Preparing for God’s Calling
This has been something that has definitely been laying heavy on my heart lately. I actually gave this message to our youth group and I decided that it probably would be great to share it with more than just the Crosswalk Youth Group. So I am publishing my sermon notes for those who may be interested in learning more about the Identity we have in Christ.
Two Basic Kinds of Callings God Has For All of Us.
God’s Collective Calling for Mankind
God’s Individual Calling for You
God’s Collective Calling Consists of
First Collective Calling on Our Lives
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28
A couple of verses before this one in Genesis says that God created man in His image! So what is God really saying when it says “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”? God is telling us to get married have children, but not just that, there is something even more important here. God said we are created in His image, He is commanding us to take His image throughout the earth! He is asking us to multiply His image throughout the earth!
Second Collective Calling on Our Lives
25Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
28“Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” MSG Luke 10:27
This foolish man eventually tries to trip Jesus up by asking who exactly is my neighbor? Jesus then tells the story of the Good Samaritan. But this is not what I want you to focus on right now. The man did answer correctly in that we should love the Lord with all our soul, heart and might. God’s second collective calling on our lives is to worship and love Him with all our might.
Third and Last Collective Calling on All of Mankind
The Great Commission- some of the last words of Jesus- VERY IMPORTANT
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them int the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ESV Matt 28:19
This is the opportunity that God gave us to redeem ourselves for messing up the first collective calling He gave us. You see we broke a covenant with God in the garden and handed over our authority to satan. This is God saying that our relationship with Him is broken, but we need to take His image to the ends of the earth! Instead of it being an easy process, now we have to really work hard and trust deeper on the Spirit to work on those individuals God is calling us to minister with.
Individual Calling
1. Finding/Knowing God’s Calling
2. Preparing for God’s Calling
3. Fulfilling God’s Calling
God doesn’t do this out of order. He always begins with a passion and helps confirms that passion or goal. We cannot fulfill or prepare for God’s calling on our lives if we haven’t started on the first two steps. This is a continual process, they build on one another.
The other issue is that this calling is much more personalized and geared more to you as an individual. The Individual Calling on your life is much more difficult to define.
The world is trying to Influence you to be someone else who God doesn’t want you to be,
Example- Lady Gaga (I Was Born This Way), Katy Perry ( I Kissed A Girl), Pussycat Dolls (When I Grow Up), David Guetta (Sexy Chick)
Finding/ Knowing God’s Calling for You!
God already knows your calling, just like He knew you before your born.
In order for us to know what is our calling we need to trust in God, talk with Him about it and read His Word. God has told us that He will answer our cries.
So ASK Him!!!!
Matthew 7:7
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Talk about if these kids do not have the initiative to work at their dreams and trust In God, then they may not realize their dreams or God’s calling on their lives.
It’s okay if you don’t yet know your calling, just remember that you need to start asking God.
Preparing God’s Calling
Noah Ark
Preparing for God’s calling is not going to be an easier thing. It may take a while. Just like Noah and the ark. Once you know God’s calling on your life, you cannot simply fool around all the time because once that day comes, you will need to be ready.
So if God is calling you to be a doctor, STUDY! There is no way your going to be accepted into med school if your grades don’t reflect it. If God is calling you to be a missionary to Nigeria or Kenya and you cannot speak Yoruba or Swahili, then how are you going to properly reach the natives of those countries? We have to begin to prepare for God’s calling on our lives.
Fulfilling God’s Calling
C.S. Lewis
Rachel Scott
Billy Graham
Jacky Pullinger
So why did I list these four names? We need to constantly look over our lives to see if we are acting to fulfill God’s calling or what we think is our calling. We live in a busy world and it is easy to get sidetracked.
“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:43
Jacky Pullinger began to doubt the reason God called her to Hong Kong. God’s calling on our life is not always going to be easy. Sometimes we are going to have to strive and work hard for it. God’s hand will definitely be in it, but we still have to have the initiative. Jacky Pullinger began to reevaluate her life and God’s Word. She came to the conclusion that she was not showing God’s example in a realistic way. Once she did this, her ministry began to flourish throughout the Walled City.
Pray for God to incorporate this simply plan more into your plan, including my own life.
God was definitely working throughout this message, because I referred to my notes twice. Most of the sermon is kind of a blur, but I could definitely feel God’s presence there with us. My prayer for those of you who are reading this is that God will reveal Himself and His plan to you. Remember to seek after His response diligently and He will answer you! God bless you all!!!
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