Answering the Call

Introduction

Good morning and welcome!

It is a privilege to be able to bring the Word to you this morning and I will thank you ahead of time for putting up with me today!

This morning we are going to look at a subject that God actually laid on my heart several weeks ago while teaching the youth.

Back in I believe November, we taught a very brief lesson on Spiritual gifts and had the youth take a Spiritual Gifts test.

Then a few weeks ago, we followed that lesson up with a general lesson about the Spiritual Gifts, discovering our gifts, and walking in our gifts.

And then (3) weeks ago we began a series about the 5-Fold Ministry.

Ryan taught the first week about evangelism.

I taught the second week about teaching.

And Janet taught this past week about prophesy.

So, if you have not been coming to those on Wednesday nights, I’d encourage you to come if you are able!

There are two more left to go.

Anyway, one of the things that God kept talking to me about all of this was Answering the Call and why people do not answer the call.

And we have hit on some of the reasons several times over the past few weeks, but this morning you are going to get it one more time.

So, for reference this morning, we are going to start out in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4-11, but we are not going to stay there.

And hopefully, the Lord will speak to you this morning.

So, before we begin, let’s pray.

Now, 1 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 4, Paul writes . . .

Scripture Focus

1 Corinthians 12:4–11 NLT

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

Now, let’s look at another passage, where Paul wrote pretty much the same thing . . .

Romans 12:6–8 NLT

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

And finally, Peter gets into the mix a little as well in 1 Peter 4:10-11 . . .

1 Peter 4:10–11 NLT

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

So, the whole point of me reading all of that was this.

I want it to be abundantly clear that when we step into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we WILL receive spiritual gifts and we WILL receive a calling in our lives.

It may not be a calling into a role in the 5-Fold ministry, but it will be a calling.

The problem is that many times we don’t walk in that calling and there are lots of reasons for that.

The first one is flat out pride.

Pride

Now, you may think it’s a little strange that I started with Pride, as opposed to one of the other reasons why we do not answer the call.

But honestly, it stands in the way of so much that God wants to do through us and through the Church.

And I am talking about The Gathering Place and THE Church as a whole.

Going back to 1 Corinthians 12 again, this time going on down into verse 12, Paul continues on this way . . .

1 Corinthians 12:12–17 NLT

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

You see where Paul is going here?

He is comparing the Body of Christ to the human body.

We have hands, feet, ears, mouths, eyes, noses, and everything else.

Each one of those parts has a function.

And that function is different, but each function is just as important as the other functions.

All the parts of the body are important because God arranged them to work together.

Just like the Body of Christ . . .

1 Corinthians 12:18–20 NLT

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.

Because that is how it works and that is how it is supposed to function. Let’s read on . . .

1 Corinthians 12:21–26 NLT

The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

But we will want to get in our heads that WE WANT notice I said “we want” and not “God called” to do certain things because we think that it is more important or more honorable, when the reality is, IT IS ALL important, IT IS ALL vital, because God has arranged things they way He did for a specific reason.

Verse 27 . . .

1 Corinthians 12:27 NLT

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.

And go all the way back up to verses 12-13

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 NLT

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

And we get this way because face it, we all want to be important.

But the problem is, we want to be important in the eyes of man, which is pride.

That’s why Paul also tells us in Romans 12:3 . . .

Romans 12:3 NLT

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

He is trying to tell us to stay humble and don’t worry about if you are important in man’s eyes.

Worry about being obedient to God because His eyes are all that matters anyway.

And guess what, you are important to God.

But the “Pride of Life” gets in the way.

The “Pride of Life” can be defined as an “arrogant spirit of self-sufficiency. It expresses the desire for recognition, applause, status, and advantage in life. The phrase describes the pride in what life can offer you.”

John says this in 1 John 2 . . .

1 John 2:16 NLT

For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

In other words, it is the desire to have what you want regardless of what God wants.

It is wanting to seek your own will and your own way regardless of what God says about it.

It is wanting your ministry instead of operating as part of THE ministry according to God’s plan.

It is the “it’s all about me” attitude and “what’s in it for me” mentality of the world.

And it is a distraction and detractor from God’s will and pulls you away from God.

It is the “follow your heart—do whatever makes you happy” mentality.

That is prideful and we think we know more and know better than what God does.

But our Bible teaches us . . .

Matthew 16:26 NLT

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

And the last thing about pride and what God thinks about it before we move on . . .

Proverbs 16:18–19 NLT

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. Better to live humbly with the poor than to share plunder with the proud.

Pride leads to destruction.

Pride will lead you to utter destruction and if you are looking around thinking “man I’d like to get up there where everyone can see me”

Or, “let me post on Facebook about all the things I’m doing for God . . .”

I don’t care how religious it sounds or how much much you “give God credit,” if you are doing it just to make yourself feel good.

You have your reward and it is prideful and honestly doing more harm than good.

And I don’t know if anyone knows who Bob Newhart was, but is a clip from MadTV (and I know that’s before some of your time) but there is a clip where he is a therapist and lady comes to him and is telling him all of her problems and what makes it funny is everytime he gives her advice he simply says. “STOP IT” just “STOP IT.”

And the point is, if you are operating under this prideful spirit, here is my best spiritual/pastoral advice to you.

STOP IT....JUST STOP IT!

So, now that we have that cleared up, let’s look at the second BIG reason people don’t answer the call.

FEAR . . .

Fear

And some will even say that this may actually be the #1 thing that keeps us from answering the call.

And we have all heard of the different things we are typically afraid of.

Ridicule

Being Made Fun Of

Afraid of what my family might say.

Afraid of what my friends might do.

Afraid of what the “religious” people might do or say.

Rejection

Failure

Being Wrong About it

Not knowing what to do or what to say.

And the list goes on and on and on.

However, what does the Bible tell us about fear though?

It is not of God.

Let me say that louder so those in the back can hear.

FEAR IS NOT OF GOD

The Bible tells us, and several already know this . . .

2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

So, if it is not from God, who is it from?

The enemy.

And what is his purpose?

John 10:10 NLT

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

And basically, the enemy wants to do everything in his power to try and distract you and keep you from answer the call that God has for you.

Because if he can get you away from your calling, then it removes God’s power in your life and you are more likely to fall.

Also, each person has a specific group that they can reach with the Gospel.

There are people I can reach that you cannot and people you can reach that I cannot.

If you are not walking in your calling then those people may not be reached.

Now, that doesn’t mean that God will just say “oh well . . .”

But things will be delayed because if you are not going to do, God’s got to raise somebody else up to do it, which takes time.

So, don’t let fear get in your way because all of these things we are so afraid of are things the enemy puts in our head to get us off track.

Sure, in some countries there is the real threat of persecution and physical death, but here we do not suffer that.

We have the ability to worship freely and share the Gospel freely.

But the enemy will want you to think you do not have that freedom but the reality is, you do.

There is nothing to be afraid of.

In fact some variation or other of the phrase “fear not” appears in the Bible over 300 times (not 365 as some will say) but enough that we should get the point.

And probably my favorite verse that puts fear in perspective is Romans 8:31.

Romans 8:31 NIV84

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

And then Psalm 27:1

Psalm 27:1 NLT

The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?

Folks, regardless of what the self-proclaimed TikTok fear mongering prophets and false teachers out there trying to scare you to death about everything, the enemy has no power over us.

The only the power the enemy has is to influence our minds and to distract us to get us off track.

So, if you are using fear as an excuse not to answer the call then—STOP IT!

STOP IT RIGHT NOW!

So, now that we’ve dealt with fear, what’s another reason we are not answering the call.

And this one may sting just a little bit.

It is disobedience.

Disobedience

Flat out disobedience.

We just don’t want to do it.

It is too much of an inconvenience or a sacrifice to do it.

And we don’t want to hear it, but the reality is our disobedience is sin.

I don’t care what excuse we use, whether it is because of fear, pride, whatever.

Disobeying God is sin. There is no way around it.

We call it the sin of omission.

James 4:17 NLT

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.

The sin of commission is when we do things God tells us not to do and the sin of omission is not doing the things that God tells us to do.

And it makes no difference really because sin is sin and sin separates us from God.

Isaiah 59:2 NLT

It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.

And we may think that this just impacts us and causes us issues, but remember when we talked about our ability to reach certain groups.

Well, there is a passage in the Old Testament I want to read to you . . .

Ezekiel 3:18–21 NLT

If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me. “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”

Folks, we are talking about people’s eternity and their salvation that is possibly at stake here.

Now, like I said, God will send someone else if you are not willing.

But that doesn’t relieve you of the consequences of your disobedience to God.

And if this describes you, then guess what you need to do about it?

STOP IT! JUST STOP IT!

Altar/Conclusion

So, how do we answer the call of God on lives.

First, by not quenching the Holy Spirit when the Spirit is moving.

1 Thessalonians 5:19 NLT

Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.

Second, by not neglecting the gift in us.

1 Timothy 4:14 NLT

Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.

Because what happens when we neglect anything in life?

It fades and gets worse.

For instance, what would happen if we neglected the house we live in?

Spiritual gifts are no different.

Third, we have to stir up the gift of God (the opposite of neglecting).

2 Timothy 1:6 NLT

This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.

And how do we do this?

By practicing them, exercising them.

And I am going to give you a head start.

Three calls that God places on EVERY person out there.

First, the call to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is foundation.

Without that, you cannot go any further.

We must have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

If fact, we must have a relationship with Jesus Christ whether we ever answer a call or not.

Because without that, we have no hope when our journey here ends.

None whatsoever.

We talk about hell and all of the fire and brimstone of it.

But the most hellish part of hell is eternal separation from God.

And we have no idea what that is like.

So, if you do not have a relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is talking to you then right now come and let us pray with you.

Second, we are all called to love God with all our being and to love others.

Matthew 22:35–40 NLT

One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

And third, we are called to go and make disciples.

To actually do something . . .

Matthew 28:19–20 NLT

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.”

And it just expands from there.

So, you have the Word, what are you going to do with it?

If there is anything that God has laid on your heart or convicted you of, I’d encourage you to bring it before the Lord.

There are people here that will pray with you and pray for you.

All you have to do is step out in obedience to God.

That’s it . . .