Calling Tree

I think we limit ourselves

We limit our self because we have convinced our self to believe what we do isn’t as important as what others do.

We’ve been given talents and we’ve failed to make use of them.

Perhaps our biggest gift is one we fail constantly to recognize.

Our biggest gift from God is our fellowship with God. It is the root to our calling tree.

We will refer to the calling tree today as what we need to be strong in our callings

If fellowship with Jesus is our root we cant have a strong calling without a strong relationship with Jesus

1 Corinthians 1:9

1 Corinthians 1:9 ESV

God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 332: Turning on the Switch

After I had faith, living things became precious to me. I wanted to pet them, hug them—babies and dogs and lizards, whatever. For me the great fruit of belief is joy. There is a God, there is a purpose, there is a meaning to things, there are realities we cannot guess at, there is a big peace, and you are part of it.

“God is good.” Near him is where you want to be. There is something called everlasting happiness, and Saint Paul—a fiercely imperfect man who was a great man—was granted visions of it, and that great user of words was floored by it and said that no one can imagine how wonderful it is. The human imagination cannot encompass it.

—Pope John Paul II, quoted in Peggy Noonan, John Paul the Great (Viking, 2005

1001 Illustrations that Connect Illustration 499: From General to Servant

ILLUSTRATION 499

FROM GENERAL TO SERVANT

Topics: Leadership; Relationships; Servanthood; Team; Trust

References: Matthew 20:20–28; John 13:34–35

I’ve led from a place of servant leadership, and I’ve led from a place of top-down leadership—and there’s no question which kind of leadership is more effective.

My classmates at Harvard Business School used to call me the Prussian general because for many years that was my approach to leadership. Then I was hit by a series of personal and professional setbacks. My wife died. A mail-order venture that I had started went bankrupt. Rather than launch another business, I accepted a friend’s offer to head an aquarium project in Tampa.

I spent the next six years in a job that gave me no power, no money, and no knowledge. That situation forced me to draw on a deeper part of myself. We ended up with a team of people who were so high-performing that they could almost walk through walls. Why, I wondered, was I suddenly able to lead a team that was so much more resilient and creative than any team that I had run before?

The answer: somewhere, amid all of my trials, I had begun to trust my colleagues as much as I trusted myself. And that is the essence of servant leadership.

—Jim Stuart, cofounder of the Leadership Circle, Fast Company (September 1999)

Before we can become a proper leader we must first trust the one who is our leader

We found that Jim had to trust his co-workers before he would be able to lead them

We must be able to trust God as well as our fellow person before we can fulfil our calling

We saw it took Jim working 6 years along side his co workers to develop a relationship with them.

Before our calling can reach its full potential we must develop a relationship with God, we must trust him.

Looking back at the verse I wanna focus a little bit on Gods word.

According to we all have one for sure identical calling.

It says “by whom you were called into fellowship of his son”

So we were all called into fellowship with Jesus meaning we were all as Christians called into a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We have now decided our fellowship with God is the roots to our calling tree

Now each one of our trunks may be different

Our callings aren’t dependent one one thing

We aren’t all preachers

I think of a lot of people look at a preacher and assume they are the most Holy people imaginable

They think what they do is so much more important then what everyone else does.

That’t the farthest thing from the truth. We are each unique in our calling and our gifts

There was a lady named Eva and Miss Eva was 102 and years old when her pastor gave her a challenge. Miss eva’s passion was to sew and her pastor told her they needed 180 things to put into samaritans purse shoe boxes. Eva set out and doing what she loved used her calling to reach more people then most pastors ever will. she quoted “living a meaningful life is different for everyone, i’m not a preacher I couldn’t stand on a platform and give a message. That isn’t my work. The Lord gave me hands with no arthritis so I do a lot of sewing. I’ve been given a talent and I make use of it”.

We all have unique callings no two being exactly the same.

ILLUSTRATION 499

FROM GENERAL TO SERVANT

Topics: Leadership; Relationships; Servanthood; Team; Trust

References: ;

I’ve led from a place of servant leadership, and I’ve led from a place of top-down leadership—and there’s no question which kind of leadership is more effective.

My classmates at Harvard Business School used to call me the Prussian general because for many years that was my approach to leadership. Then I was hit by a series of personal and professional setbacks. My wife died. A mail-order venture that I had started went bankrupt. Rather than launch another business, I accepted a friend’s offer to head an aquarium project in Tampa.

I spent the next six years in a job that gave me no power, no money, and no knowledge. That situation forced me to draw on a deeper part of myself. We ended up with a team of people who were so high-performing that they could almost walk through walls. Why, I wondered, was I suddenly able to lead a team that was so much more resilient and creative than any team that I had run before?

The answer: somewhere, amid all of my trials, I had begun to trust my colleagues as much as I trusted myself. And that is the essence of servant leadership.

—Jim Stuart, cofounder of the Leadership Circle, Fast Company (September 1999)

Larson, C. B., & Ten Elshof, P. (2008). 1001 illustrations that connect (p. 278). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

English Standard Version Chapter 29

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

so jeremiah 29:11 tells us how God has a unique plan for our lives and his plans are special and they are good plans but I wanna read a little into the next two verses to see what the bible tells us we must do to get those plans

Jeremiah 29:12-13

Jeremiah 29:11–13 KJV 1900

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I wanna focus on the last phrase”with all your heart” we have to be completely and totally focused on God

That goes back to the roots we have to have fellowship and companionship with Jesus in order to get what he has lined out for us

Finally to complete the tree we need some foliage our foliage will be trusting what God has planned and being prepared to do what is asked of us

Ephesians 2:10

English Standard Version Chapter 2

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Breaking this verse down lets look at the first part “For we are his workmanship”

Think of a woodworker pouring all he has into a piece of furniture He is proud of it and happy with what he made

God is proud of what he has done in us we are his amazing creation

Looking at the next part we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works” were created with a purpose of works to spread God to each and every person we encounter.

Then finishing up the verse “Which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”

That’s meaning God already planned what he has in store for us long before it was even a thought.

While he was still molding us into what we are he already had a divine plan and a divine purpose.

So in our leaves of the calling tree we are to trust Gods plan for a calling on our lives cause he already knew what it was long before we even existed

We must also realize we are called into action

Yes God has our plan long before us but it is our job to say yes

If miss Eva had said no there would be 200 girls all over the world who didn't get that something special

That purpose God had even before Eva was born and now 102

(close)

there is no right or wrong calling

Its simply having a relationship with Jesus

Then realizing that Jesus already has a plan for our lives even if we have no clue or even if we don't feel good enough Jesus says you are good enough cause you were good enough for me to take the time to pour into you I could and that didn't stop short of a purpose.

Then the third and final thing is to trust God in his calling on you’re and take action when he finally presents you with the opportunity.