Sermon Tone Analysis

When people talk about their calling, they are usually referring to some sense of their personal purpose in life.

The reason why they - as the specific person they are - are here.

It is quite self-focused.

Not that any should be aimless in life.

The pursuit of noble goals is right.

The old saying that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it, is true.

Proverbs speaks repeatedly to being set on the path of righteousness, not being a fool, or a sluggard, listless or indolent.

Prov.

21:25 “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.”

And Prov.

14:23 “In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.”

We were created to be about something in life.

Now for the Christian, we are never without purpose - without calling.

And what is incumbent upon us, before we ever consider what personal calling we might think, feel or decide is ours in life - are the things Scripture says we are specifically called to.

And in truth, if we are given to fulfilling this calling, the area of life in which we find ourselves is almost irrelevant.

God’s calling(s) are universal and as applicable whether we are ditch diggers, neuroscientists, poets, philosophers, housewives or professional athletes.

Apart from reckoning with God’s calling(s) whatever other calling we may choose for ourselves, really doesn’t matter.

At the end of days, I might be able to say: “I was a really top flight musician in my day.”

And at the gates of Heaven, that will count for what?

We’ve been building the profile of the Christian calling out of the Scriptures.

And so far, we identified 5 aspects or constituent parts.

ALL Believers are called to: Belong to Jesus Christ as His personal possession; To be Saints; To fulfill His eternal purposes as given in His Word; To walk in living fellowship with God and Christ; To be men and women of Peace - and today we add to that Gal.

1:6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—” A people who live their lives in the light of the grace which has called us out of darkness, into His marvelous light.

In other words, Christians are to carefully consider and keep as a static part of their self-understanding, that in Christ, they walk in the perpetual sunshine of God’s smile.

That we are never alone, never hopeless, never defenseless, never forsaken, not on probation with God, and not living life trying to curry His favor.

Living as a consciously “graced” people.

Unlike those Paul had to admonish in Galatia, who had fallen back into a pattern of life and service that sought to earn God’s favor.

For favor which is earned, is not grace, it is wages.

It is anti-grace.

When we fail to fully grasp the Gospel, that we were chosen by grace (not because of some goodness in us); saved by grace (not because of any good deeds we might have done); are kept by grace (not by our great performance); and promised yet more grace to come (because He simply loves to lavish grace upon His own) - then we can walk in freedom.

Then we live in joy, even in the harshest of conditions and deepest of sorrows.

Then we are fulfilling our calling.

For the one thing which above all others pleases our God - is for Him to be trusted.

Without faith, without trusting Him, His Word, His character and His promises, we cannot please Him.

But when we trust Him and Him alone - for all of life, salvation and our eternal future - we have found a cosmic calling which testifies to His greatness and goodness to men and angels alike.

Now that, is a calling.