The Blueprint - 2 - The Design For Our Talents

Today we will be looking at the second part of our series called “The blueprint”. Last week we looked at God’s design for our time, this week we will be looking at God’s design for our talents, abilities and skills.

As today we are going to be looking at our talents and abilities we are going to see who has the best party trick talent.

You are going to have five minutes to think of what your unique party trick is either by yourself or in pairs or small groups then we will share them with the group.

As we have seen we are all unique (even those of you who didn’t perform still have a unique set of talents). We all have different abilities, different tastes and enjoy different things. This is no accident, this is exactly the way that God designed us to be, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12 : 12 - 31.

As we have read in the passage our different talents are intended to complement each other. We are designed to use the skills we have to serve God in those ways, and then we can rely on other members of our church family to contribute their skills and abilities in areas that we find difficult.

In this passage we see us as Christians being compared to being different parts of the body. Each part contributing different abilities to the body. Each of these parts are essential to form a fully functioning body, and none of these parts can survive on their own.

You don’t see many eyeballs rolling down the street because they have decided that they would be better off alone!

As a group we are designed form one body in Jesus. Some of us are practical and are good at making and doing things. Others of us are more reflective and are good at coming up with ideas and thinking about things. Then some of us are social and like to talk to people.

On our Vineyard person let’s write down all of our talents that we have.

As a body of Jesus followers, we combined have an impressive collection of talents. However, in order for us to use these all effectively for God’s kingdom we need to work together as one church.

Now you are going to have the opportunity to use your unique combination of talents to work together as one to solve a problem.

When working together we each bring different skills to the group. Some of us are able to think though the problem. Others of us are able to lead and others can listen and follow.

Just by simply looking at our Vineyard Youth body we completed earlier we can see that as a group we have so many skills and talents. There are so many gifts represented amongst all of you sitting in this room. I have two questions for you:

• Do you think that you personally, and us as a collective group are using our talents to their full potential?
• What do you think is holding you / us back?

There are so many things which can hold us back from using our talents to their fullest for the benefit of God’s kingdom. Like last week part of this might that we don’t know how to fit it into our busy schedules. It might be fear that we might fail, or simply not knowing where to start.

In most cases we can overcome whatever is holding us back with a little bit of prayer, effort and commitment. As we have already said today this doesn’t have to be something that we struggle with alone, we can support and help each other.

We often fall into the trap of allowing excuses or other circumstances to keep us from using our talents to our full potential.

If you stub your toe, cut your finger or bash your head you as an entire body suffers. The pain originates from just the affected part but it affects you as an entire body. We saw in the passage we read earlier that the same is true in our church body. 1 Corinthians 12 : 26 says “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; it one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it”.

So, there are two impacts of this for us as a church body. Firstly when we all pull together, contribute our talents and skills together and achieve things together we all as members of the church body benefit from it.

Alternatively, if we can’t be bothered and don’t use our talents has God has designed the whole church body suffers as a result of our inaction.

What do you think of this, and how does it make you feel?

After everything we have spoken about God’s design for our talents it is now over to you. We are now going to spend a little while coming up with a mind map of how we can use our talents to extend God’s kingdom as a united group.

Let’s close in prayer:

Lord Jesus,

We thank you that you have crafted each one of us to have unique strengths.

We thank you that the talents you have given us are ideally suited to the plans that you have for us.

Help us to work together as your church body to make the most of our combined talents to bring your love into our world.

Help us to make the most of the talents you have given us and give us the commitment to use these in a way that pleases you.

We thank you that you have a blueprint for all of our lives, and that you want each one of us to thrive.

Keep us safe until we meet again.

Amen