Gifts and Talents

          Who do you serve? That is the question for today. Many people think they are serving the Lord. They go to church every Sunday. They throw in a few dollars in the offering plate, and think they are doing something great. One pastor asked a man why he only saw him twice a year at Christmas and Easter? The man said he was in the secret service.

      Many people think that once they get saved, accepting Jesus as their savior, they are saved. That is true, but where is their fruit? God said we will know them by their fruit. They think once saved is always saved. That is not true. Getting saved is the first step. We turn our lives around, we love the Lord. We want to do what He wants us to do. Jesus said to take up their cross and bare it. The cross is not heavy, it is light. Serving the Lord is not a heavy burden, it is something we want to do.

     1. What do we do to serve the Lord? The very first thing, we start by turning our life around. Every thing we do is as a service to the Lord. Whether we eat, drink, go to work, the way we treat our spouse, in everything we do it is as unto the Lord. That is how we serve Him, in the things we do.

      2. We do not causally throw our money into the offering plate. We honor Him by tithing the way He said; we give the first ten percent of our income to Him. Our blessings come from the other offerings we give. God said we are blessed by the amount we give in that offering. The more we give the more He gives back to us. Our offerings is worship as unto the Lord.

      3. We honor God in the way we treat people. We do not gossip about the Pastor or other people. We treat our spouse with love and kindness, as unto the Lord. The same goes for our children. We treat them with love and kindness, as unto the Lord.

      4. We serve God with our gifts and talents. It does not matter what our gift or talent is, we can still use it as unto the Lord.

      5. We serve the Lord in our every day lives. We pray over our food. We honor our spouse. We honor our Children. We honor our boss at work, by giving our best in the things we do. We honor God in everything we do snd say. That is how we serve the Lord. We give Him the best we have in everything we do and say. We are then doing the will of our Father in Heaven.

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      New King James Version
Joshua 24:14 "Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!
15 ¶ "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

      New King James Version
1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

      New King James Version
Matthew 7:16 "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 ¶ "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 "Many will say to Me in that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

      New King James Version
Malachi 3:8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, `In what way have we robbed You?' In tithes and offerings.
9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.