Answer The Call // Is God Calling You? // The Paradox of Purpose // Charles Metcalf

all righty all righty listen it is week two and guys we made it we made it to week two like listen i uh i'm just grateful to be here because your boy is here's a new experience i literally i uh i came i never understood this until literally there are so many things that i'm learning um in this but uh literally right at like right when the sermon ends right when it ends there was like 15 minutes of like wow man like that okay that was good and then right after that 15 minutes it was like what you gonna say next week immediately like right after i got gave my wife a hug gave arlo kids gave luna because like oh my friends were like you did so good and it was like oh yeah but you got to do it again though that's the thing well beautiful thing god gave me the sermon y'all and we're gonna do it again now listen some of you are just joining us em and if you are welcome we're so glad you're here welcome to week two of the paradox of purpose everybody say the paradox of purpose now some of you uh you're just joining us and if so i'm so glad but uh i want to bring you up to speed kind of from last week we're talking around this idea that purpose is a paradox everybody say the word paradox now some of you um you're still like you're like what what is this word paradox like i heard you say it last week and so i just i want to keep helping you we posted some on instagram some of y'all were like comment your paradox and some of you did not understand because you were just saying stuff that makes sense anyways um but okay apparently i'm going to give you a couple statements these are just more paradoxes for you to just kind of grapple with so um to to get a job you have to have experience but to get experience you have to have a job this this is like a regular like okay here's one i just recently learned buying a house to have cred good credit you have to already have credit and to get more credit you got to get cred it's like it's a weird like you got to have good credit but to have credit you got to get debt and to get debt you got to have credit it's like what i don't know how okay here's another one um the deeper you go in the ocean the more shallow it gets you get it see i'm making you think today the deeper you go the more shallow it gets see you can't just sit here you're gonna have to participate with me today okay here's another paradox you ever met someone who's so smart like they're so smart they're kind of dumb you like you ever met somebody they're so smart you're like you're so smart you kind of like you don't you can't tell you're just kind of like a robot it's very weird anyways um there are so many paradoxes throughout life and throughout scripture and we we realized last week that god is a paradox you again you've never thought it directly this way but god is a paradox and there are paradoxes all throughout scripture all throughout the word of god think about this in james 4 10 you are exalted through humility this is the paradox of the christian walk you are exalted but you have to lower yourself scripture also said anyone who wants to gain his life must lose his life my i am stronger in weakness these are all the paradoxes literally it says to live you have to die this this is the paradox that that jesus comes to present to us today is it's not either or it's the tension of both and and last week we we started down this path of figuring out and asking the question what is my purpose again this question has plugged so many of you and so many of us and and what i love is literally there are hundreds of thousands of people that are getting helped and and really moving forward and understanding what purpose is now we had to make a delineation last week because many of us have purpose and potential confused potential is everything you could do your purpose are the things god has graced you to do and there's a difference some of you you you as you were young as you were growing up you you really got um caught up with your potential all that and really potential creates a lot of pressure for many people and they feel like okay what if should i go this way or should i go this way or what am i going to do or how am i going to do this and really we realize that your purpose is not the same as your potential it's not the same now i want to help you see this um because we have an amazing graphics team can you help me with this i want to do uh illustration on the led wall real quick um i want to show you kind of um what the paradox of purpose looks like visually so um this is you kind of in the world right here can you throw that up there for me so this is you this is the little circle it's a beautiful little circle just moved it's pretty cool um this is you and you're kind of born into life with no clear direction like no obvious like this is what you're supposed to do and this is how you're supposed to do it there's no rule book for how to live through life there's no rule book we've learned this on how to raise your kids there's no like there's no like this is one two three on how you do it and you're kind of just placed in life just empty just open and then as you get older people start saying stuff they say stuff like you're so organized they didn't say that about me i want to be very clear nobody's ever said that but this first kind of thing it gives you a little bit of direction like and so and you kind of start forming your life out of this one thing people said you're organized so you think oh great and you start living your life i can't even like give you examples of being organized i was literally that's what i want to do and i have none anyways um so you get a little bit of direction and then somebody also says yeah but also you're really funny and so then you get something else in your life that's like well maybe okay i'm organized and i'm funny and so now you start trying to live your life in the tension of both of these things and then somebody says oh yeah but the way you communicate is just so sharp and you do that and now you're thinking okay i'm organized i'm funny i can communicate well and then somebody says you know what you should start a company you just really like and this is what you're going through life people just telling you all the stuff you should do and this is a picture of your potential that's what they some of y'all thought this was just a logo it's a lot it this one is as deep as you think um but it this is your potential this is where you live in life this is the tension of this is me but here's all the stuff i could do and this doesn't go away this is always in your life there's always opportunity there's always things you could be doing there's people who come and approach you and say for a little bit money we could have you working here all you got to do is move away from that place god told you to stay at for for there's somebody oh come on some of y'all this is what you look your dating life looks like this this over here you got ricky then you got jason then you got aidan my little brother aidan's here aidan and then you got chandler mother and this is all this is you and you're like yeah but he's kind of funny and then oh but he's really tall and none of that matters when it comes to picking your spouse this is some of y'all with business ideas some of y'all got so many businesses y'all got like i do a little i do little tutorials on the side and now i got a little baking company and then for 5.99 a month you can sign up and listen to me talk on zoom and then you can over here i could this is potential this is and here's the thing about it i want to part of this sermon series is um demystifying and this is why the tagline is it's not as deep as you think because we've made purpose and calling so much bigger than us and when you make it bigger than you you take the responsibility off of you so it becomes this thing it's like oh it's kind of out here and i don't know if i'll ever reach it but i want to just and this isn't even really my sermon this is just something to bring you up to speed there here's the thing i've learned this is going to mess with some of you purpose is a choice we make it a lot bigger like we make it out of our control but purpose is a choice i want you to look at this scripture this is jesus in the garden of gethsemane he's sitting there literally he gets to a point where he is so overwhelmed by the pressure of what's going to happen he's fully god fully man again jesus is a paradox completely perfect in his divinity but completely imperfect in his humanity and both of them are in this moment and he says father if you are willing take this cup from me do you think jesus there was no other way or that he couldn't think of a way or he couldn't have created a way for him to rescue humanity that this was the only now again i'm not arguing with the law of the scripture and how it was set up to go i'm just saying if jesus wanted to he could have done it a different way there was potent there were options he could have said you know what i just i don't really want to go to the cross boom you're all saved like i just had my fingers there we go like so he had a lot of potential of what he could do but look at the decision he makes yet not my will he offers up his will he had him i god i don't want to do this i do not want to do this but i'm picking purpose and this is the decision you have to make every single day will you see your potential but still choose purpose it would be it would be easier if god would just take away all the other opportunities and only outline this is exactly what you're supposed to do marry this person do this say that you want to be a robot for that but no jesus says i'm gonna spread this thing open and i'll guide you if you listen you will have all of the potential but you have to choose purpose in the garden that's what jesus did he chose his purpose and this is the decision you'll have to make every single day i'm gonna choose purpose i'm gonna choose the thing and here's the thing and i can't really get into it because it's like a thurman for a little bit later in the series but um do you know that purpose is really about we we think of the cross and there's a scripture there's a scripture in the bible where jesus says if you want to be my disciple you must pick up your cross daily and follow me when you think of cross and what people would have thought about when jesus said that are not the same thing you you think of jesus when you think of the cross jesus hadn't died on the cross yet they would have thought of a ritual that happened every single weekend where they would torture people and it was the slowest possible death that you could experience at the time by the roman army they would have thought of a gruesome dying and this is what jesus compared he says everybody want to sign up to follow me yeah you know how you see people get tortured and their flesh dies you following me is going to be a lot like that for your flesh your pride is going to have to die your plan is going to have to die what you how you thought life all of that is going to have to die if you want to follow me this and here's the thing i know you could pick a lot of other things instagram presents you with options your friend group presents you with options you could choose paper you could choose performance some of you choose your plan some of you choose your family patterns some of you choose a platform some of you choose you can you can choose some of you choose prominence some of you choose the paper we talked about that earlier this year some like there's a lot of things you could choose but some of you the thing you just need to write down your notes is i'm picking purpose because this will this will be an everyday decision for you will you wake up and say today i'm going to choose my potential or am i going to choose purpose what will you choose i want to um take us further today uh in the paradox of purpose i want us to move this conversation further because uh last week we kind of started and again we kind of ended at the culmination that purpose is not doing purpose is not doing we've made purpose doing but your purpose is to be with god that is why you want to know your purpose you're watching right now you think what is my purpose why was i born you were born to be with god that that's why there's that hole in your heart that feels like money can't feel it and girls can't feel it and there's no success that all of that is because you're but you are created to be with god i want to read you a scripture that we read last week and uh this will kind of get us into uh week two of our uh sermon series this is the scripture we read it last week i'm gonna read it again philippians 4 13. i can do all things caveat which he has called me to do through him who strengthens and empowers me watch this to fulfill his purpose i can do all things that he's called me to do that fulfill his purpose i want to hone in um on one of these words today and that word is calling everybody say calling i'm going to pray for us real quick god we thank you and we need you amen amen amen amen okay uh so how many of you remember your first phone if you're if you're in the chat in the room right now raise your hand and put a little hand in the chat if you remember your first phone your very first phone um i had a sprint flip phone i had a sprint i don't remember the name of it i really wanted a razor but my mom and dad wouldn't buy me one i don't know why mom and dad i don't know why you didn't give me the razor i felt so embarrassed at school anyways um all my friends some of y'all what my wife was the cool kid that had a razor and i was just like god but i want a razor so bad anyways um but i had this little sprint flip phone and this is when again some of y'all ain't never had a flip phone which is very sad but um they used to flip and then sometimes they go like you ever had the sidekick and y'all have the sidekick whatever it made that noise when you did it um but i remember my first phone and uh i remember one time i came into the kitchen and uh this was when you had to pay for all your text and all your talk time like you had to pay for all of that so i walk into the kitchen and my mom is sitting at the kitchen table now this is strange if you know my mom um because she's it's really really early she's up i'm coming in there to eat cereal and i'm like i'm leaving for the day and she's sitting at the kitchen table and i come around the corner into the kitchen she goes good morning charles good morning mom how are you and i see she has like stat a stack like this tall of printer paper and i'm like what she was she said you've been texting a lot so what you mean what's a lot i don't know what is it she said right here i have printed all your text messages and calls over the last month boy when i tell you that's what i did this is what i saw it's like when you lose your breath you can't that's what i just was like okay she's like charles in the last month you have sent 40 000 text messages and you and you've been on the phone at like 3 4 5 in the morning and i was like well that's what that paper says but you don't actually know if that's me like that could be somebody else you don't even know if that's i've been talking way too much on the phone that's a long story short i just i said way too many text messages and um as i got older i kind of i kind of stopped liking talk on the phone like during that time i would stay up late talking on the phone i would talk to friends if i was trying to talk to holler at a girl you just leave the phone on and be like okay yeah and then you kind of fall asleep and you wake back up hey what's up you still there to be like yeah i'm still here be like all right bet and then you go some of y'all never been in love like that before but when you in fifth grade and you like man it's 4am what you doing i'm just staring at the ceiling what you doing i'm just literally just the phone just on just running up minutes anyways now i'm not the best at answering the phone i don't really like some of y'all crazy people you're actually like you need to go doc for this there are people out there did you know bree there are people who answer the phone for numbers they don't have saved in their phone no y'all you cannot be trusted i just want to say that like if you out here just answering the phone that's crazy anyways i i i say all this to say i don't really like talking to the phone that much now and um somebody like charles you're rambling it's going somewhere just check with me um i don't like talking on the phone now but and really because of that i have a lot of missed calls i have a lot of missed calls and texts and i'm not going to tell you how many because it's kind of obnoxious and but i don't miss calls from like really important people like i have my favorites list does anybody do their favorites list like you have your favorite place my favorites list is very serious to me if you're on my favorites list i will answer your call and your text whenever and if you're wondering if you're on my favorites list the fact you're thinking about it probably means you're not um but if you are on you would know but i i i don't miss calls from people that are on my favorites list now one time i did miss a call from abby and i didn't know it then and i like missed a call i was like oh just call her back and then she texts me she said i need you to come home right now and i was like oh okay and i got home she's like we're having a second child she told me that we were and i was like oh i probably should have picked up the phone for that one um now once now that was kind of important let me tell you one of the most important calls i've missed i'm joking we're having another baby by the way if you didn't know um [Applause] hallelujah um flourishing marriage i'm telling you uh anyways abby called i knew she was supposed to be picking up some food and she called me and i thought oh i know she's supposed to be getting food soon whatever she's gonna pick up some lunch for us to go do something i'll just call her back all right she i miss the call i call her back and she's like yeah i already left and i'm thinking what do you mean you're already live you're supposed to order me food she's like yeah i'm already and i thought ah i should have not i should have answered that call that was import because now she probably ordered me something i don't really know if i like or if i want that and that's going to be really bad um i say all that to say it sucks when you miss a call it especially when when you didn't know how important the call was and you just thought like it'll still be there when i come back like she'll i can just like i'll just go back and i'll just hit her back up and chill but but when you called back the opportunity was gone and so then you're left to figure it out on your own because you were the the plan was set up for you to answer the call and then she was gonna give me food and then i was coming and so then when i missed the call i had to adjust everything that i was gonna do because now i threw off what and i didn't know where i was gonna get food from and then i had to change my schedule and have you ever missed a call from god have you ever have you ever thought i could just i could just call him back though i can just or maybe you he wasn't on your caller id and you thought if i if i would have known that it was god i would have picked up the first time there are a lot of people in the kingdom of god i thought about calling this sermon missed calls you know because that that's kind of the state of the kingdom right now a lot of people and your call list is just ran up it's just there's a lot of missed calls and uh this has created a lot of pressure for a lot of us because we feel this desire to okay i gotta find my calling and we talked about this last week a little bit that there's a difference between your purpose and your calling your purpose is to be with god but god reveals your purpose your purposes is being with god and becoming really the version of yourself that he always saw and but god reveals your purpose or who you are through your calling through god's specific the designation he puts on your life and the current assignment he has you in this is how god reveals and many of us we find ourselves in a place where we're trying to figure out and really we use this language of finding our calling we're trying to we're trying to figure out why am i here what am i what am i doing and um today i want to be very practical today i'm coming to you today we're going to go through a lot of scripture we're going to look at the life of an incredible man of god that was called and today i want to be very practical and i just want to help you learn how to answer the call that's that's the title of the sermon today today you will leave knowing how do i answer the call how do i when god calls when i feel like god is calling me to do something for those of you who don't know uh you're not familiar with this word calling this is a word that we use in faith um or in church that uh it it's a good word but sometimes it gets twisted because it's what christians use to describe what they're supposed to be doing sometimes motivate motivated by god other times motivated by their own kind of emotions and what they want to do and they just say god called me to when really god didn't we're going to walk through this today but i want to talk to you today about calling and i want to look at a portion of scripture we're going to look at a lot of scripture today and um and that's because the grass withers and the flowers fade but the word of god stands forever so it doesn't matter what i'm saying if we read this book god will speak to us um i want to read first samuel starting in chapter 3 first samuel chapter 3 this is what the word of god says it says meanwhile the boy samuel served the lord by assisting eli now in those days messages from the lord were very rare and visions were quite uncommon one night eli who was almost blind by now had gone to bed the lamp of god had not yet gone out samuel was sleeping in the tabernacle near the ark of god suddenly the lord called out samuel yes samuel pride what is it he got up and ran to eli here i am did you call me the nope i didn't call you eli replied go back to bed so he did then the lord called out again samuel and again samuel went up and went to eli here i am did you call me i didn't call you my son go back to bed samuel did not yet know the lord because he had never had a message from the lord before so the lord called him a third time once more samuel got up and went to eli here i am did you call me then eli realized it was the lord calling the boy so he said to samuel go and lie down and if someone calls again say speak lord your servant is listening so samuel went back to bed and the lord called came before samuel samuel and samuel replied speak your servant is listening now this is um such a powerful portion of scripture and we're going to walk through this scripture today very systematically um i want to give you context to where we are in the bible right now because without the context you can't really appreciate it samuel is a miracle he's a miracle because you need to know his mother his mother's name was hannah and hannah was barren she could not have children she and she literally scripture says she poured her heart out to god many of you you're in a space where you know what it is to god i if you could do anything for me if god if there's any prayer you could answer she is pouring her heart out to god and she makes a promise she says god if i have a child i will dedicate him to you for your service his entire life god does a miracle opens up her when she has samuel and when he is old enough she drops him off with the prophet eli she drops him off with eli now here's the thing when we find samuel in this scripture samuel is either 12 or 13 years old so this is the first thing that i want to say about calling calling doesn't have an age some of you thought you had to be samuel is 12 or 13 at this point he's literally laying in bed and god says samuel he wasn't a certain see here's the thing samuel was at a place where he was um young in age but he was still spiritually maturing and there's a difference between maturity and your age some of you think because you're getting older you're getting more mature and that's not how it works you can get older and not mature in the same way you can read your bible more and not mature in god if you're not doing if you're not maturing if you're not growing samuel's at a part in a point where he can hear god but he doesn't know how to listen yet you know there's a difference between hearing and listening right here like i can hear a lot of things you may be walking down the street you hear a car driving by you hear animals you may hear a bird chirping you may hear my son talk but in a moment if arlo says something i listen i'm able to differentiate but his voice immediately samuel is at a point in his walk with god where he's able to hear but he can't tell who it is and this is a lot of people you hear something but you just don't know who it is yet and what happens is he hears the right thing but he goes to the wrong place he knows it's god he he knows that something's calling me some who what is that i heard something and he gets up and he goes to eli now when he goes to eli this is why i love the bible because it's so much more um powerful than what did it appears on the surface so it says that one night these there's two specific words one night it says that eli and samuel were in the tabernacle night and tabernacle i want to bring attention to these two words night in scripture represents a place without god's presence but the tabernacle is the place where god resides another paradox he's in a place without god with god and this is what we live in as believers we're it's night but we're in the tabernacle it's it's dark it's a dark world but we have the living god on the inside of us you're you're you're in a space where you feel like you can't hear but god says i'm a friend that sticks closer than a brother this is the tension and what i love about this scripture is it comes to bust up the myth that you have to find calling was samuel looking for calling what like here's another question do you have to find calling because some of you feel like you got to find it and you're anxious because you have to find your calling and where is it and i don't want to miss it and is it over here and do i have to do that it's night it's in a dark place a place where where it seems like god's presence wouldn't be and literally god's presence and his calling it doesn't samuel doesn't have to find it the calling finds him was abraham looking for a calling what who was david in the field looking for a calling i'm trying to help somebody today because you're under the pressure that i have to find my calling baby you don't have to find your calling your calling will find you if you will just if you will just rest and be patient and just wait you're calling god's calling can find anybody god's calling can find anybody it found daniel in the lion's den and found abraham and fine gideon at the bottom of the wine press god's calling can find anybody and some of you feel like you've done enough bad you've done too many bad things for god's calling to find you god's calling will find you today i want to help you today i want to help you on how to answer um answer the call and it's going to be very straightforward today i'm going to teach you how to um how to answer um can you put that up for me the answer it's going to be it's going to kind of build out across um so here's the thing the first thing when you realize god is calling you when you realize okay i'm getting a call from god i want to be very practical today when you get a normal call let's just like let's say somebody's trying to call you so you're just you have your phone and somebody's trying to call you there's there's two options that you have i want matter of fact is god are you calling me i feel like god's calling me hold on one second you see that so this is what happens when god calls you you have two options now some of you are like what's up with the ringing well this is god trying to give you direction but you still have to choose so many of you you think ah this isn't just a good time i'm just i'm okay i don't i don't take the call away i don't i don't want to answer the call but the thing is god's call keeps coming regardless of what you do so again you find yourself in it and god's back calling and he says hey i just hey it's me again just just wanted to give you some i just wanted to guide you today j but you have a choice will you accept or decline the call and this is many of us you just think ah what would it be weird is god gonna call me to do something weird though i don't i don't know i decline i don't wanna do anything weird i don't want to like i don't want to post too much on my instagram about god because i don't mess up my aesthetic um i just but god's calling keeps coming and you have a moment where you decide to answer the call of god the very first thing you got to do is you just have to hit accept i'm telling you this i hit accept just hit the turn the sound off uh accept bow i'm i probably shouldn't be hitting the led wall that's probably not good um the first thing and not just accept i want to say this the first thing if you're going to answer the call of god is you have to accept freely and i want to add this word in there because some of you there's a level of work attached to your relationship with god that you have to do you have to get yourself out of place before you can accept the call of god on your life some of you the enemy has got you so wrapped up in your thoughts so wrapped up wrapped up in what you did so wrapped up in a past life so in a current thought pattern that you think i have to stop doing all of these things before i can accept the call the first step if you want to answer is you just have to accept it and some of you today this is all you need because you know god's been calling you some people you don't have to convince it like you know god has been calling you you know he's had a plan for your life you know he's been trying to do something you know it's only but you just the question will you accept god's call will you accept it will you really okay there are some of you that god has called you to be different than all of your family patterns everything that has ever happened to you you know it's supposed to change with you but to do that you're gonna have to have some hard conversations and you know that but you just you have to decide will i just accept the call except freely if you're going to answer the call of god the first thing you got to do is accept freely now i want to move forward in our story because um it says in this that it says suddenly he runs out and he realizes that god is talking to him samuel he says speak lord speak lord your servant is listening and god starts to download and speak to samuel so clearly but before he realizes that it's god he wasn't mature enough to realize who it was and this is an important dynamic of calling that i want to approach today the second portion write this down if you want to answer the call is you have to notify few i want to help you today because there's attention when you get calling it's two two decisions you make one i'm the only person that can hear this and nobody else heard it or i'm gonna post it to my instagram and prove that i'm called this it it's either nobody heard it but me or look at how called i am we see this in scripture joseph if he had an instagram he would have posted about his dream oh y'all let me tell you my dream listen i i was i was up here and y'all were down there and look at how called i am this is a lot of this is this is you saying i'm doing what god called me to do but really you're just trying to flex on everybody and it's obvious god's calling isn't a flex on everybody i don't know where that came from that there's some kind of notion that i am called by god and yep nobody can do it and it don't matter who's gonna like this i wanna help you today the calling of god there's a decision that you have to make and i wrote this down you have to notify few samuel is at a place where he realizes i don't know exactly what this is the question is are you humble enough when god calls you to invite other people into the process many of us feel like i'm the only person that i i hear god for me and can nobody else hear god for me i'm not saying that um god doesn't speak things to you specifically the scripture just says there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors so eli goes to a place where he says i'm gonna go to someone who's a little bit more mature than i am and they're gonna help me navigate this you have to know you have to have people in your life if you're going to answer the call of god on your life you have to have people in your life that when you feel like god is calling me to do something he's calling me to go to the school he's calling me to start a business he's calling me to marry this person he's calling me to to give like you can go to them and say hey this is what i feel like god is saying to me but you're someone i trust that is rooted in god would you take some time to pray this through with me would you take would you take now this is stuff this is stuff we don't like because a couple things one it takes time and some of us just want to bet i'm called let's do it but this is a moment and here's the thing many of us we feel like we can get out of the call of god so easily that we don't take it seriously on the front end so you just think well if i don't like it i'll do something else that's not how his call works you don't just decide i'm done with this and i don't want to do it anymore when you say no this guy you're calling me to do this you have to take it seriously i wrote this down i said notify a few and when i say few these are friends who evaluate the word friends who can have friends who can evaluate the like you need to be able to sit down with people and i know this is titan it's kind of like where's the preachy part this is i'm not trying to preach i'm trying to help you i'm trying to help you navigate very practically when god tells you to do something do you have people you can go to and say i think this is god some of the most powerful words you i think i heard god the older i get i i think i think this is it and here's the beautiful thing wisdom is proven right by its results so as you go through this process you can realize okay if this is god you don't have to prove it if it is god you don't have to let everybody know if it is god you don't have to say look how what he does but you have to have people in your life that you can go to hey i'm feeling like god's calling me to step out of this season into another one but what do you think about it this is the place that god has taken so many believers out as you get isolated in your decisions this is where he the enemy took eve out in the garden isolated that's his plan to get you moving without other people's insight and wisdom and not to say that every time they're gonna cha that's not god but maybe they can bring other factors into it okay if it is god what are you gonna do to make sure your transition to this next season you do you you close up this season well there's wisdom you can okay god's calling you to transition out of that job don't post about your boss end that season so well have that company flourishing better than ever before then you leave you don't you don't like these this is wisdom you can get when you're trying to answer the call of god you gotta have people that you can notify and say hey this is what i'm feeling but let's pray through this thing this is how we're going to answer the call we're going to keep moving through this um here's a powerful portion of the scripture again we're walking through samuel's life um this i want to read verse 17 and then i'll give you the context after it says he go he wakes up and eli this is eli talking what did the lord say to you tell me everything and may god strike you and even kill you if you hide anything back from me so eli so he taught so samuel told eli everything he didn't hold anything back do you know what the message was god told samuel that he was going to strike down eli and his entire family that this would be the end of eli's position as judge for israel but it literally says samuel told eli everything and he didn't hold anything back if you're gonna answer the call you have to submit fully you have to be at a place where you can say if this if i re if okay i've accepted it i heard what god said i talked through with my trusted community this is the decision i'm making you have to do am i going to submit fully not not as long as it's comfortable not as long as it makes other people comfortable because some of you are living you're so caught up with people pleasing that you can't move for god by yourself you ha do they agree and do they agree he had to make a decision i am fully submitted to what god has called me to do if you're going to answer their call you have to make a decision god i'm submitting fully regardless of how it makes other people feel regardless of how it may force me to grow regardless of where i may have to transition regardless that it may be uncomfortable but i am submitting fully to your call on my life spoiler your calling was not built to make you comfortable so we have to this is a thing where we think that the calling of god is built for your everyday life and it's supposed to just line up exactly with how your life is supposed to go and we say things like that if it was god it'd be easy would it be though some of you would it be like you take ease as that's god but you say i felt peace there's a difference and i'm just i gotta help you there's a difference between the peace of god and your life being easy and some of you think easy and peace mean the same thing you can be going through the hardest situation of your life and still have peace you can be walking through difficult situations and still no god called me to the men let me be practical their marriage could be hard but you could say i have peace because god told me that what he has brought together let no man separate i am telling you you have to make a decision to submit fully submit fully take it seriously the call of god on your life if you're gonna make a decision to move if you're gonna make a decision to break up with that person here's other things christians do we break up with people and blame it on god you know i just felt like god didn't you just thought they look weird don't blame that on god they had stinky breath and you just didn't like them i don't know who that was for but you have to submit fully i am fully submitted to what god's called me to do you have to make a decision okay i'm going to answer the call i'm going to accept it i'm going to notify people i'm going to submit here's the next one and this is where it gets really really fun i'm joking you have to work faithfully can i tell you being called is work this is the part like again you feel like it was all about you being comfortable look do you know samuel's entire time as judge over israel they were at war the entire time his entire calling was navigating a war the philistines take the ark of the covenant and it's in another city and then the city's going through stuff and then they try to send it back and then he's trying to elect a king the people like your sons are wild we don't like your sons and so we want you to like this it was work your calling is gonna take work but here's the thing nobody told me because here's what happens you have natural talents and giftings and then god calls you to use those and then you think they're fine how they are this is the work believers don't want to put in we don't want to get better at anything you just think god gifted me with this yeah but you've been the same good at it at 10 as you are at 45 you haven't gotten any better you this why does scripture say jesus kept growing in wisdom and in stature why would jesus have to keep growing he was setting a picture that regardless of what your calling is you have an opportunity to progress this sometimes being called takes work it takes realizing hey god call and that's the thing just because it takes work doesn't mean god didn't call you to it marriage takes work newlyweds if it's hard if you're arguing you're going the right way it takes work i'm just saying this because this is stuff that'd be taking people out it's like i got into this and then people thought they started talking about me well duh it's work it's not like and i'm saying this because i'm trying to help people who are so caught up with the american dream of comfort and your instagram blows up and then everybody knows some of you you've been abraham waited 25 years it may be a little bit before you're at the full place of where god's called you to be and in the meantime work that is somebody your prophetic word every morning work but here's the thing the thing you have to understand is what you're doing in this season something we say all of our all the time um to the creative team here at tc is the work is the worship many of us think the the thing we present is the worship we have we have people all across our teams and volunteers that they'll create whole videos that you've never seen the worship wasn't it getting posted the worship was the work the the great moment isn't at the at the moment where you say okay like we made it 50 years and that's the moment of your marriage the worship was the work of going to counseling the the thing that was great wasn't oh man that's the best business owner we've ever seen no no it was that you were mature enough to realize that that eight-year-old boy is still somewhere in here and so i have to go deal with it it's work and these are the things i'm telling you if you're gonna answer the call of god if you're gonna answer his specific assignment the specific thing in the season this is what i've called you to do you have to be willing to work willing to stay faithful willing to say you know what i'm going to keep showing up one of the most powerful things bishop gary mcintosh our founding pastor one of the things he said i was like bishop how did you you know through the years of leading this church how did you make it he said charles sometimes i just kept showing up how how beautiful would that be for you to realize if i just keep showing up some of you it's not you don't need more talent you don't need another word you don't you you just need to keep showing up regardless of how hard it gets regardless of what you're go just keep showing up but he i want to progress in this he's working faithfully and then uh i want you to look at these scriptures first samuel chapter eight god um god calls samuel to do something and i want to look at these two scriptures because this will mess with you if you're not mature in your faith but i'm going to help you today it says this samuel was displeased with their request and went to the lord for guidance the people come to samuel and say hey we want a king sam's like you don't need a king you got me and these they're like no we need a king samuel was displeased with their requests he went to the lord for guidance do everything they say to you the lord replied they're rejecting me not you that's powerful that's that they'll reject they are rejecting not you it's me it's me oh i can't even preach that i'm sorry um they don't want me to be their king ever since i brought them out of egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed their gods and now they're giving you the same treatment do as they ask so god tells him hey they want a king give him a king that's what they want go ahead and do it fast forward to samuel 15. the lord said to samuel i am sorry i ever made saul king for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my commands the beginning of chapter 16 is what it says the lord said to samuel you have mourned long enough for saul if you are going to answer the call of god you will have to make a decision that you're going to endure failure i mean think about it he comes to god god i really don't want to do this i don't i really don't want to do it god says do it then the very thing god told him to do ends up in a failure and god's saying i'm sorry i ever did that this is the place where many believers and myself start to question did god call me when we are presented with failure when there's a fail when there is a loss when when it's the tension between how we thought life was going to go and how it's really going when when i invested everything into this and it didn't go the right way when i tried to raise my kids the right way and they're far from god when i when i stepped out in faith and i said okay god this is going to be uncomfortable i'm going to start the business and then covet happens when when you make it when you say god i'm going to do what you asked me to do and then it fails god i didn't want to do this in the first place i and that's the place many of you are at when it comes to answering your call you're at a point where you're experiencing pain you're experiencing hurt you're experiencing failure and the tension is the enemy is trying to convince you that because you failed god didn't call you i've seen so many incredible people taken out because they thought the failure meant god didn't call him god's call is not dependent on you it's not dependent on your fa in this moment samuel is having to navigate one of his first and greatest failures in front of the children of israel i didn't want to give him a king i gave him a king now the king that was supposed to fix everything be the ruler and his family be the ruler of everything forever has failed and god comes to him and says you have mourned long enough now when i read this scripture um i honestly i really related to it because uh and i share i share the story all the time but me my wife god asked us to step out a couple years ago and start a church called eden and long story short the same time he comes back around about a year later and says hey i want you to shut it down and go serve at tc i never questioned the call of god more than in that season because god i thought you told me to leave where i was you asked me to step out and do this and there were so many people saying we wouldn't do it and it couldn't and all these different things and now you're shutting it all down it is this is this did you not call me and the beautiful thing is is god says i called you then and i'm calling you now and the reason here's the reason you have to endure failure this is one of the most powerful portions of the scripture and i literally didn't even see it until earlier this morning when i was studying the next he says you've mourned long enough i've rejected him as king so fill your flask with oil and go to bethlehem i was reading the scripture and the holy spirit said charles the reason you have to endure is because you have to pour again you have to pour again samuel was the one who anointed saul something they would do is he would fill a flask with oil and he would walk up to god's chosen and he would pour this oil out it represented god's favor his his anointing his his plan this was god's prayer this was him this is how i want it to go this is what but if samuel isn't able to move past the failure of saul he never pours on david the reason god is saying i know you messed up i know it's difficult but you have to pour again there are more people there are more i know it didn't go exactly how you thought it would with that business but i've got more oil for you if you would just pour again you see the thing i've learned is the enemy he actually knows the power of your poor he knew the power of samuel's poor because his mother hannah poured her out hurt her heart out to god and the last time someone in samuel's family poured samuel was born so the enemy knew if i can just get them stuck in this failure if he gets you to stop pouring he doesn't have to worry about your purpose if he can get you to stop giving out and that's what's happened so many of you you're at a place where you started hoarding i last time i last time i answered the call i got hurt last time i did what god told me to do people talked about me last time i did what god told me to do i went bankrupt last time i did what god told me to do i got a i got a divorce last time i did what god told me to do and the enemy has made you feel like yeah you don't need to pour again there's no point why would you go back and do it again why would you step out why why and this is the place where we find ourselves questioning the call should i pour again should i should i try to step out in faith again should i try to obey even though it's uncomfortable should i try to have that hard conversation i came to encourage you regardless of where you may be right now poor again there are people there are children there are business owners there are leaders there are other students there are other moms there are other fathers there are people that will not be able to walk in what god's called them to walk into until you pour and that's why god says hey samuel you've mourned long long enough over saul i need you to pour again some of you i don't know where you are in your walk with god i don't know where you are um in this season of calling but my encouragement would be fill your flask and pour again but some of you you're going to wake up tomorrow your marriage has been so difficult and you've contemplated should i just get a divorce i mean really like you would have an excuse yeah everybody would kind of make sense yeah that makes sense you know it didn't really seem like it was good but you can make a decision i'm gonna i'm gonna fill my flask and tomorrow one of the most powerful things you could do woman of god is pour on that man one of the most powerful things you could do is pour on that child who has not listened to one thing you said one of the most powerful things you could do teacher is pour on those students one of the most powerful things you could do is pour on that relationship that isn't working one of the most powerful things you could do is pour on that father that hurt you and now you're having to take care of him at their elderly age poor again i just when it comes to answering the call the enemy he has for so long got believers to say you know what there's no point you shouldn't do it again but i'm believing today by the power of the holy spirit that some of you god's going to give you the strength to pour again as we close out there's one more letter left and if you're going to answer the call you've got to accept freely you've got to notify you submit fully work faithfully endure failure and the last one is return frequently return frequently we look at the life of jesus and something jesus always did it says jesus often withdrew you look through the first chapter uh the first two and third chapter of samuel it says meanwhile samuel continued to grow in the presence of god one of the things when you're called by god is you got to return to his presence frequently you have to you have to be have the opportunity to go back and say okay god it's difficult in this season but let me go back to you and get my strength god i don't have wisdom for this decision let me let me go back to you though god i don't know which direction to go my class it seems like it's getting a little blurry it seems like it's getting a little confusing but let me go back to you this is the moment where you have to recognize where your strength comes from your strength to answer the call is not within yourself it's not your own willpower your own ability to just muscle your way through it if you are called by god and all of you are caught there is a specific assignment god has for you it might be to start the business it might be to raise those children it might be to stay faithful in the marriage it might be to step out into the entertainment industry it may whatever the call is you have to make a decision i'm going to return frequently i'm going to return to god's presence to get my strength i'm going to return to god's presence to get wisdom one of the most beautiful things that i've learned from our pastor every year he takes a sabbatical and it's him saying regardless of how good things may be going i gotta return to get a word from god some of us we get so confident in our calling some of you you've been doing it for so long you've been in your marriage for so long you've been in ministry for so long but you haven't returned you got to you have to have the ability to say you know what i know i know this is what i'm supposed to do but god if you want to change anything if there's anything in my heart you want to change if there's anything in my mind you want to change if there's anything in my attitude you want to change if you want to adjust it if you want to ask me hey god is this the season to lay some of you you need to go back to the presence of god because he's starting to move when the children of israel follow god it said the cloud would move and it wasn't a designated amount of time it wasn't okay you spent five years here then the next five then the next five no sometimes it said it would stay over just overnight the reason you have to return to his presence is so that you don't miss the cloud and so that at the drop of the hat wait god are you calling me to to step out over here are you calling me to serve in this way and here's the thing a calling sometimes it isn't these grand things like you have to move states sometimes god has called you to apologize are you gonna accept it i yeah are you gonna have a friends who are accountable hey i gotta god really convicted me i need to apologize to abby for how i talked to her but this one big argument we got into so i'm gonna you have p you're gonna okay god i'm gonna fully submit i'm not gonna be like well i'm sorry for that some you know you do them petty apologies if you're married you're like i'm sorry if that what i said you feel that from how i said what i said i'm sorry you felt that what you got to work faithfully endure failure return frequently today um there's so many people that have had the question of am i called if i am called what do i do with it how do i navigate it today you can answer the call you don't have to do anything to qualify for the call you don't have to um change anything about your personality um it will change you but the first step you just gotta hit accept there are two groups of people watching right now that i want to pray over as we close there is uh the first group that man god's been calling you for a while maybe maybe you've answered the call maybe you haven't maybe maybe you're at a different point in this progression some of you are at the working point and you're feeling discouraged you're feeling like man i've been faithful for year after year after year after year some of you you're at a point where you're trying to decide am i going to submit am i going to submit to this call am i really going to trust it some of you you're trying to you're in a failure and you're trying to navigate am i am i going to really come back from this can i come back from this some of you you you don't have trusted people you feel like i don't know who i can talk to about this call i don't know who and here's the thing god brings the right people at the right time he always brings the right people at the right time regardless of where you are if you're in that first group saying i'm trying to answer the call or i am in the middle of it i just want to pray for you right now lord jesus you see your children lord i thank you that um lord you see no matter where they are in this process they're at a point where you're calling them and and they're trying to decide if they're going to accept the call maybe they're at a point where they're trying to discern what did god really say and it was that him or or was that just me was that my own motive or was that god maybe they're at a point where they're trying to submit or work or maybe they're in the middle of a failure or wherever they are lord god this is a moment where we're returning to you you're the one who spoke the word you're the one who called us lord i affirm every calling in this room i thank you lord jesus there are people that lord you have put your hand on you have given them a clear instruction i speak against the the lie of the enemy that is trying to speak to someone and that's saying he's not talking about you i am talking about you are called there is a plan there is an assignment there is an anointing there is a power shut up in your bones that is an answer to the problems in this world and until you answer the call the solution cannot happen but in a moment but i pray over every person right now who the enemy has got them to stop pouring they've stopped pouring on the relationship they've stopped pouring in their business they've stopped pouring into their work lord give them the strength to pour again every head that's still bowed and every eye is still closed there are some of you right now that you're watching this and uh [Music] maybe you're like samuel you hear something you're just not sure who it is if you're honest with yourself you've navigated your life and you've always felt like there was something more maybe you always felt like there was there was someone that um that was maybe looking after you or there was something that was guiding you can i tell you that someone is god and he loves you he is madly in love with you and the first call the first thing he wants you to answer the first thing he wants you to say yes to is the call to be in relationship with him scripture is very clear it says if you believe in your heart confess with your mouth that jesus is lord you shall be saved in just a moment i'm going to pray a prayer and if you're saying you know what that's me charles i want to accept jesus into my life i'm tired of doing it by myself i'm trying to tired of doing it alone i want to accept god in i want to surrender to him i want to submit fully to his plan i want to do whatever he calls me to do in just a moment you don't have to clean up you don't have to stop doing all these things in one moment if you just surrender if you just acknowledge him in a moment the god of the universe will enter into your heart and he will begin a process of transformation you will realize the person you have truly always been in just a moment if that's you no matter where you are no matter who's around you i want you to repeat this prayer loud after me bow your head say dear god thank you for loving me dear jesus thank you for laying down your life to save mine i admit i've made mistakes save me change me transform me in jesus name i pray amen amen amen transformation church we just had so many people make an amazing decision hey listen if you just made that decision i'm so proud of you so is your god he's so proud of you he loves you so much and uh as a church family we would love to be people just to come alongside of you and support you just to come alongside of you encourage you no matter where you may be and answering the call of god for your life we just want to be a resource to you and your journey with jesus if you text the word save to the number that's on the screen our team would love to connect with you send you some resources send you some things to help guide you on this journey and uh we're so grateful that you're here today and uh no doubt wherever you are i need you to know that the presence of god is right there as you uh navigate this next week these next coming months you may be watching this five years from when this sermon was preached you need to know that god does have a calling for your life and i'm believing today by the power of the holy spirit you can answer the call listen as a church we love you we are for you um we read a scripture earlier today that talked about that there are more that are for us than there are those that are for them know that god is for you he is with you and he's a plan and a purpose for your life listen we love you so much we're so grateful for you go out and live a transformed life we'll see you

Channel: Transformation Church

Views: 135,458

Rating: 4.9518776 out of 5

Keywords: Transformation Church, Represent, Michael Todd, Mike Todd, Transformation Church live, Transformation Church Worship, Charles Metcalf, Sunday Service, Holy Spirit, Faith, God, Jesus Christ, transformchurchtv, representtv

Id: RMS53AcjUA8

Length: 65min 13sec (3913 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 13 2021