Discovering
and Accepting God’s Calling
Ephesians
2:8-9
Jim Davis
Our world seems to be disintegrating.
Things once considered unspeakable are now shouted from rooftops and
billboards. Society is disintegrating with seemly no suitable thing to
bond it together. We are forever building our sand castles on the shores
of time only to wake up to the inundated storms sweeping them away as we
look for someone to blame. Yet, we are almost insanely committed to the
proposition that we have all the answers to our problems.1
It was Aristotle who said, “Like archers, we
shall stand a far greater chance of hitting the target if we can see
it.” The question is, “What is the target?”2
We spend so much time defining the problems and their causes that we
overlook the solutions.
Living in a society like ours forces a
question: What kind of man, what kind of woman, does it take to make a
permanent impact in a perishing society?3
We are beginning to hear much
about our self-absorb society. Many of our problems are the direct
result of looking out for Number One. This makes society impersonal and
taken to its extreme it leads to extreme cruelty. It is a kind of
philosophy that makes each of us our own god as we use the world to
fulfill our personal needs.
Syncretism has taken over.
Syncretism is a combination of different forms of belief or practice. I
go through life accepting whatever works for me. We gather teachings
from a variety of belief systems and come up with our own personal
doctrine for living. We are much like the Athenians who were always
searching to enhance themselves through the discovery of some new truth
(Acts 17). Self-embellishment is usually the heart and core of
syncretism.
Christian living is much different;
Christ turns us from the doctrine of me-ism. The call of the
gospel is to transform how we see the world and interact with others for
their benefit.
Discovering Our Calling
Most move through life with this sense
of a higher calling with no idea what it is. It is what God is
calling us to do. It is about God. It is not about me, it is about God.
Ephesians
2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one
can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The Christian life is about engaging in
the work God prepared in advance for us to do. Paul writes,
“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.” If God prepared in
advance to our being born work for us to do, shouldn’t his works should
be the focus of our lives. God created us in Christ Jesus to do good
works? You may look around and think, “Well what is the work?” It is the
work God prepared in advance for us to do.
Faith is not a magic formula for
manipulating God to grant us the wishes of our hearts. Faith
enables us to engage in the works God has called us to do so that we can
gain wisdom from him as we bring his love and power to bear on human
situations with lasting impact.
The apostle Paul initially sought a life
contrary to God’s call. He was like many of us. He was pursuing
God on Paul’s terms until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
Galatians
1:13-24
13 For you
have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I
persecuted the church of
God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was
advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely
zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set
me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16
to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I
did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those
who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and
later returned to Damascus.
18 Then after
three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and
stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles — only
James, the Lord's brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am
writing you is no lie. 21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was
personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They
only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now
preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24 And they praised God
because of me.
Paul was born to do the work, which God
prepared in advance for him to do before he was born. “There is
a vast difference between your career and your calling. Your career is
what you do to make a living. Your calling is what you are made to do.”4
Actors often in the beginning of their pursuit of acting have a job to
sustain them while they are passionately pursuing an acting profession.
Their job isn’t their passion. Acting is their passion.
You were born to passionately pursue God’s
calling. We were created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to do. Too many of us refuse to acknowledge God’s way.
The call of the world separates us from God.
Cyrus was conquering kingdoms God
planned for him to conquer before Cyrus was born. Isaiah speaks
of Cyrus before he was born.
Isaiah 45:7
"This is what the LORD says to his anointed,
to Cyrus ,
whose right
hand I take hold of
to subdue
nations before him
and to strip
kings of their armor,
to open doors
before him so that gates will not be shut:
2 I will go
before you and will level the mountains;
I will break
down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.
3 I will give
you the treasures of darkness,
riches stored
in secret places,
so that you
may know that I am the LORD,
the God of
Israel, who summons you by name.
4 For the sake
of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my
chosen,
I summon you
by name and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do
not acknowledge me.
5 I am the
LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me
there is no God.
I will
strengthen you,
though you
have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from
the rising of the sun
to the place
of its setting
men may know
there is none besides me.
I am the LORD,
and there is no other.
7 I form the light and create darkness,
I bring
prosperity and create disaster;
I, the LORD,
do all these things.
Two extremely important truths presented in Paul and Cyrus’ lives.
The first is that God was at work in Paul’s life to reveal his specific
purpose for Paul’s life. He was set apart from birth, but it took him
awhile to discover his calling. It was impossible for him to discover
God’s purpose as long as he sought his own selfish agenda. Living for
Christ involves total dependence on God. It is where everything is
coming from God and nothing is coming from me.
Secondly, the world may not acknowledge
the God we worship, but they don’t have to acknowledge him before God
can use them to fulfill his will for our lives. Joseph’s
brothers meant evil against their brother when they sold him into
slavery. They were motivated by me-ism. Later Joseph tells them, “You
meant for evil, God meant it for good. As I read through the Old
Testament Scriptures, it is as if it was surreal world. God’s presence
in our world today is just as real. Isaiah foresaw God would move the
heart of Cyrus to bless the Israelites. The heathen king would refuse to
acknowledge God. Daniel lived under the reign of Cyrus. I wonder what
would have happened, if Daniel had of taken the scroll of Isaiah to
Cyrus to show him that he was doing God’s bidding. There is no
indication that Cyrus ever acknowledged the God of the Jews.
Once we acknowledge God, it forces us to
begin asking ourselves some serious questions. Can I really
accomplish anything worthwhile without accepting God’s call? Even if God
uses you to accomplish his purpose without you ever acknowledging him,
what good will it do you?
John 15:5-8
5 "I am the
vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will
bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not
remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such
branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain
in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
given you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you
bear much
fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
We can do NOTHING without
Christ—NOTHING—NOTHING. Our need is total. Our confidence is misplaced
as we trust in ourselves. It is not about me. It is about Him. It is
about becoming a part of what God is doing in our world.5
Questions
We Must Ask Ourselves
Is my life pleasing to God? God
said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” God found all
of his pleasure in Christ. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus
delighted to do the will of God. This is why God found all his pleasure
in his Son.
John 4:34-38
34 "My
food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish
his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the
harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are
ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he
harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may
be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is
true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have
done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave
them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever
the Father does the Son also does.
John 6:28-29
28 Then they
asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
29 Jesus
answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
John 14:11-14
11 Believe me
when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least
believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you
the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He
will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the
Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that
the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in
my name, and I will do it.
Howard
Hendricks said, “Another question we should ask is the work well done?
The tragedy – I’ve faced it all of my life in ministry – is the large
number of people, even on the mission field and certainly across America
and other countries where there are many Christians, the average person
doesn’t even have a clue that they have a gift. And if they do, it has
never become their passion – the one thing they need to focus their
whole life doing. So the result is that you will find a lot of people in
the Christian community who are successful but they are not significant.
We live in an age where a person can be eminently successful and
a complete failure. They are famous but
they’re not fulfilled. They’re wealthy but they are bankrupt because
they have never discovered that they were created in Christ to do good
works which God prepared for them to do.”6
You all know of
Michelangelo, but do you know of Bertoldo? It’s a debate in art circles
as to which one is the greater – Michelangelo the pupil or Bertoldo, the
one who produced him. And like a great teacher, he recognized that often
very gifted individuals often tend to ride on their giftedness rather
than develop it and he warned Michelangelo constantly. One day he came
into the studio and Michelangelo was piddling with a little piece of
statuary that he was working on and accomplishing nothing. He went over,
picked up a sledgehammer and batted that thing into a thousand pieces
and as they ricocheted all over the studio Bertoldo was heard to say,
“Michelangelo, talent is cheap. Dedication is costly.”
7
There is a direct
cause/effect relationship. How disciplined are you? How dedicated are
you? This separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls.
Because you end up with a mania of mediocrity in which anything is good
enough for God. And it isn’t.8
The third
important question is how well is the word of God used?
We often dream of a higher calling, but we
will never discover our higher calling without using to Word of God
well. The Word of God is designed to focus our lives on God’s call.
Living in a
society like ours forces a question: What kind of man, what kind of
woman, does it take to make a permanent impact in a perishing society?9
It may surprise us to realize that Christ’s sermon on the
mountainside was about changing how we perceive and interact with our
world and one another. This is the work God is calling each of us to do.
Believe it or not this is also the call of the world. The world is
forever seeking to change our perception and interaction with the world.
There is a battle between the world’s view and
God’s view.
Acknowledging God’s
presence is where it begins.
Pray for God’s word
to come to fruition in your life as it is in heaven.
Praying for your
enemies.
Doing good to those
who persecute you.
Seeking your
enemy’s highest good.
Treating others
like you want to be treated.
Going the second
mile with those who use and abuse you.
Controlling lustful
thoughts.
Conclusion:
It doesn’t take much of a man to be a
Christian; it takes all there is of him.
Are you
willing to die to self to be joined to Christ
1 Howard Hendricks,
How to Make a Lasting Impact (From a speech made to Moody Bible
Institute) http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Proclaim/Archives.asp
