FUBU: How Do I Know I Am Doing What I Am Called To Do?

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. For it says: When he ascended on high, he took the captives captive; he gave gifts to people. But what does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower parts of the earth? The one who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, to fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

Introduction: FUBU series. How do I know that I am doing what I am called to do? I want to take this question and look at a few layers of “calling” that I believe will be beneficial to us this morning.

Call to Salvation

Ephesians 2:8–10 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

saved by grace

it was a gift from God

we were created in Christ for good work that God had prepared

Matthew 9:12–13 CSB

Now when he heard this, he said, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

He calls the sinner

Application: Walking in our calling is different that the societal view of having purpose. When we are transformed by the Gospel (Bisrat) our affections and desires change. Our purpose is not solely to obtain but to give up (we’ll talk about this more later).

General Call to Service

Ephesians 4:1–2 CSB

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Therefore=Ephesians 1-3 are heavy on the doctrine. Now ch. 4-6 will deal a lot with the practical response in light of ch. 1-3.

urges them to “walk worthy of the calling”. It is not Paul’s concern for man to feel important or fulfilled, yes this can happen at times but this is not the inference here. Paul’s greater concern is the maturing of the church.

Ephesians 4:11–13 CSB

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness.

Remember, this is right on the heels of a foundation of doctrine (ch. 1-3)

Application: We must crucify the flesh and its desires for us to clearly see what the Lord is calling for us to do (look at it through new lens).

Specific Call To Service

The question then becomes: What should I be doing? Think about this, everybody who has the gift of shepherding may not be in the role of a pastor (you may lead a small group or a community group).

Common thing to ask......

What is your gift/talent? Romans 12:3-8

Romans 12:3–8 CSB

For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

What have you experienced in life? Genesis 50:20

Genesis 50:20 CSB

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

these can be identifiers. There are things that you have overcame through Christ that others are experiencing right now but they don’t know Him (somebody say “lay up”)

2 Corinthians 5:17 (CSB)

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

We do not come as empty slates (Among Wolves)

Paul’s zeal

Where do you find pleasure?

This isn’t an “end all be all” but it is worth exploring. Remember that our desires must align with the will of God but that doesn’t mean that all of our desire previous to salvation were bad, some might have just been misguided.....like Paul’s (Saul) zeal.