Untitled Sermon (2)

CALLED BY NAME: DISCOVERING YOUR DIVINE DESTINY

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (ESV)

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

The dictionary defines calling as: a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence.

The concept and purpose of a divine call is not something we create; it is something God places within us. Throughout history God has called people to Him and called people to serve Him.

If we look at the book of Genesis, chapter 6 onwards, it records how the people of that time had descended into sin and wickedness. Wickedness so profound God decided to act and concluded that the world must be destroyed. So, God Calls Noah, he tells him to build and populate the ark, and become the instrument through whom God would start the world over again.

If we Jump forward to Genesis 12, we find the Call of God to Abraham. God intended to raise up a nation of people whom He could work in and through to accomplish His purposes. God called Abram to leave a place called Ur and go.

With the call came a promise from God, Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

12 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Abram was called to leave his home and to travel to a place of promise. Abram responded with obedience. But his was not a perfect obedience to God. His response to God’s call was marked and marred by poor judgment and sin. Yet God used Abram’s flawed obedience to carry out His purposes and lay the foundations for the nation of Israel.

Then, later on, there is the call on Samuel’s life. God chose to raise up a faithful priest, and late one night, God called out to Samuel. Samuel heard and responded.

Moving forward in time, God saw there was a problem called King Saul, and God had planned the perfect solution to the problem, a young shepherd boy named David. God calls David to a specific task, to serve as the earthly king of God’s people. David responds with submission and obedience. Again, his obedience is not perfect, but David serves the plan and purpose of God.

Those God calls to serve Him are often far from what we would consider perfect, their attitudes, their actions often seem to fall short of what we would expect of someone called by God. The truth is we are not perfect either and often we can use our imperfections as an excuse for us to not serve or honor God in the way he has called us. You and I will never be perfect, but God requires each of us to follow the call He has placed on our lives and not resist His call on us.

The Old Testament prophet Jonah is an example of someone who resisted and opposed the call of God placed on his life.

Jonah 1:1–3 (ESV)

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.

Jonah ran away from what God called him to do. Jonah hated the people of Ninevah, he did not want them to turn to God. Jonah did not want God to have mercy on Ninevah, so he ran from God and from God’s call. Jonah headed off in the opposite direction, towards Tarshish, the furthest place away from Ninevah he could travel.

You know what happens next, Jonah is on the boat, the storm comes, Jonah tells the sailors the storm is his fault, the sailors throw him overboard and Jonah is swallowed by a big fish. Three days in the fish, dark, damp, smelly, Jonah repents, gets vomited onto the beach, then goes to Ninevah to do what God called him to do. Jonah thought he could run away and resist the call of God on his life, so God uses a miracle to ensure Jonah would go to where God wanted him to be.

In the Bible, there are many other examples of where God has called people to carry out His plans and purposes. The Old Testament is filled with passages describing different leaders, prophets, kings who were called by God for different reasons Our time together this morning is not sufficient to look at all of their callings.

Often God’s call was not comfortable or convenient for them but each of them responded to the call of God on their lives to serve Him and His purposes. I wonder how have you, how have I, responded to God’s call on our lives? Have we responded to or rejected God’s specific call on our lives? Why do I say specific call? Because each of us is different, different gifting, different skills, different abilities, we are all different people, each with a different call on our lives.

The New Testament records how Paul was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. In chapter 4 of Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, he describes how God calls people in different ways, some are called to be apostles or prophets or evangelists or pastors or teachers. Each of us may have a different call, different gifting, but the purpose is the same - all of us who are called by God have a responsibility to do His work and build the church, the body of Christ.

For Paul, calling was not a final destination it was a journey. Calling requires commitment and moving forward in faith. Listen to the words of Paul recorded in

Philippians 3:13–14 (ESV)

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

We have been called to Christ, and Christ calls us to serve Him here until He calls us home.

The Bible uses the words ‘Call’ and ‘Calling’, in different ways. The New Testament picks up all these ideas and takes them further, particularly in the writings of Peter and the Apostle Paul.

Peter and Paul use “call” as a semi-technical term for accepting God’s invitation of forgiveness and salvation. For example,

Romans 8:30 (ESV)

30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

God calls every Christian no matter your past you are called by God.

As Followers of Christ, we are all called to follow Him and obey Him. The words of Jesus recorded in

Luke 9:23 (ESV)

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

To follow Jesus, or to reject Jesus, is a choice each of us will make, a choice that changes where we will spend eternity.

To respond to the call of Jesus, to follow Him, to trust Him, leads to Heaven. To reject the call of Jesus, to ignore Him, to trust in the things of this world instead of Him leads to Hell. The call to follow Jesus is the ultimate call on each of our lives.

Not only are we called to fulfill the Purpose God has placed in our lives but we are called to

The Call to Salvation

The Call to Sanctification

The Call to Service

The Call to Salvation

Listen to Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus came and told His disciples,

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Mark 16:15-16, Jesus told them,

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

The Call to Salvation is a call that is made to every person in the world. It is the call to believe in God and to trust in His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is the call to accept the sacrifice of Jesus as full payment for our sin. It is the call to express our belief by repenting, by turning away from our sins and being baptized in His name.

The Call to Sanctification

The Call to Sanctification is a call to reject the things God has said are wrong and a call to live a life that brings glory and honor to God. We are called to be in the world, not of the world, we are called to embrace the character, the concern, the consistency of life demonstrated by Jesus. We are saved from the consequences of our sins but that does not give us a license to sin.

The Call to Sanctification is a call to live a changed life, a new-life, a born-again life, a Spirit-filled life. In Acts 2:38

Acts 2:38 (ESV)

38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of the Holy Spirit, His indwelling presence, He comes and dwells inside us. The Holy Spirit begins the call to sanctification in our lives, and then He helps us to be holy, to be pure, to be more like Christ.

Church, every time we are confronted with our sin, every time we become aware of a better way to live or to think or to act, every time we experience the desire to be more like Jesus we are responding to the call to sanctification.

The Call to Service

If you are in Christ this morning, you have been called to serve God. God has saved you to serve Him. Serving does not save you, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross saved you. Your service to God is your response to His love and mercy and kindness in saving you from your sins.

How you choose to serve God, how I choose to serve God is a reflection of how much we love Him. A reflection of how thankful we are that our sins are forgiven.

Listen to Romans 12:6–8 (ESV)

6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

The call to serve is seen by some as an inconvenience, an expense of time or effort or resources. Some people see the call to serve as something to avoid - often the same people who ignore the call to Sanctification also ignore the call to serve God.

As we are being sanctified, the call to service is the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus, the opportunity to offer something of ourselves to the one who was willing to give everything for us. We are called to serve because Jesus served, we are called to service to demonstrate His love, we are called to serve to build His church.

Do you love God enough to answer the call to serve Him, to serve His church? Today in this building, what call to service are you hearing in your life? What is God prompting you to do? How can you serve Him? What needs do you see in this church, in this community that God has already given you the gifts, the abilities, the talents, the resources to serve Him? How is the Holy Spirit prompting you to show your love for God in service to Him? `

The Call to Salvation, The Call to Sanctification and The Call to Service, each of these three calls come at different times and in different ways but they all have three things in common:

First, all of these calls come from God. The call to repent and be saved, the call to follow God’s commandments, the call to be baptized, the call to be sanctified, the call to be in the right relationship with God, the call to be Holy as God is Holy, the call to love God and serve Him and Him alone, - all of those calls are from God Himself. When your heart's desire is to follow Christ, God is calling you. When you are challenged by the word of God, God is calling you to hear and respond to His voice.

Second God has given you free will to choose how you will respond to each of these calls. You can choose to either accept or reject the calls of God. You can choose eternal salvation or reject Christ and choose eternal condemnation. You can choose Sanctification and a spiritual life or live in bondage to sin and worldly ways. You can choose to grow in your knowledge and faith in God or seek after the wages of sin and death. You can choose the promise of peace with God now and forever or an eternal separation from God.

The third thing about these calls is they are all urgent. God’s call can be gentle, God’s call can be direct, God’s call can even be dramatic, but God’s call will not always be there. The call to be saved will stop abruptly when you die or when Jesus comes. The call to sanctification can be extinguished if you choose to continue to sin and follow worldly ways. If there is something in your life that you know is wrong in God’s sight and your conscience doesn’t bother you when you do it, you are rejecting the call to sanctification. Worse than that, if you are not allowing God to lead you and guide you, if you are willingly choosing to sin you are allowing Satan to control you.

Maybe you have already made your decision, maybe you need to reaffirm your choice this morning, maybe you need to choose to respond to the calls of God for the first time in your life.

Remember, choosing not to make a choice is actually choosing to reject God’s call. Is the Lord calling you to be saved? Is the Lord calling you to purify some aspect of your life or to walk closer to Him than before? Is God calling you to serve Him in some way you never have before, or with a new attitude? Is God calling you to submit to His plan and purpose for your life?