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CPT: Jesus calls people to follow him to a ministry of authority and healing.
Purpose: During Seek Week, we seek a closer walk with the Lord.
CPS: Know the call of God on your life.
Introduction
Attention
This week, starting tomorrow, we are entering together as a church into Seek Week.
Seek Week is a week where we seek out the Lord’s face together as a church through prayer and fasting.
I believe the Lord has aligned this up well as we talk today about knowing the call of God on your life.
God has called you each to follow him to the greater life that he has for you.
Know the call of God on your life.
In 2010, I was thinking through the call of God on my life.
I felt that God had called me to finish up a biblical studies degree, and I did that.
I didn’t know why.
I was working as an Police Officer, and the degree didn’t do much in that profession.
But it became clear that God was leading me to something else, something that I didn’t know yet.
I could see other Police Officers, and I could definitely see that there were some who were living out their calling.
God had designed them to be doing exactly what they were doing.
They were thriving in their calling.
But I knew in my heart of hearts that God was calling me out of this profession and into something unknown.
God was calling me to trust him.
It was a step of faith that led me in 2011 to San Diego to help out a small church plant in Paradise Hills.
Problem
The call of God can seem so unknown.
Sometimes God seems to say to us, “Do you trust me?”
How can we follow the call of God on our life?
We will look at that in Mark 1:16-34.
Scripture Reading
Pray
These verses tell us quite a about what following Jesus means, and about knowing the call of God in our life.
First,
Following Jesus means a call to something greater.
Jesus begins his ministry by the Sea of Galilee and begins to call his disciples.
The first are Simon, later called Peter, and Andrew, his brother.
Notice the call in Mark 1:16-18.
Jesus sees Simon and Andrew casting their net into the sea, because they were fishermen.
Fishing was their profession.
The Lord saw them where they were.
That’s an important point, because God’s call can come at any time.
The Lord isn’t restricted to a church building or a religious ceremony.
The Lord speaks to us wherever we are, and these two fishermen were at work in their business.
Jesus something beyond their wildest imagination.
“Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
That’s a direct call, and it needs an immediate response.
The Lord doesn’t leave us with vague choices, or time to think it through.
The Lord says, “Follow me.”
The Lord calls people to an immediate step of faith.
It’s a step of trust and obedience to God’s call.
It says they “immediately left their nets and followed him.”
James and John did the same thing.
Take a look at verses 19-20.
James and John leave their father in the boat!
“Dad, you stay with the hired men.
The rabbi has called us to follow him.
We’ve got to go.”
The Lord calls his people to a total commitment of faith.
The Lord calls his people to say, “Lord, I am going to honor you before I honor anyone or anything else.
The priority is God.
The priority is the Lord.
When the Lord is the priority, everything else falls in place.
Jesus talks about priorities in Mark 10:29-30:
What is he saying?
The call of God on our life is a call to priority.
Too often we have it upside down where we prioritize everything and everyone else, and leave God in the area of last resort.
We say, “All of these things are priorities, and when we’ve exhausted everything else, we say, all we have left is to pray.”
That’s why I love what we are about to do this week with Seek Week.
This is a week where we set right our priorities.
Seeking out the face of the Lord for our year is something our church has done well in the past, and we will continue to prioritize our Lord and seek him going forward.
The Lord sees you where you are, and our priority is to follow him.
We need to know the call of God on our life, and his call is a call to our priorities.
Following Jesus means a call to something greater.
What I love here is that Jesus is not like other rabbis in the first century.
In the first century, if you’re a rabbi, you teach, and people come asking to follow you.
But not Jesus.
No, Jesus sees people where they are, and tells them, “Follow me.”
And Jesus calls people to a life they never would have dreamed for themselves.
I doubt Simon, Andrew, James, and John are sitting around thinking, “I am going to fish for people.”
They probably figured out in their mind that this is their life’s work.
But God had something greater.
Following Jesus is a call to something greater.
Why is that?
Because when you follow Jesus, you follow at his command, and his command drives us to love.
What is his command?
John 15:12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.”
Love is infectious.
When you begin to love you will begin to fish for people.
You will say, “This is what Jesus has done for me, and I want that for you because I love you.
I love you because he loves you, and he loves me.”
We are constantly driven for something greater.
Right now, football teams are fighting through divisional playoffs to try to make it to the Superbowl.
I’ve been watching clips, and you see star players rallying their team.
There is so much drive and purpose, because they want their team to make it to the Superbowl.
They want to be the champions and lift up that Vince Lombardi trophy at the end.
It’s a temporary trophy, because it will last for this season.
Next season, they’ll be trying again, and another team will try to be the best in the NFL.
Jesus is calling Christians to something greater.
The world is fighting for temporary trophies, but Christians are called to eternal rewards in glory.
When Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” that is a call that deserves your passion, deserves your commitment, because it is the Lord’s call for his people.
Know the call of God on your life.
Following Jesus means a call to something greater.
Second,
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