Called by Grace

We started last week looking at how we should be “Rooted in Grace.” We began in the book of Romans focusing on standing in grace and how we need to trust that God is with us. We will spend the rest of this series in the book of Galatians.

Today we look at what it means to be “Called by Grace”. Our scripture comes from Galatians 1:11-24.

11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.

18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.

21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.

Please pray with me…

When was the time that God changed your life? Can you remember that moment when you went from believing that there might be a God to becoming a follower of Jesus. Most likely that moment was not like Paul’s where you hear Jesus’ voice and end up blind and have to find another believer to heal you.

Being called by God and being saved often happen in two different time frames. Again, very seldom does a person go from being saved to doing and being who God desires for them to be. It is usually a process that will lead to a person becoming closer to God. Which will lead to a person understanding the calling God has for them.

This form of grace is called sanctifying grace. It is the grace that we receive when we allow the Holy Spirit to work within us. It is the type of grace that is a gift given to us by God to help us become more holy and therefore lead us to desire to follow God more closely.

Paul accepts God’s forgiveness and then he disappears. He wants to make it clear to his audience that he didn’t learn from the disciples or other Christians. He went away and got his teachings directly from Jesus.

This again makes him a rare case. We are supposed to be in communication with God. We are supposed to allow God to speak into our hearts but often their will also be a human element involved from the moment we became a follower of Jesus.

We usually call this human element the church. It is through our connection with God, and our interaction with other believers that will often help lead us into becoming closer to God and receive a greater understanding of how God wants to use the gifts he has given us to serve him.

(Transition)

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had such a moment long after he became a follower of Jesus. In fact, he had received his schooling to become an Anglican priest, had made what amounted to a failed trip to America to save the Indians, and had returned attempting to receive a greater understanding of his faith.

 A transitional moment occurred on the trip over to the Americas. A trip across the ocean during that time was no short journey and a ship would often run into a storm, and they would face rough seas.

In Wesley’s case it was a storm so bad that he was scared that he would die. Fear had overcome him and his faith had somewhat disappeared. It was at this time that he saw another group upon the ship called the Moravians.

Instead of seeming to be afraid they were singing songs and praising God as if they didn’t have a care in the world. He was shocked by their faith and at that moment he decided he wanted to discover what that kind of faith would be like.

It was through a conversation with the leader of this group that he first hears about being filled and relying on the Holy Spirit. From that moment until the day he felt that infilling of the Holy Spirit on May 24, 1738 he prayed to receive what those Moravians had.

Wesley’s explanation of what took place in that moment was that “his heart was strangely filled.” He couldn’t explain how it happened, but he knew that through the grace of God his relationship with God changed on that day.

(Transition)

Many times, it can be through us seeing the life of others and for others to see our lives changed that can lead them and us to desire to make changes in our lives. We can begin praying and asking God to help us become who these individuals already are.

For me this occurred after attending a men’s Bible study a number of times. I was in a room with teachers, lawyers, and college professors. People way smarter than me. They would speak of what they were doing to connect with God each and every day.

It was these conversations many years after I became a Christian that became my pivotal moment. The moment when I went from being a believer in Jesus as my Savior to a person who began following my Lord. A person who wanted to become closer to God each and every day.

(Transition)

For Paul, our scripture has him changing almost in an instant. He goes from someone who “persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.” Someone who was “zealous for the traditions” of Judaism to someone who became a follower of God through Jesus.

Paul refers to what happened to him as God revealing his son to him. We have spoken of this before, we call it prevenient grace. This is God attempting to allow for those that are not yet followers of him to discover Jesus and what it means to have their sins forgiven and give their life over to him.

This transformation in his life led him into going into solitude with God. This is where we will often move away from the story of Paul. It is true that we should connect with God in our own way individually, but we also should connect with God through Christian community.

Paul may have believed he had too, or God called him to do life differently. What we would expect is that Paul would have struggled finding a Christian community that would have accepted him. After all he was known for arresting and imprisoning those that confessed themselves as followers of Jesus.

There is a good possibility that God had Paul go into solitude because he needed to strengthen his faith. He would need to have a strong reliance on God to overcome the obstacles that he would face not only from the Jewish religious authorities who he abandoned but also those that should now be considered his fellow Christians.

(Transition)

Our first reading involves another life-changing moment. This is the story of Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector. There wasn’t an IRS during that time. The Romans would hire locals to go around and collect the taxes that Rome was charging this people group.

The tax collectorswere to add an amount on top of this tax to help pay their salary and the salary of the chief tax collector. It was because of their job, gathering money for the enemy; and the way they went about their job, often taking more money than they should; which led them to be hated by their fellow Jewish believers.

Jesus comes upon the scene, and we have him make eye contact with Matthew and he tells him to leave the tax booth and come and follow him. Matthew does and they end up at Matthew’s house where a meal is prepared and we have Jesus eating a meal with Matthew’s friends.

We have another group that watches this scene unfold and are not happy with Jesus. They are struggling that Jesus as a Rabbi would be willing to hang out with those tax collectors and sinners at the house of a tax collector.

Jesus is attempting to lead this audience to receive a different understanding what God desires from those that follow him. He doesn’t want the isolation that the Pharisees preached. He wants his followers to be around those that need to hear the message the most.

(Transition)

Our two scriptures have two people that would have been considered opposites in their understanding of God during that time. Paul was someone who was closely connected and trusted by the religious hierarchy while Matthew was not considered worthy to be around someone who closely followed the Jewish God.

And both are called by Jesus. Jesus is pointing out that there is no one who is unworthy to be around the Messiah. There is no one who is unworthy to be loved by God. There is no one that we shouldn’t be willing to have become a part of our Christian community.

A church can help or hinder the opinion someone has of God and of followers of Jesus. How we treat people leads them to receive preconceived notions on how Christians treat people. Our job is to show love to those around us no matter who they are.

We can be reminded of this by looking at our mission statement we are to “love all people.” We are to allow all people to feel loved and accepted when they come to The Church of the Good Shepherd.

(Transition)

Each person that is a follower of Jesus has been called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus. Our calling is how we are living out what God has called for us to do. God has given each of us unique gifts to allow us to be the example to others that Jesus desires for us to be.

Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 when he compares the church to a human body. Each part of the human body is unique and helps the rest of the body operate in the best way possible. We are to choose to individually know are calling but also to work with each other to serve our God.

We are to allow our differences to help us reach all that are around us. We are to be united together. Paul says it this way. We are “to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit.” Our ethnicity, sex, politics, job, nothing should separate us from working together in serving God.

(Transition)

We are each called by God in some way. It may be large or small. It will usually match where you are health-wise. God isn’t going to give you a physical calling when you are barely able to walk.

What can happen is that we have served God in some manner and we are no longer able to serve him in that way. Instead of searching for new ways to serve the Lord we go into “spiritual retirement.” We decide that we are done being servants to the Lord.

The Lord never quits calling us. He is always searching for ways in which we can serve him. We need to be willing to look around us and find our own worth in what is happening around us. We need to believe we still have ways in which we can serve our God.

(Transition)

This is partially what is behind the model we have created to reflect how a person goes from being a believer in Jesus, to be a follower of Jesus, to becoming a disciple of Jesus. We have defined them in four steps: discover, decide, develop, and discern.

These four steps point out to us that our journey of serving Jesus never ends, but it just may change over time. We should always be checking in with God and asking him if he wants us to keep doing what we are doing or what he desires for us to do next.

Our God never wants us to be sitting on the sidelines. He wants us to listen to him and serve him. He desires for us to help those around us become the person he desires for them to be while they are helping us do the same.

(Transition)

Let me go through the steps that lead us to discovering if we are doing what God desires for us to do or what new calling, he wants for us to follow. We have spoken about these steps many times but their importance is such that we probably can’t state them enough.

We need to be willing to ask, listen, and respond to God. This sounds easy but we will often find ourselves living our lives without ever pausing to take any of these steps. We will often allow life to intervene, and we don’t give any time to God. This can partially lead to our not knowing how we are supposed to serve God.

Asking for God to help us discern what he wants us to do becomes the way that God knows that we believe that we are willing and ready. Our asking tells God that we no longer want to serve him and follow him the way we want. We wantto do and say what he wants.

(Transition)

The next step is listen. We need to give God time and space to tell us what he desires for us to do. A recent podcast had a guest whose latest book is on “calling.” She states that we don’t often receive our calling through a loud booming voice. We often hear from God through whispers and circumstances.

This means we have to be attentive to what God is attempting to say to us and show us. Pastor and author Mark Batterson wrote a book entitled “Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God”. In his book this is his description about how we hear God’s voice.

“The goal of hearing the heavenly voice isn’t just hearing his voice; it’s intimacy with him. That’s why he speaks in a whisper. He wants to be as close to us as is divinely possible! He loves us, likes us, that much.”

God wants tobe as close to us as we are willing to be to him. He desires for us to lean in and listen to his still, small voice so that he can tell us the ways in which he is at work within us and wants to work through us.

(Transition)

The last step is for us to respond. Asking and hearing don’t do any good if we are not willing to move forward and do what God desires for us to do. We find numerous places within the scriptures where people have fought their calling.

I spent years myself fighting my calling. God calls us to obedience. God asks for us to take the brave step and do what his whisper to us is asking for us to do. He wants us to help him; help reach those around us.

(Transition)

I say all this with this comment in mind. We are calling this the year of traction in order for us to get prepared for finding ways to serve God and our communities in the future. I still don’t have a clear path on what that may look like but what I do know is that it may take all of us stepping out of our comfort zones.

I ask you to be in prayer. Ask God to open up to you the role that he has for you in serving him in the future. Listen to his whisper to you, open yourself up to new possibilities. And when the opportunity presents itself be willing to step up and serve God believing that he has prepared you into becoming the person he desires for you to be.

Let us pray…