Consider This
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Remember when entire swaths of Americans were labeled as being non-essential?
There is no one who is non-essential in the body of Christ!
You are necessary!!!
Tell someone next to you: You are Necessary!
I’d like you to consider something today.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
The Bible urges us to consider our calling!
We consider all kinds of things (career, spouse, purchases, education) but how about our calling???
***You are not on this earth for the purpose of having a successful career, or a great family, or nice things, or a top-notch education, or even to be a good and faithful Christian…***
Before salvation, you were on this earth to have the chance to receive the gift of salvation & reconciled relationship from God.
After receiving salvation through Jesus, you were not just called to attend church.
Church is where we are taught and trained to be an effective part in God’s redemptive plan for the world.
Through salvation, you have become an essential part of God’s Redemptive Master Plan to save the world & for His Kingdom to be established in the earth.
Calling - (1) invitation to experience of special privilege and responsibility - almost exclusively of divine initiative. (2) The position that one holds.
What part have you been invited to play in God’s Divine plan???
Consider your calling!!!
No one is called, by God, just to natural work or success - that doesn’t last. We are all called to things that make an eternal impact!
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Maybe your job/career is so you can finance your Kingdom activities.
Ask God to help you make a ton of money so that you can help the gospel to be spread locally and globally - because that takes LOTS of money (the ministry of giving).
Maybe your work is to create a platform for you to influence others towards Christ.
Our natural activities are meant to support our supernatural Kingdom Activities - they are not ends to themselves.
We have to keep the main thing the main thing!
My calling is to get Hell & eternal death out of people and to get Heaven & eternal life into people - not to create nice church services.
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The calling is God’s-invitation that goes out to everyone, weather or not we are chosen is based upon whether or not we accept the invitation of God
We get to choose to be chosen!
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
How does it feel to know that God chooses you???
It feels SO GOOD to know that some people choose me as a friend, that my wife chooses me daily to be her husband & that God chooses me for use in His Kingdom.
Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
Consider these possible invitations from God to you!
And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
How do I discover where my gifting & calling might lie?
How do I discover where my gifting & calling might lie?
I am not a fan of personality tests and other tests of determining spiritual giftedness - simply because
God often calls us out of our natural strength and into His grace (e.g. Moses).
Don’t limit yourself or you calling to what you are good at! (Exodus 36:1-2)
You aren’t, right now, what you will be by the grace of God. (1 John 3:2)
Major Techniques of Discovering Your Call:
Major Techniques of Discovering Your Call:
Ask God to reveal His thoughts and plans to you
By His Word & His Spirit
By Presbytery
Try everything & serve everywhere a few times & see what flows easily and supernaturally.
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Personal Stories:
Called to the nations of the world, but didn’t know what that looked like & still figuring out what that looks like
Try to use the Gifts of the Spirit when a situation arises where it would be useful & see where you can easily believe and flow
I’ve prayed for a lot of people and discovered that there are some things that I have really good success with - backs, joints, heart & lung conditions, etc
Just One Thing:
Just One Thing:
Don’t just consider what is common or “normal”- consider your calling & then walk in it!
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
What “old person” things do you do?
What stands out to you about the difference between being called vs. being chosen by God? Do you more strongly identify with being called by God or chosen by God personally? Share a little.
Please read Proverbs 3:5 and 1 Corinthians 1:26–29 then share what these verses mean to you in light of your calling by God.
Consider your calling - what can you see so far about what God is calling you into in His plan for the world & those around you?
