Follow Your Calling
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
1. Paul’s Calling
a. Servant of Christ Romans 1:1-4; Leviticus 25:55
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
b. Called to be an Apostle Romans 1:5-6
Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;
c. To those called to be saints. Romans 1:7
To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
d. Paul is ready to preach! Romans 1:8-15
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established—that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
2. Isaiah’s Calling
a. A vision Isaiah 6:1-4
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
b. A humble repentance Isaiah 6:5-7
So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
c. A difficult calling. Isaiah 6:8-13
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
3. Your Calling
a. To be a saint 2 Timothy 1:8-12
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
b. To use your gift to serve the church Ephesians 4:1-7
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
c. To liberty Galatians 5:13
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
d. To bring God glory 1 Peter 5:10
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
As we begin a new year, I want to share the story of Aggie Flood Berg Hurst. The woman who was the child without a family, home or a country, and how she came to be a South Dakotan, growing up in Sisseton and Sioux Falls.
More important, it is a story of pioneering people, commitment, and how God works.
Our story begins in 1921 when David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa, to what was then called the Belgian Congo. This missionary couple met up with the Ericksons, another young Scandinavian couple, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station to take the gospel to the village of N’dolera, a remote area.
The new missionaries were not accepted by the natives. The local chief was fearful these Europeans would stir up the anger of the local gods and so they were not permitted to enter the village. Instead they built their mud huts about a mile from the village.
They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. Their only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week.
Svea Flood—a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall—decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus.
Meanwhile, malaria struck one member of the little missionary band after another. In time, the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station.
David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to carry on alone.
Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery was exhausting. Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria so the birthing process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She died only 17 days after Aina was born.
Something snapped Inside David Flood at that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his 27-year-old wife, and then went back down the mountain with his children to the mission station.
Giving baby Aina to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life!”
With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God Himself. Within eight months, both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. Baby Aina was then turned over to another American missionary family, Arthur and Anna (Hanson) Berg who changed her Swedish name to “Aggie”. Eventually they took her back to the United States at age three.
This family loved Aggie. Afraid that if they tried to return to Africa some legal obstacle might separate her from them, they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. That is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota.
The Bergs had returned in the fall of 1926 to Minnesota where Mrs. Berg's father, Pastor Carl M. Hanson was a noted evangelist and church planter for the Assemblies of God among the Scandinavian people. Through Pastor Hanson's ministry, Arthur Berg had been converted to Christ and accepted the call to mission service.
At the fall assembly of the the Assemblies of God in MN, The Berg's had learned of a small group of believers that were meeting together to study the Bible. The Bergs promised to come and visit the congregation. They came, held revival meetings, and stayed a couple of weeks but returned to MN for the holidays.
In January, 1927 Pastor and Sister Berg and three year old Aggie moved to Sisseton. The Bergs rented the Commercial
Hall over the Golden Rule store. On plank-topped tables the
Bergs placed African curios - an attraction and an introduction
to customs of Congo. The evangelistic efforts resulted in more people coming to join the group, and soon Pastor Berg learned that the Methodist building was vacant as they'd built a new building. The old Methodist Church building was purchased and the young congregation moved in. From this place, many people came to know the Lord as their Savior. The work the Bergs started lasted for many years after they had moved on to other corners of the Lord's vineyard to labor.
Some years later, a young woman attended here and she informed her boyfriend that if he wished to go with her, he needed to attend church. He complied, and came to give his heart to Christ. He felt called to the ministry and the young couple attended Bible College in Ellendale, ND before beginning their ministry traveling the country, singing, and bringing the Gospel. You may have heard of them, they were: Lowell and Connie Lundstrom.
The Bergs moved on in 1930 to Sioux Falls where they once again helped to plant a church. The congregation is today known as Sioux Falls First - Assembly of God.
The young orphan whom they brought with them from Africa and raised in South Dakota, grew up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She went on to attend North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, MN. Here she met a young ministry student named, Dewey Hurst. They enjoyed a fruitful ministry and in time came to live near Seattle where he became president of a Bible College.
While living there, someone sent Aggie a copy of a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and she couldn't read the words. But as she turned the pages, a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross, and on the cross was the name Svea Flood. Aggie was excited and jumped in her car, heading straight to the college where she knew there was someone who could translate the article for her.
The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N'dolera long ago … the birth of a baby … the death of the young mother … the one little African boy who had been led to Christ. And how, after the missionaries had all left, the boy had grown up and persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. Gradually he won all his students to Christ. The children led their parents to Christ. Even the chief had become a Christian. Now there were 600 Christian believers in that one village.
All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.
For the Hursts' 25th wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden. There, Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: "Never mention the Name of God—because God took everything from me."
After an emotional meeting with her half-brothers and half-sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. "You can talk to him," they replied, "even though he's very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the Name of God, he flies into a rage."
Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the 73-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.
"Papa?" she said tentatively.
He turned and began to cry. "Aina," he said, "I never meant to give you away."
"It's all right, Papa," she replied, taking him gently in her arms. "God took care of me."
The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.
"God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him." He turned his face back to the wall. Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.
"Papa, I've got a little story to tell you, and it's a true one. You didn't go to Africa in vain. Mama didn't die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are 600 African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life.
"Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you."
The old man turned back to look into his daughter's eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades.
Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America—and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.
A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, where a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the Gospel's spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.
"Yes, madam," the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. "It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother's grave and her memory are honored by all of us."
He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, "You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history."
In time, that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.
The most dramatic moment was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother's white cross for herself. She knelt to pray and give thanks. Later that day in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." He then followed with Psalm 126:5: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy."