Know God's calling

Romans 12

Well tonight we are going to be studying God’s call on your life. And our goal is to address the issue of what your life purpose is. It is unfortunate that far too many Christians live life wondering why they are here, where they are going, what God’s uniquely customized life purpose is for them. So that is the concept of our this message. A calling is a customized life purpose for which God has ordained and equipped you, the calling would bring God the greatest glory and allow you to have your maximum impact. That is your calling.

This is critical because it defines why you’re here. What a tragedy, to die, never having known why God saved you in the first place; what your life purpose is; to meander from place to place, thing to thing, and not know why you’re here. Many people don’t have joy because they’re looking for something other than their calling, which only their calling is designed to give them. And so, we’re gonna continue to unveil this as we look at how your experiences good, bad, and ugly will fit into your calling, how your giftedness the divine bestows, that God has given you fits into your calling. We’re going to see how people were called in the bible and how God got them to where He wanted them to go. We’re even gonna see how people were recalled who got lost in their calling. So it’s gonna be a fun time going through this all the while desiring to help you to know how you can find your calling. That’s what I’m gonna help you to do tonight. I’m gonna give you the fundamental, it’s not the only one but it’s the foundational issue for discovering your calling. Your ability to discover your calling is intricately tied to the level of your commitment.

Turn your bibles with me please to Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 these are two of the most well-known verses in all of the New Testament. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” Or “urge you, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a spiritual sacrifice.” It’s a reasonable request the King James says. It’s a spiritual service of worship. And then he says “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you will prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable and perfect.”

What I want to share with you tonight is simply this. When you are positioned right under God you won’t have to find your calling, your calling will find you. Now that ought to make you feel a lot better already because a lot of folks are looking for their calling. But if you don’t know what it is how will you know when you’ve found it? What he wants you to know is that when you are positioned right. Many of us do not know our calling because we’re not in position. But when you are positioned right your calling God’s divinely ordained customized purpose for you will locate you. It will track you down

Romans 8:27-28 let us know that the Holy Spirit pleads according to the will of God. And then “all things are working together for good to them who love God and are called according to His purpose.” So he makes a direct connection between your calling, your purpose and the will of God, and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Those are, those all work in harmony with one another to lead you to where he wants you to go. So, we want you to be positioned for your calling.

He says “I urge you,” beg you, entreat you, I’m pleading with you “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God.”

If you want your calling to find you, the first thing you need to know to get positioned is that God must own all of you. Let me say that again. Don’t expect for God to show you His calling if the person He’s gonna show it to He does not have. Meaning that person does not have God as their Lord and Savior. Because then you will take His calling and do your work with it. And many people spend their lives wanting God to bless them rather than wanting God to bless His calling for them and that’s a difference.

I urge you to present yourself as a living sacrifice. Now that’s an interesting phrase. It’s somewhat contradictory because sacrifices were killed. I mean you put a lamb on the altar it went “BA, BA” no more. It was dead. It was a very dead sacrifice. But he says I want you to present yourself a living sacrifice. God wants you and me to be a living dead thing. If Paul the apostle was here he would probably support this truth with his favorite verse. Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ,” I’m dead “Nevertheless I live,” I’m alive.

God is not fundamentally interested in blessing your calling for you. He is fundamentally interested in blessing His calling for you and therefore to know your calling God must know that you are a living dead thing. That is living to Him, dead to you. You are willing to climb up on the altar. The only problem with God’s sacrifices is they keep climbing off the altar and God wants us climbing on the altar to become living dead things. Now that’s a hard prayer to pray. It’s a hard prayer to pray and tell God I am willing to die to me that I might have You. God doesn’t want you to commit because somebody makes you commit. He wants you to commit because you’ve seen that He’s been good.

You see, your worship is not in your church attendance your worship is in your total commitment. Church attendance without total commitment becomes sacrilege not authentic worship. God cannot show you His calling if you do not authentically worship Him and you’re not authentically worshipping Him if there is no total commitment to Him. So one of the questions if you are seeking your calling you must ask, does all of me belong to all of Him. Or have or do I have a spiritual attic in my life. That’s the place where you put away the stuff that you don’t wanna deal with.

I love Paul because, his commitment was so deep and we’re all growing in this but his commitment was so deep you could never intimidate him. They came to him one time and said we’re going to kill you. He said that’s cool to die is gain. I’m gonna be better off. Let’s get it over with. Well since you are that nonchalant about it we are not going to kill you, we are going to let you live. He said that’s cool to live is Christ. You see if you kill me I’m gonna go live with Christ. If you let me live I’m gonna stay here and serve Christ. So he said well, and now you too cool for that. So let me come up with another one. We are not going to kill you or let you live, we are going to make you suffer. He said that’s cool because I reckon that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed unto me. You kill me I’m gonna be with Christ. You let me live, I’m gonna stay here and serve Christ. You make me suffer I’m gonna get more reward from Christ so it doesn’t matter to me it’s all Christ anyway. It was a total consuming life for Christ and that is your worship.

God wants you to, deliver to Him you, that’s the first thing in positioning yourself. There’s a second thing. God must own all of you verse 2 the world must own none of you. “Be not conformed to this world.” The words, Greek word for conform was what a potter did with clay. A potter takes clay and he squeezes it here, shapes it here, molds it here so that the clay comes out looking like what the potter intends.

So if the potter wants a cup he squeezes it so it’s shaped like a cup or a bowl or a saucer or a plate. He says don’t let the world squeeze you here, mold you there so that you wind up looking like what it says you ought to be. You know one of the reasons many of us haven’t found out our calling? Because we’ve been letting the world teach us what success is? And since we’ve been following what the world’s definition is we’ve been climbing to the top of the ladder discovering it’s leaning against the wrong wall.

We’ve discovered it has not answered our reason for being. It may give you money. It may give you a house. It may give you cars. It may give you clothes but it doesn’t give you a reason for being and your calling is your divine reason for being. You have a reason to get up in the morning because you have a calling to fulfill and a charge to keep.

So don’t let the world be a potter over your life.

What do we mean by world? The Greek word for the world is cosmos. The cosmos can be more formally defined as that system headed by Satan that leaves God out. To be worldly you don’t have to be a drunkard or a drug addict. To be worldly you don’t have to be gay or, some other kind of perversion that you would make a big deal about. All you have to do to be worldly is excuse God. You know you often get students to ask this question but are not limited to them about the gray areas of life. Can we do this? Can we do that? Well, the easiest way to answer that is to remember whatever you do God is doing with you. Is He having as much fun as you are? Or must you leave Him outside?

The cosmos is a kingdom headed by Satan that opposes the program of God. You know it’s worldly because it doesn’t want God in it. That, means, it’s the world. Now you have to live in the world. You cannot operate as a hermit somewhere. You must live in this world. But God does not want this world squeezing you and molding you so that its value system becomes your value system, its goals become your goals, its dreams become your dreams. And if you spend all of your time letting this world define your calling you’ll never hear God’s calling because the kingdom that you are called to is in total opposition to the kingdom that you are called from. You must clearly identify which kingdom you’re hanging with.

Many of us belong to heaven but we regularly service hell and we wonder why God won’t bail us out of our circumstances. Why He won’t bail us out of our situations? Why should He call you to know that your service for Him will be used to help the enemy overcome Him if such were possible?

He says, “be not conformed to this world.” Don’t let this world control you. So all of you must belong to God. None of you must belong to the world but we’re relating this to calling because this is positioning you. He then gives a third thing in chapter 12 verse 2. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, renewing of your mind “key.” In other words, when you say God has all of me, when you say the world has none of me you have done the greatest single thing you can do and that is clear up your confused mind. We are divided. James has a word for that, he calls it double mindedness. We’re trying to live in two worlds at the very same time.

He says that when you’ve cleared the static, when you’ve arranged things properly then there will be a process by which the Holy Spirit begins to work on your mind because you will discover your calling in your mind. That’s where the will of God will be revealed to you. God will deal with your thinking. Do you know the main way that the Holy Spirit speaks to you today beyond the word of God that’s the foundational way, but the main way He illuminates or, or applies the word of God to you is in your thoughts. He wants to get access to your mind because really as a man thinketh that is what he is. He says, you need a transformed mind. So the Holy Spirit is free to give you His thoughts.

There’s a great; great promise in John 15. He says if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, then you can ask Me whatever you will and My Father will do it. How can he leave it so open? It’s very simple. The Holy Spirit because He’s part of the Trinitarian godhead always and only thinks what Jesus thinks because these two are one. Jesus only thinks what the Father thinks because Jesus and the Father are one. God wants to transform the thought.

And then he says and you will prove. That’s a great word. It means you’ll see worked out, the will of God. In other words, you position yourself. A good quarterback can hit a receiver even though he’s got the enemy team’s defensive back riding on his back if the receiver is positioned right.

If you are a sailor who knows how to handle a sailboat you understand trying to get the wind to change directions is not a good idea. You might be out there a long time. You have to adjust your sail to the direction of the wind and then the wind blows the boat in concert to where it’s going. God wants to give you your calling but only if your sails are set to the direction He is blowing to where He wants you to go, what He wants you to do, what He wants you to be.

This means coming to God and saying okay God all of me, I’m a little nervous, a little scared if I give you all, all my life You are going to send me to some forgotten tribe in Nooga land. If you’ll take this faith move, of all of you, no reservations, none of the world, no compromise, the Holy Spirit will then act on the mind to lead you, blow you into the plan of God for your life “your purpose.” And you will discover. Whatever God’s calling for you is, is good. Whatever His plan for you is it’s good. That means it’s the best thing that can happen to you. There is no greater plan for your life than the plan God has for it. It is the best plan for you.

Students go to counselors to help sort out what they wanna major in or to help get a life’s direction. Nobody can come up with a better life map for you than God because He knows stuff about you that will never show up on anybody’s test. He knows your personality. He knows the talents He’s given to you. Now let me tell you something else God knows. Watch this. He knows your scars. One of the main things God will use to call you is your scars. The things that happened to you in life may be caused by you, and maybe some caused by others that He will use. When Joni Erickson dove into that water, God knew that rock was there. When Joni Erickson hit that rock, that one negative event, that was a negative event in terms of human life. There’s no other way to explain that, but that became the basis of her ministry. And I heard her on the radio talking about while I would prefer to be in another physical situation, I praise God that even in my pain, there is a purpose. Did you know God will use your scars for His purposes? It’s good. Now let me tell you something. It may not seem good, but it is working out for good, okay. All things work together for good. When it’s being put together, it doesn’t look good, when it gets finished, its good.

It’s acceptable. It’s the best thing for you, and you’re going to want the result. When God shows you your calling, it will match your passion. Your calling will match your passion. You won’t get called to do what you despise. You will be called to do what you love. Now that doesn’t mean you will like everything about it but the thing itself, the essence of the thing itself you will love. God’s calling will be acceptable because it will relate to your passion.

Finally, it is perfect verse 2 says. You know what perfect means? It means complete, un-stop-able. Nobody can have yours. It means it will reach its intended destination. What a wonderful thing that if I’m in the will of God, I can’t die until my purpose is concluded. That’s why Paul could die with such confidence. He says I’m finished. Jesus says I’ve come to finish the work My Father has for Me to do. My time is now at hand, but all the other times He says My time is not yet because He was in the perfect plan of God. It’s perfect.

Talk about USC MBA then move to Bakersfield. See in a human standpoint, I’d say I changed my mind. Romans 12:2 would say the Holy Spirit transformed your thinking. You begin to think differently.

A little girl came to her father and said Daddy you promised to give me a nickel. The father had promised to give her a nickel. So he reached into his pocket he couldn’t find a nickel. He said well, you’ve been a good girl, so I don’t have any change so he reached into his pocket. He thought he’d give her a dollar bill, but he didn’t have any ones. He only had a twenty. He said woe ooh you know what? You’ve been so good I’m going to give you a twenty-dollar bill. She said but daddy, you promised me a nickel. No, you don’t understand, baby this is a bunch of nickels, a whole bunch of nickels. But she didn’t understand, she said as tears rolled down her face Daddy, why won’t you keep your promise? Daddy, you promised me a nickel, and I don’t have a nickel. He tried to explain again. No, honey, you don’t understand. This is a twenty-dollar bill. She did a temper tantrum. She went off on Daddy because Daddy wouldn’t give her a nickel.

That’s what a lot of us do with our calling, settle for a nickel when God says here’s a twenty-dollar bill. This is what I wanna do with my life. This is what I wanna be and God says, well here’s a twenty, and we are screaming, but why won’t you give me my nickel? God wants you to take the risk of saying not my will, but Thy will be done because I believe even if Your will is a cross on Friday, there’ll be a resurrection on Sunday.

Everyone bow your heads. Today we talked about God’s purpose and calling on our life, and how he has a perfect plan for us. He loves us and want’s the best for us. He loves us so much that he sent his son to die for us. As we pray I want you to ask this question. Do you know God, if you were to die today would you spend eternity with him? If your answer is, I’m not sure, I’ve been a pretty good person, I go to church. That is not the right answer. The answer is Jesus. How do we know Jesus? The Bible says we confess with our mouths that Jesus is lord, he is our King. We have to believe in our hearts that God has raised us from the dead like he raised Jesus so that we can be saved. If you want to know Jesus as a savior I want to lead you in a prayer.

There is nothing magical about what I am going to say. I’m just guiding your conversation with God.

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I have messed up in my life and I have fallen short of what you want for me. God, I am thankful that you love me so much that you sent your son to come to earth to die for me. Your son Jesus was buried and rose again three days later proving he is God. Today I acknowledge my sins and I ask you to forgive me and come into my life and to be my savior and Lord. Amen

The Bible says that if you had that conversation with God then you have been forgiven and made whole in his sight. You have now been made a new creation. Your old live has been buried and your new life has now begun. If you prayed that prayer I want you to talk to one of your leaders about your decision. We love you and want to walk with you in your new life.

Am I a living dead thing? Does God Own all of you? Are you Clearing your mind of the World?