t have time. People tell me how they have to fight traffic and rush the kids to school. May I make a suggestion?

3.      SLOW DOWN!! PUT YOUR NEEDS IN SECOND PLACE TO OTHERS.

We can get too caught up in ourselves in this rush-rush world. Do you know that is the enemy’s strategy? He can’t always stop us from going to church and reading our Bibles, but he can steal our time. He wants to distract us from gaining and maintaining a relationship with God throughout the day. He says to his demons:

“Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and husbands to work 6-7 days a week. Entice them to play their TV, VCR, DVD’s and CD’s constantly, and jam their minds from hearing God. Pound their minds with news 24 hours a day. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, and movies. Keep them too busy to enjoy the nature that God created for them. Crowd their lives, so they won’t take the time to depend on Jesus—so they’ll be living on their own strength, sacrificing their health and families.”

Once you begin making a difference in someone else’s life, you won’t miss out on the abundant life God has for you.

“Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand” (Phil. 2:4 MSG).

4.      THE KEY TO THE ABUNDANT LIFE IS FOUND IN WHAT WE CHOOSE TO DO FOR OTHERS AROUND US.

The truly great moments in life are beautifully wrapped in what seems unimportant. Know that people will always remember how you made them feel. As you give yourself away for the sake of others—even in small little ways, you will be on the road to the abundant life. That is our pastor’s heart, and I believe it is your heart, too. We are on our way to the abundant life. Amen?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.      Have you noticed a need lately? Are there people serving to meet it, and could they use more help?

2.      When we find ourselves too busy, the first thing we knock off our list is serving God. Is there something else that you’re willing to let go of, instead of serving Him?

3.      Is the enemy’s scheme working? Do you have no time to serve?

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NLT)

Sermon Notes Ministry: Debbie Chang, Robin Hart, Leighton Loo, Doreen Rabaino,

Rhonda Pang, Jay Tsukayama