When you don’t know what to do with what you have …

A rich man wanted to give his mother a birthday present that would outshine all others. He read about a bird that had a vocabulary of 4,000 words, could speak in numerous languages, and sing three operatic arias. He immediately bought the bird for $50,000 and had it delivered to his mother. The next day he called her to see if she had received the bird.

“What did you think of the bird?” he asked.

She replied, “It was delicious!”

Have you ever been in a situation where you don’t know what to do with what you’ve got?

Christians have received a LOT from God:

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding,” Ephesians 1:3-8.

Even though followers of Jesus have received an abundance of blessings, they often act like they don’t know what to do with what they have.

Why?

Undiscipled, unshepherded, and unequipped Christians — people who have been blessed “… with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms …” — can act like they don’t know what to do with what they’ve got because they are UNdiscipled, UNshepherded, and UNequipped, three things leaders are instructed to provide:

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age,” Matthew 28:19-20.

Once you go into the world and make a new disciple from an unbeliever, you must disciple them (“… Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you …”). Having just been born again, these “babies” just adopted into the family of God must be taught — discipled — so they can know how to live this reborn life.

“Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock,” 1 Peter 5:2-3 (NIV).

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock — his church, purchased with his own blood — over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders,” Acts 20:28.

Sheep need a shepherd, and a primary responsibility of elders and pastors is to shepherd the flock God has appointed them to care for. Without such shepherding, the “sheep” can act like they don’t know what to do with what they have.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ,” Ephesians 4:11-13.

A primary responsibility of church leaders — in fact, one of the reasons why the church has leaders! — is “… for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry …” (NASB).

When leaders fail to equip the saints, then expect the saints to act like they don’t know what to do with what they have.

Want appropriately confident and capable disciples of Jesus? Disciple them, shepherd them, and equip them.

Scotty