What On Earth Am I Here For? – The Call Is For You *

What On Earth Am I Here For? – The Call Is For You *
Sycamore Creek Church
October 4/5, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!  Why does an acorn exist?  What is its purpose?  To become a mighty oak tree.  That’s the purpose of an acorn.  What is the purpose of your life?  Why do you exist?  Why are you here on this earth?  Does your life matter?  Today we begin a new series called What On Earth Am I Here For?  For six weeks we’ll be looking at the question: Why am I alive and what am I supposed to do with my life?

One of most loved promises in the Bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul was the first missionary of the church and he wrote several letters that are now books in our Bible.  Paul says:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’ve probably heard this basic idea.  But we leave out the second half of the verse:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.”
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Calling and purpose go together.  What do you think of when you hear the word “called”?  I think of interruptions! I hate getting calls.  I am allergic to my phone.  Why?  Because I’m busy or I’m relaxing and people only call with bad news when I’m tired.  The word “called” in the Bible means something else than “interruptions.” Half of the Bible was written in Greek and the Greek word for call is Kaleo.  Kaleo is used over one hundred times in the Bible to describe God’s purpose, assignment and reason for your life.  “Calling” is used ten times more than “purpose”!  In Latin the word “calling” is “vocation.”   Your vocation is what you have been called to.  We have weakened this whole idea by calling it a “career.”  Your life is so much more than just a career.  It can be a calling, a vocation.

As we look to the Bible today for direction on what we’re called to, we’ll find that the Bible is the story of people answering God’s call.  Noah was called to build an ark.  Abraham was called to move and start a new nation.  Moses was called to lead God’s people out of slavery.  Samuel was called to anoint the king of Israel.  David was called to be the king of Israel.  Isaiah was called to remind the people and king of God’s will.  Jeremiah was called to deliver bad news (a future exile to Babylon) and comfort (after the exile).  Paul was called to share Jesus with non-Jews (Gentiles).

For the next six weeks we’re going to look at five specific dimensions of God’s call (and purpose) for your life.  We’ll explore how to fulfill your calling and why you are here!  Why you exist!  Or as Paul writes the Ephesians:

“My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God called you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people!
~Ephesians 1:18-19 CEV

Today is an introduction to calling.  It’s an overview of what it means that we’re called.  Today I want to give you six clues to your calling.  So let’s begin searching for those clues.

1.       MY CALLING IS A GIFT FROM GOD!
It’s important to understand that I don’t earn my calling.  I don’t deserve it.  I don’t work for it.  My calling is graciously given to me by God. It’s a present to be received and opened and enjoyed.  Paul writes the Galatians saying:

“God, by his grace through Christ, has called you to become his people.”
~Galatians 1:6 NCV

What is grace?  Grace is undeserved kindness.  You don’t deserve it but you’re given it because of grace.  Your calling is part of your salvation!  Paul mentors Timothy saying:

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we’ve done but because of his own purpose and grace.”
~2 Timothy 1:9 NIV

The first clue to your calling is that it is a gift from God.  And did you notice that along with calling comes purpose.  That leads us to the second clue to calling:

2.       I’M CALLED FOR GOD’S PURPOSE! (Not My Own)
God didn’t make you for you!  He made you for God’s very own self!  It’s for God’s plan and purpose, not your plan.  Let’s go back to where we started with Paul writing the Romans saying:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.”
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Call and God’s purpose go hand in hand.  But it’s God’s purpose you’re called to, not your own purpose.  Paul says it this way elsewhere:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
~Ephesians 2:10 NIV

What does it mean that we are God’s “workmanship”?  It means God is an artist and we are the poem, sculpture, painting, and masterpiece.  God doesn’t make junk!  You’re a masterpiece of God’s workmanship!  God began forming us before anyone else knew us.  Speaking for God, the prophet Isaiah reminds us:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

What does this teach us?  Isaiah teaches me that I’m not an accident!  God is your creator.  God is my creator.  We sometimes talk about “accident babies” but from God’s perspective, there is no accident baby.  If you think your life is an accident, you’ll live like it. I’d rather know that I’m deeply loved!  God says, “You were in my care” even while you were growing inside your mom.  When you were in the womb God was fearfully and wonderfully making you,  knitting you together.  God cared for your life before you were born!  This is the memory verse for this week.  Take some time to learn it by heart this week:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

The second clue to my calling is knowing that I’m called to God’s purpose (not my own).

3.       MY SINS & MISTAKES DON’T CHANGE MY CALL!
It doesn’t matter how much you’ve messed up your life so far.   Your intentional and unintentional sins (missing God’s mark) don’t change God’s call for you.  We’ve been learning a lot from Paul today, and if you don’t know much about Paul, you might be surprised to learn that before Paul was a follower of Jesus, he was a kind of religious terrorist and murderer.  He sought out Christians and had them executed with the authority of the state and religious establishment of his day.   Paul talks about this in his letter to Timothy saying:

“By calling me into his service, Jesus has judged me trustworthy, even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith, I acted in ignorance.”
~1 Timothy 1:12-13 NJB

In other words, Paul is saying, “I did a lot of dumb stuff.  Really dumb stuff.”  I bet most of us can relate.  But let me assure you that God doesn’t waste what happens. Not even sin!  God uses it all.  God can work God’s purposes in our lives no matter what happens.  Part of my calling comes out of my pain!  Consider for a moment Chuck Colson.  Colson was a special counsel to President Richard Nixon.   He was one of Nixon’s “Hatchet Man” during the Watergate scandal that ultimately led Nixon to losing the presidency.  Colson spent seven months in prison for obstruction of justice.  But it was during this trial that Colson turned from being Nixon’s “Hatchet Man” to a follower of Jesus.  When he got out of prison he began Prison Fellowship, a ministry to prisoners and their families.  Today Prison Fellowship is in 112 Countries!  God can use even the mistakes and sins in your life to fulfill God’s purposes and calling in your life.

The third clue to your calling is that my sins & mistakes don’t change my call.

4.       MY CALLING IS CONNECTED TO OTHERS
Do you know that you can’t fulfill your calling by yourself?  Calling & community go together.  Paul tells the Romans:

“None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone!”
~Romans 14:7 NIV

None of your body parts work if they are disconnected.  I’ve been learning lately how connected body parts are as I’ve been working with a physical trainer who has me doing circuits that focus on different muscles of the body.  One night we work on my back muscles.  Then my arms.  Then my legs.  Then my core.  They all work together to make my body healthier and stronger.

So how do you get your calling connected to community?  You get it connected through a faith community, through a church.  Paul calls the church the “body of Christ” because it’s different callings all connected in one body:

“We are all one Body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future hope.”
~Ephesians 4:4 NLT

We’re one body connected by one spirit all fitting into God’s glorious calling and purpose.  Or as the author of Hebrews says:

“Brothers and sisters, you are holy partners in a heavenly calling.”
~Hebrews 3:1 GW

We’re better together. We’re better as partners.  We’re better as a part of something bigger than ourselves.  I think this is the real value of small groups in a church.   You get even more connected to the body.   You learn and study and figure out and discern what your calling is and how it fits with the larger body.

The fourth clue to my calling is that my calling is connected to others.

5.       GOD EMPOWERS WHAT HE CALLS ME TO DO!
What God calls me to do, God equips and enables me to do!  Do you know that God doesn’t call the qualified?  God qualifies those God calls.  When I commit to my calling, God commits the strength & power!  Moses is considered in the Bible to be the greatest of all prophets.  But he sure didn’t feel great when God called him to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.  Here’s what he said:

But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled… Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
~Exodus 4:10 & 13 NLT

Ha!  A prophet who gets tongue tied.  Sometimes when I’m preaching I feel tongue tied; I usually call it a “brain fart.”  I can’t remember even the simplest of words.  But here’s how God reassured Moses:

Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
~Exodus 4:11-12 NLT

In other words, God would give Moses exactly what Moses needed to live into God’s call and accomplish God’s purposes.  Over the next six weeks we’ll L.E.A.R.N. how to live our calling!  We’ll:

Listen to God’s Word every day!
Enlist friends who challenge me!
Ask questions and accept correction!
Remember & Reinforce what I learn
Now DO it!

We’ll be doing this by using the book What On Earth Am I Here For? as a guide.  This is basically The Purpose Driven Life version 2.0.  We did this as a church fifteen years ago, and many of you found it very helpful.   Those of you who are familiar with these ideas may be asking yourself, “What am I going to get out of this a second time around?”  Maybe your calling the second time around is to share it with someone else.  The author of Hebrews reminds us:

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.”
~Hebrews 5:12 NLT

If you did 40 Days of Purpose, then go ahead and stay in a group but ALSO share it with a new friend!  You’ll grow far more than by just sitting in your group.  You will experience new power you’ve never had when you share it with others.  Here’s what I’ll be praying for you:

“That is why we always pray for you, asking our God to help you live the kind of life he CALLED you to live. We pray that with his power God will help you do the good things you want, and perform the works that come from your faith.”
~Paul (2 Thessalonians 1:11 NCV)

You can count on God to give you the strength you need to do what God has called you to:

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it”
~Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV)

The fifth clue to God’s calling is that God empowers what God calls me to do.  There’s one other thing you need to know as we begin…

6.  THERE’S A PRIZE FOR LIVING OUT MY CALLING
When you live into God’s calling, God promises a reward that will last forever.  Paul talks about this prize saying:

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 3:14 NIV

What is the prize?  The prize is eternal life with God.  Eternal life is hope for a good and meaningful existence after death.  It’s life and love with the one who created you for eternity!  I was reminded of how valuable this is when I was backpacking with my four-year-old son recently.  After spending an adventurous two days backpacking into Nordhouse Dunes and camping on a ridge overlooking Lake Michigan, I asked Micah as we were hiking back to the car what his favorite part of the backpacking was.  I figured he’d say something like playing on the beach, or sleeping in the tent, or cooking on a little stove, or playing the harmonica.  What he said wasn’t any of those things, and what he said melted my heart.  He said, “My favorite part was spending time with you, daddy.”  Of course.  That’s what we want.  We want time with our daddy.  We want time with our mommy.  And how much more with our heavenly parent.

So when does eternity begin?  I think eternity begins NOW!  This prize of eternity isn’t pie in the sky when you die.  It’s a transformed life NOW.  Paul writes:

“Live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.”
~1 Thessalonians 2:12 GNB

Live the kind of life right NOW.  You’re co-starring with Jesus for eternity.  What’s the best part of that?  Time with God.  Lots of time with God.

My prayer for you over the next six weeks is this:

“I ask God …to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally.., so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, and grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians.”
~Ephesians 1:17-18 (Message)

Here’s the fact about your calling: God is calling you.  Will you answer his call?  Here’s some specific next steps for today:

1. Take the Series Challenge.  Be in worship every week you’re in Lansing and when you’re not in Lansing, then download the sermon and read or listen to it.
2. Find a group in GroupLINK to spend six weeks with some friends studying a book to L.E.A.R.N. about your calling.
3. Invite a friend to participate with you in this whole endeavor.
4. Memorize this week’s scripture:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

Prayer
God, I realize my call is a gift from you.  I want to receive it and open it and enjoy it.  Help me remember that this calling is not for my own purposes, but it’s for your purposes through me.  God, when I make mistakes or sin and miss your mark for my life, call me back to your purposes.  Even use those mistakes to fulfill your call even more fully in my life.  Bring people around me who will help me fulfill my calling through connection in a small group and a faith community.  Give me your power to accomplish my call, and let me run this life with my eyes on the eternal prize of your love for me and for all creation.  May this be true of me in Jesus’ name.

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Rick Warren.