Answering The Divine Call
Notes
Transcript
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!
Scripture Reference: Ephesians 4:1-16
Context
Context
We are still in our series, “Who Am I”. We are discussing what it means to be a Christian...Who does God say that I am?
We have been discussing the ministry of the Holy Spirit, because He plays such a huge role in both the salvation and sanctification process of our lives.
Today, we are going to be talking about the calling of God.
The calling of God first takes place while we are unbelievers. It is a call to salvation.
17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
All of us who have experienced that call knows what it is like to receive that call, and to answer that call. It is truly an overwhelming experience. It is overwhelming because we were just as Jesus says: sinners in need of repentance. When an unholy sinner comes into contact with a Holy, Righteous God, a decision must be made. They must decide to either remain in that sin that separates them from God, or repent of it and walk in His light.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
Either way, it is an overwhelming experience.
But for those who choose to repent of their sin and live their life for God, the calling of God does not stop there. We spoke a few weeks ago about how we are saved to serve.
And where we end up serving will depend heavily upon the call of God upon our lives.
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,
3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Let’s pray!
Content
Content
It Is An Inclusive Calling
It Is An Inclusive Calling
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Serving God is about showcasing God. It is about bringing clarity to the Gospel. It is about exalting a risen Savior. It is about praising a Holy, Righteous God. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
The calling placed upon us to join the Family is also a calling to join the Fight. The calling of salvation is also a calling of service. And this is accomplished as we lock arms with the brothers and sisters of faith who stand beside us so that we might all point others to God.
Let’s do an exercise. Everyone close their eyes. I want you to picture the outline of a body, like one who might see in a school book. The legs are slightly apart, and the arms are straight out.
Now I want you to think of the preaching ministry. Let’s say that a preacher represents the mouth. I want you to picture a single light coming on where the mouth would be.
Now let’s consider the custodian of the church. They represent the hands. Now imagine a light coming on at the very tip of one finger on the hand.
Now these two lights, in and of themselves, are very far apart and they seem to have no correlation to one another.
But now I want you to imagine that a light comes on somewhere around the feet, then another one around the knees. I want you to imagine that more and more lights keep coming on all over the body. Hundreds of them.
Once all of the lights are shining brightly, you can now easily see that these lights all working and shining together, in their own respective places, make a silhouette of a body.
That is the calling of God upon our lives. Our job is not to be every light, just the light that God has called us to be. As we all answer the call of God upon our lives and serve Him where He has called us to serve, we as a church begin to showcase God to the world. When the world sees all of us serving and operating in the areas that God has called us to serve and operate in, they begin to see a picture of God.
It Is An Individual Calling
It Is An Individual Calling
7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
It says that Jesus has bestowed upon each one of us His grace. Now we know that this referring to gifts, because this verse is followed up by verse 11:
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
So we are talking here about gifts of grace, or grace gifts. Not only is our salvation a work of grace, our calling into service is as well. We do not deserve the forgiveness of sins, let alone to represent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords in all we do. The fact that God would call any of us into service is a means of grace.
Not everyone has the same calling, but all Christians have been called into ministry.
Over the years, I have heard a lot of conversations about Preachers being “Called” into the ministry. And I agree that preachers are called into the ministry.
1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
2 He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.
3 Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.
4 And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.
So yes, I believe a man is called into the ministry. But I also think that each individual Christian has a calling upon their lives.
As we come to realize this, we can begin to understand just how important and valuable our gifts are. They come from Christ, and they are given that we might represent Christ.
If we are going to do this well, we must discover what our gift is and then spend the rest of our lives honing this gift for His sake.
It Is An Invaluable Calling
It Is An Invaluable Calling
8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.”
We need to understand exactly what this means.
Exploring Ephesians & Philippians: An Expository Commentary (a) The Old Testament Promise (4:8)
When Paul wrote
Jesus came as a babe in a manger and lived in the most humble manner we could imagine, but make no mistake about it, He was fighting for the lives of every single person who has ever, and will ever live. Satan thought He won when Jesus died on that cross, but in reality, His death meant redemption for all of mankind.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Praise God! When Christ ascended to the Father, He did not leave us alone. He sent unto us the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit moves and operates within the will of God to bring as many people as possible unto repentance.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God wants all men to be saved. But it doesn’t stop there, God wants all men to experience the fullness of what this life was supposed to be.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
God doesn’t save us simply to keep us from hell. Most of the time, that is where it starts at for us, but that is not where it should end. As we grow in Christ, we come to realize that being a Christian is so much more than that. It is about serving Christ and making an eternal difference in other people’s lives. And we do this through the calling of God upon our lives.
This calling is invaluable. The price that was paid so that you and I might be called into the family is a price we can never repay. Never!! It is a price beyond value. It is a price with eternal value.
It Is An Important Calling
It Is An Important Calling
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Sometimes we forget that Jesus’s sacrifice was not just for our salvation, but also for our service. If Jesus did not die, then we would not have the Holy Spirit, and without the Holy Spirit we could not experience salvation or giftedness to serve the Almighty. This means that discovering what our spiritual gifts are and utilizing them for the Kingdom of God is just as important as the salvation of our souls.
Now some would argue with that, and say that there is no way our service to God is as important as placing our faith in Christ, but to those people I have a question: How did you come to know Jesus? Was it not through some faithful brother or sister exercising their giftedness before you?
Our salvation is the greatest, most important thing that we could ever do concerning ourselves. There is not another thing in this life that even remotely compares to the importance of knowing who Jesus is in your heart.
But our sanctification is the greatest, most important thing that we could ever do concerning those around us. How can they see Jesus unless they see Him in us? How can they see Him in us if we fail to live it before them? How can we live it before them, if we don’t first grow as Christians and learn of who He is?
Why did God gift us as believers to start with?
12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
We don’t come together as a local assembly of the body of Christ just to socialize. We don’t come together just to hear a good word. These are things are part of it, but it is more than that. We come here to learn and grow. We come here to be equipped for the work of ministry. We come here to edify one another. We come here to be reminded that we are all fighting on the same team, for the same purpose, which is to lead each other into Christlikeness.
And it is imperative that we do so. Because when we walk out of these doors, we are walking into enemy territory. Everything that is worldly is designed to challenge your faith. It is designed to make you doubt who are in Christ, and even to doubt who Christ Himself is.
Paul says that we are build one another up with our gifts, encourage one another with our gifts, lead each other into maturity with our gifts, so that:
14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
The calling that God has placed on your life is vastly important because it is meant to edify the body, to lead the younger Christians into maturity, and to witness to those who are lost and headed for hell. It is imperative that figure out exactly what God has called us to do, so that we might make as much a difference in others lives as we possibly can.
Some of you already know what God has called you to, and you are already serving in that capacity. I praise God for you!!! We could not do all that we do without you.
Some of you have no clue what your calling is. You have no clue what your spiritual gifts are. Don’t be discouraged, for we were all there at some point.
As you seek God in finding answers to these questions, let me say just a few final things.
You must be willing.
The very first major step that you must take, if you truly want to know what God has called you to do, is make yourself available. There can be no reserves. “God I’ll do this, but not that.” You have to be willing to do whatever God calls you to do. You have no idea how much of a difference you can make if you are just willing to let God lead you where He wants you to be.
You must be intentional.
This is not something where you just say one prayer and then wait for something to happen. You must seek God continually, asking Him to reveal Himself to you. You must get in the Word and let it speak to you. You must be diligent to see God in everything, everywhere you go.
Commitment
Commitment
We are coming into our time of invitation. This is the time for you to pray. This is when you follow the leadership of the Spirit and spend time with God.
I believe that there could very well be a future preacher in our midst. I believe that there could very well be some future Deacons in our midst. I believe that there could very well be some future Missionaries in our midst. I believe that there could be some future Sunday School Teachers in our midst.
If you know what God has called you to do, you should be doing it. If you don’t, this is where that journey starts.
