Answering the Call: Exploring God’s Purpose for Our Lives

And so Genesis chapter number three, in verse number nine, the Bible says that the Lord called unto Abram or unto Adam.

Excuse me, Abram.

The Lord called unto Adam.

This is the first time that God called.

As far as the scripture is concerned, I'm sure the Bible says they walked in the garden.

And I'm sure he said, let's go for a walk again and enjoy the fellowship.

And the Bible says, God created you and I for his pleasure.

Okay, not so much about employment as is enjoyment.

God, it's hard to believe that God wanted to enjoy you and me.

He didn't need it.

He didn't need us.

He could call angels and who else?

The birds?

Everybody else to do what he wanted to do.

But he chose to use us.

But it's interesting.

The first time God called Adam, it was because Adam was hiding.

And God could have said, well, let him go.

Who cares?

But God cares.

And when we stray, God goes after us.

And sometimes, even when we run from God, God runs after us.

We belong to him.

We've been redeemed.

We're family.

We're children of God.

And I think you just wonder sometimes.

Of course, God knew where Adam was.

Adam didn't realize where he was.

He was away from God and hiding from God.

He'd never done that before.

But aren't you glad God went after him?

You don't need to raise your hand.

But how many times has God gone after you?

He knew right where you are, right where you're doing, but he called you.

Now go to the Book of Romans, or as Roman as Brother Dave shared with us.

I thought that was pretty cool.

In chapter 11 of the book of Romans, verse 29.

For the gifts and calling.

I want you to underline that word.

Calling.

He called Adam.

And now it says, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

Repentance means a change of mind.

And so when God calls, he has a plan and he has a purpose for you.

And then we go to Philippians, the book of Philippians.

Just keep going over the same direction to Philippians, chapter number three and verse number 14.

Paul said, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling.

There it is again.

We'll find a lot of times we're not gonna look them all up tonight.

But he says it's a high calling.

And I want to speak to you about that tonight.

Have you answered the call?

He said, well, I'm not a preacher.

Well, that's what I want you to see, that there's a lot more callings.

Of God than just to preach.

And by the way, I'm a firm believer that God has called.

And I don't think God calls women to preach.

I don't think we find that in the scripture.

God has other things for women to do that are good and wonderful.

And God has a plan to use women in home and at the church and wherever you are.

But God calls men.

But let me tell you something.

God doesn't call all men to preach, but he calls all men to be willing to preach.

You say, well, I can't.

God wouldn't call you to do something you can't do.

He didn't call you to preach.

But when we start saying, well, I'm ready to do anything except preach.

God doesn't call everybody to be missionaries, but he calls everyone to be willing to be a missionary.

Shelly and I was going somewhere the other day and we was falling behind a moving truck.

And on the back of the truck it says, anywhere, anytime, anything.

I thought, boy, that's a good three point sermon right there.

Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do, anytime.

A lot of us say, well, when I get old and retire, yeah, then I'll do something.

No, anytime.

That's a challenge for most every one of us because we have our plans.

But what if God said, there's something I want you to do and I want you to do it today, anytime, anywhere.

It's easy to say anywhere, but that might mean you might have to pull up the stakes of the tent, right?

Abraham.

God called Abraham and he didn't even tell him where he was going.

And the Bible says Abraham went out not knowing whither he went.

But God said, go that way.

And he did.

Anywhere, anytime, anything.

Calling.

And I want you to think about calling what other calling.

Maybe God hasn't called you to preach.

And by the way, I don't think any man in his right mind would choose to be a preacher if he understands what pastoring and preaching is all about.

I wouldn't want to be anything else.

I wouldn't want to trade places with anybody else.

But I didn't choose to be a preacher.

We had an old black man in seminary when I went to school and he had a great, great message that preachers quoted for many, many years.

And he said in this sermon, he said, God, he said, you don't take up preaching.

A lot of people say, well, I'm tired of what I'm doing, I think I'm gonna take up preaching for a while.

He said, you don't Take up preaching.

Cause preaching, you don't take it up.

Preacher comes from up.

Down, not from down, up.

And you have to be called.

But there's other things in the Bible that God calls us to do.

And let's start with the one that you probably would guess.

Did God call you to be saved?

Were you looking for a savior when you got saved?

Or was he looking for you?

Was you just sitting down one day all by yourself saying, oh, I wish the Lord would save me.

I want to be saved really bad?

No.

The Holy Spirit began to work on you.

And all of a sudden God began to call you to trust him.

Because no man seeketh the Lord.

That's our nature, is to run from God.

And Brother Dave brought that up.

Very good.

We're dead until we get saved.

We're not even alive.

We don't even know God, much less want to follow him or anything.

But he calls us to be saved.

No man cometh unto the Father, except he's drawn by the spirit of God, called to be saved.

And as long as you live, you'll never receive a greater invitation.

That's the greatest invitation anybody can ever receive.

Come unto me and be saved.

I believe that I would have never gotten saved had God not called me.

I didn't plan.

At 14 years old, I was.

Went to a church there in Jacksonville, Florida, in the back of a pickup truck with three or four other guys.

And we was going to check out some girls.

Back then they were chicks.

I shouldn't have said that.

Not very funny.

Maybe chickens.

No.

Now we went to see if there was any girls at the church.

And before that service was over, I went down to the altar and was crying.

I never cried in public before.

And man, I was just crying.

I was under such conviction.

I said, oh, God, I don't want to go to hell.

Give me some relief.

I want to be saved.

I know Jesus is the only one that can save me.

And I felt my pastor put his hand on my shoulder.

We had never really formally met.

He came to my house one night on visitation.

And later on he said, there's only one other time in all this ministry.

He's still living.

87.

He said only one other time that he went to the altar to talk to someone about seeing saved now if they wanted him to, but he was afraid he might embarrass somebody if he went up to them.

And so he said, chuck, you want to be saved, don't you?

I said, I sure do.

But God had already called me to be saved.

He spoke to my heart.

And I got saved.

What a great thing.

The Bible says, though your sins be a scarlet.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Come now.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Wow.

And the Bible says that God would have all men to be saved, but all men don't want to be saved.

God doesn't make anybody get saved.

Amen.

He doesn't choose eeny, meeny, miny, mo, just, you know, certain ones.

The Bible says he died for every man whosoever will come unto me.

Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling.

What a call that was.

Have you answered that call, you say, Yes, I have.

I've been saved.

I came.

God called me, and I followed him and he saved my soul.

And if you don't remember that real clearly, you need to think about that.

You can't be saved and not know how you got saved.

Okay, But I meet people all the time.

I met a man just the other day, says, oh, I've been saved all my life, preacher.

You don't need to worry about me.

I said, nobody's been saved all their life.

And I had to explain that to him.

He said, oh, well, I didn't mean it that way.

I meant I just always believed in God all my life.

I said, well, that's a lot of.

That's different.

There'll be people in hell that believe in God and that believe in Christ, but they never trusted Christ.

They never received Christ.

Okay, and then if you want to write these down, number one, call to be saved.

Now, number two, I'm asking you the question, have you answered the call?

God calls us to come out separate from the world.

That's a calling.

Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord.

2Nd Corinthians 6:17.

Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

The scourge of modern Christianity, and that includes a lot of independent Fundamental Baptist churches.

A lot of the scourge of a lot of churches.

There's too much of the world in the church.

They become very worldly, and they want to try to impress the world and get the world to like them.

And, oh, there's no end.

Once you try to impress the world, there's no ending.

God's called us to be separate.

In Ephesians 2, he said, Ye walk past tense, according to the course of this world.

You remember Paul?

Just not long before he died, he was pretty much alone.

He said, all men forsook me.

Isn't that what he said?

He said, only Luke is with me.

Paul and Luke.

And he was just not very long from his life be taken for his faith in Christ.

And then a few verses after that, he says, demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.

Love not the world.

Come out from among them.

Are you willing to do that?

Have you done that?

And that's not just physically.

Sometimes people can sit in church, but up here and in here, they want more of the world.

They go to the world to enjoy life.

They want to go to church.

But when they want to have fun, they go to the world.

Well, God's not a killjoy.

He's not against fun.

Amen.

But we shouldn't have to go to the world to enjoy life.

Amen.

But the world never leaves us alone, does it?

It's like they're constantly pulling and jerking.

Come on, come on, come on.

We're called to be separate.

Separation.

Now, separation doesn't mean isolation.

There's a difference.

Amen.

We're not to lock our doors and stay inside the house, pull the blinds and just come out on Sunday and Wednesday night.

How we're gonna reach people and be a testimony and all that.

If we do that, it's not isolation, but we are to live a separation, a separated life.

We're to look different and look, Smell different and live different and react different.

And on and on it goes.

We're saved, and we ought to live like we're saved.

Have you answered that call?

Could you say, well, I try to live a separated life.

Sometimes I slip, and sometimes I get a little too involved, spend a little too much time with the things of the world.

Spend more time in the things of the world than I do with God and the word of God.

But separation and listen, if those of you that have kids and little kids and young people, teenagers, listen, you need to show them.

Don't just show them everything that's bad about the world.

Show them what's better than the world.

Amen.

Don't tell them you can't go there.

Don't ask why.

Just do what I say.

Well, when they're little, you have to do that.

But as they grow up, you say, here's why we don't do that.

Because we have Christ.

We have a better life.

We have joy.

We don't just laugh on the outside, we can laugh on the inside.

We have peace.

The good life.

We have the good life.

Have you answered that call?

Number three.

It's the call to serve.

The call to serve.

Jesus said, follow me.

He Was the, Was Jesus a servant?

Was he not a servant?

He sure was.

King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and yet he took upon him the form of a servant.

And he's called you and I to serve.

You know why?

Most of the time we get in trouble and get upset and get our feelings hurt because somebody didn't serve us.

They didn't call us, they didn't check on us, they didn't take care of me.

We get upset.

Not too many people that I've met in my years of ministry get upset because they didn't have anybody to serve.

They wanted to serve.

Serve the Lord, the Bible says, with gladness.

Boy, that's something we haven't maybe thought about in a while.

Serve the Lord with gladness.

You get to serve the Lord.

To know him is to love him, and to love him is to serve him.

Paul was what they call a bond slave.

I'm sure you've heard teaching Sunday school preaching about a, a bond slave.

A bond slave was one that was after he had finished out what he was hired to do or bought as a slave.

And then it was time to go free.

And he said, I don't want to go free.

I'd have to step down to go free.

I want to be a servant.

And they had what they call a bondservant.

And back in those Bible days, that was when, I don't know if that's the exact time, but they pierced their ear.

I don't know if that's where pierced ear started or not, but they would take.

It wasn't a little hole, they put a big hole right there.

And that was an outward sign that they were a servant by choice to Jesus Christ.

Do people know you're a servant of Christ?

Hmm?

Do they?

Or do you keep that hidden?

Little boy one time had a dog and boy, he was kind of a mangy looking dog, not very big, small tail was crooked and just not a real good looking dog.

But the boy is proud of his dog.

Said, what kind of dog is that?

And the boy said, that's a police dog.

Said, oh, come on, I'm not stupid.

He don't even look like a police dog.

He says he's in the secret police.

And sometimes we want to serve, but we want to do it secretly.

We don't want to just tell everybody, hey, you need anything?

I'm a servant.

I want to serve you.

Let me do it.

Let me help you.

Let me take care of you.

A servant.

Now let me throw you a little curve here because this is important.

Number Four.

And you probably know what it is, but we don't like to stay there very long.

The Bible says we're called to suffer.

That's a calling.

If you're saved.

Did you know God called you to suffer?

And yet sometimes we go into shock when somebody mistreats us.

Or we suffer for our love for Christ and our commitment to Christ, our dedication to Christ.

And we get all upset.

We don't pretty much get excited about suffering.

But you're called.

You and I are called to suffer.

In Philippians, chapter 1, verse 29, it says, for unto you, it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him for his sake.

When's the last time you thought about that?

Well, things go wrong.

And there's some suffering may not always be physical.

Sometimes it may be spiritual, sometimes it may be emotional or mental or financial.

But that's part of being a Christian.

And if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him.

It pays to serve Christ down here in this world.

But one day when Jesus comes, we're going to be rewarded.

I think God rewards a lot of us down in this life.

Pays to serve God in this world.

We don't have to be miserable till we get to heaven.

There's some good things about being a Christian down here.

But one day God says, you're going to be happy.

You're going to be glad that you served me.

I'm going to give you some crowns, and you're going to take them and look at them and you're going to say, oh, no, Lord, no way.

You wear the crown and we'll lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus.

I don't know if I can comprehend what it would be like to be saved and stand before Jesus and he's handing out the crowns and I didn't get a crown.

And everybody's laying them down and I'm standing in front of Jesus.

I don't have anything to lay at his feet.

He wore my crown at the cross.

Amen.

And they didn't just set it on him for a picture.

They put that crown on Jesus and took a reed and started beating it into his skull.

I have one of those crowns at home that was given to me many, many years ago.

Many years ago.

I still have it.

Those crowns are that those thorns about that long, and you can't break them with your finger into a skull.

But the Bible says one day God's gonna honor those who suffer for him because suffering for Christ displays his grace.

Grace Shelley and I listen to pretty regular.

A devotional that we found years ago.

We really like it.

It's called Grace for a Purpose.

That's the title.

And they're not Baptist, but they're good.

We've enjoyed them so many, many times.

And suffering.

God doesn't just throw grace out like candy in a parade.

Kids go along the line and throwing all these candies.

No, God doesn't throw grace.

He gives grace for a purpose.

A lot of purposes.

When you want to serve God, God gives you the grace to do it.

When you want to be involved, God gives you the grace.

When you're tired and they need you, God gives you the grace.

And when you go through suffering, God gives you grace.

The apostle Paul, three times, lord, remove this thorn.

He said, no, I got a purpose.

And you may not understand it now, and you may not like it now, but he said, my grace is sufficient for thee.

Suffering for Christ causes us to lean more upon him.

I wonder what we would look like tonight.

Not physically, but what kind of life would we have had?

We never had any suffering.

I wonder if it would infect us with pride if we never had suffering, suffering for Christ.

It's a testimony.

Anybody can go to church.

Lots of unsaved people go to church.

But when you go through the fires, the testimony.

When you go through rejection and you go through loneliness and you go through mockery and you go through things that people don't understand why you are what you are, and they misquote you and they mock you and they lie about you, and you still stay steady.

God gives grace because you're suffering for your testimony.

And it impresses people.

They're not gonna.

Unsaved people are not gonna come up to you and say, I wanna shake your hand.

You just really.

It's just amazing to me how you suffer.

No, they don't know.

But that's part of your testimony.

Your kids know when your things don't go well because.

And you don't quit because you love the Lord and you want to keep on keeping on.

Suffering teaches us.

It matures us.

And then number five, we're called to stand.

Have you answered that call?

When somebody.

We talk about answering a call, most people say, no, I'm not a preacher, but have you answered the call to serve?

They answer, have you answered the call to separation?

Are you living a separated life?

Have you answered the call to suffer for Christ?

Have you answered the call to stand?

In Ephesians, chapter six, it says, finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

But we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand, stand.

Therefore, three times in those three, two or three verses.

Stand, stand, stand.

That's part of your calling.

God's called you to stand.

One time God said, I sought for a man to stand in the gap before me for the Lord that I were not destroyed.

And he said, I found none.

I think that's over in Ezekiel, maybe.

I can't remember.

I think it is.

Can you imagine.

Can you imagine this church if he said, put out an email or a text and say, we need everybody to come to the church and take a stand.

We're under attack and we need everybody to take a stand.

Can you imagine nobody showing up busy?

Didn't feel like it.

Whatever.

I love the song.

Stand up, stand up for Jesus Ye soldiers of the cross Lift high the royal banner it must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory his army shall he lead Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed Stand up, stand up for Jesus the trumpet call.

Obey forth to the mighty conflict in this his glorious day Ye that are men now serve him against unnumbered foes.

Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose.

But this third verse is my favorite.

It says, stand up, stand up for Jesus Stand in his strength alone the arm of flesh will fail you.

Ye dare not trust your own.

Put on the gospel armor and.

And watching unto prayer where calls the voice of duty Be never wanting there.

Are you ashamed to stand for Christ?

That group of people who stand for Jesus unapologetically?

It's getting smaller and smaller.

It's so easy to just blend in and to take a stand.

Number six, have you answered the call to soul winning?

Hmm.

I don't want you to raise your hand, but the facts and the percentages prove it over and over again.

The great majority of Christians have never one time led a soul to Christ.

What does that mean?

Well, there's different ways to lead a soul to Christ.

Inviting somebody to church and sitting with them and sharing the hymnal with them and let them give them a Bible to read along with it and make them feel comfortable.

I mean, that's part of leading a soul to Christ.

You're leading him here so they can hear the Gospel.

There's lots of different ways, but leading someone to Christ, to me literally means one on one sitting down with someone and saying, you got a minute?

I want to show you something.

Yeah, I guess so.

In taking a Bible and showing them where it says that they need to be saved, they've been lost, they're lost sinners, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

We're all sinners.

And then show them that Christ died for sinners.

That's you and me.

He died.

In other words, the wages of sin is death.

And he paid the wage.

He never sinned.

He never even thought about a sin.

And yet he took the full price.

He paid it in full for all of our sins.

Of every man that would ever been born since Adam and Eve, whether they get saved or not, he paid for their sin.

Am I right?

According to the Bible, he paid for every man's sin that ever be born or every sin he ever committed or thought of committing.

And then show them how Jesus offers his hand out.

Have you ever done that?

You ever wanted to do that?

Well, of course I wanted to.

I just never.

Just never had.

I've never done it.

I get nervous.

I'm afraid I don't know my Bible very well.

What if they ask a question that I can't answer and I'm embarrassed and I let the Lord down and that's just not me.

I'm not aggressive.

I'm not that kind of personality.

Listen, sometimes our personality can get in the way, okay?

God says, I'll take care of all the cants.

You just do the.

Can you just share the gospel with people?

I mean, what if you just had that opportunity once a year, did you lead anybody to Christ or share, let's don't even say lead.

Did you ever sit down one on one and witness?

I'm just asking.

Well, I don't like to think about it.

Well, that's a good start.

We shouldn't say, well, I don't care.

I think you care.

I think down in your heart, yes, I would love to do that.

I'd love to sit with somebody in church that I personally led to Christ, gave them the gospel, explained to them and prayed with them.

Well, make that, put that on the top of your prayer list.

You got what, five, maybe four or five more months left before this year if Jesus doesn't come back, say lord, between now and December 31st.

Lord, I'd like to win at least one person to Christ.

You can't save them, but you can show them how to be saved.

You're not going to have to give an account of how many that you didn't lead to Christ.

It's about sharing the gospel.

Christ has to save them.

Go ye into all the world.

Let your light so shine before men.

We're called to send.

Listen, the only way this church can send can fulfill the Great Commission.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.

Well, has anybody here been to every country in the world and shared the gospel?

No.

Well, does that mean you didn't?

How can that happen?

Through missionaries.

You go as far as you can, then help a missionary to go further.

Supporting financially in prayer.

That's why this church has a mission program and missionaries.

That's the only way that we can carry out the Great Commission.

Amen.

You're called.

How shall they go except to be sent?

Well, I'm about through, but there won't be long now.

There's going to be the last call.

You know what it is.

Come home.

Come up hither.

Jesus is coming and our work will be done.

And he'll say, come on.

He'll call us.

What a day that will be.

The marriage supper of the Lamb.

Come and dine.

The Master calleth come and dine.

I just picked out those seven or eight calls.

There's others.

God may be calling you to make things right with someone.

Go.

God may be calling you to pick up the slack somewhere in the church.

He may be calling you to make a difference on the job, where you go to work tomorrow morning.

He may be calling you to make a phone call that you've been putting off.

There's just endless things.

But God did not save you to just sit and stare.

He called us to do something.

You can't do everything, but you can do something.

You can't go everywhere, but you can go somewhere.

Amen.

Don't compare yourself to somebody else.

They'll give an account for themselves.

You don't have to give an account of others.

You have to give an account of yourself.

Well done.

Thou good and faithful servant.

That's what you want to hear.

Amen.

That's what I want to hear.

Wasted years.

Wasted years.

Oh, how foolish.

Spending so much time and money and effort on things.

It's not gonna matter in eternity.

But souls matter.

Your family matters.

This church matters.

Missions matters.

Prayer matters.

Learning the Bible, that matters.

There's Things that matter, and there's things that don't matter.

I didn't tell you anything new tonight, did I?

You knew every one of those.

You probably could tell me a few that I forgot to mention or didn't write down.

But we're calling.

We're called Follow me.

Jesus said, take up thy cross and follow me.

I've never met anybody that said I. I've been following Jesus, but I just wish I'd never done it.

I've missed so much.

I don't know why.

I just wish I'd done something else.

No.

One look at the face of Christ.

I can't prove this, and people have written songs about it, but I think we're gonna find out it's true.

Just the first time we look at Jesus.

I can't even imagine looking at Jesus.

I can't imagine seeing him, what he looks like.

I can't imagine that my little brain can't pick that up.

But I got a good, strong feeling in my heart.

And Jesus is going to come over and begin to wipe tears from my eyes and say, what's the matter?

He already knows what's the matter, but he's going to ask, what's the matter?

And I say, I wish I'd done more.

I wish I'd given more.

I wish I'd gone a little bit more.

Well, life is over and God will wipe away our tears.

You say, well, I didn't think there's going to be any tears in heaven.

How's he going to wipe them away?

I don't think we're going to go around crying and singing the blues and be depressed for the first million years.

I think maybe at the beginning he'll wipe those tears away and then we're going to have a time.

Amen.

What a day that will be.

Let's stand together with our heads bowed and eyes closed.

Let's just take a moment.

Do you need to be saved?

God's called you.

Have you accepted the call of separation?

Have you accepted the call to serve?

Are you a servant?

Have you accepted the call to suffer?

Maybe you're not going to leave here tonight and say, I want to go out and suffer some.

No, we don't really want to choose to suffer.

But it comes and God says, look, they hated me.

They're going to hate you.

Do you remind people of me?

Jesus said they hated me with a passion.

Are you standing for Christ?

Have you taken up the call of soul winning?

Heavenly Father, help us to hear your voice loud and clear above the voice of the world and Lord give us the grace the enablement through the Spirit of God to follow the call to hear the call to answer the call.

I pray you'd touch hearts tonight in these last few moments before we leave this place in Jesus name heads are bowed I.