The Concept of Your Calling | Sermon by Tony Evans

one of the more popular TV shows everything years has been Seinfeld I don't know how many Seinfeld Watchers we have here today but it broke all kinds of records as a TV sitcom what was interesting about Seinfeld is that it was noted not to have a plot that is nothing connected with anything you know he would show up and start off with this kind of gag routine and go onto the show and nothing seemed to have much to do with anything it was a blackness sitcom and it went to the top of the charts they were analyzing why Seinfeld was so popular and it was concluded that Seinfeld was popular because the folk watching it were in the same situation as a sitcom plotless no clue aimlessly going from situation to situation sitcom going from one day to another day one job to another job one place to another place without rhyme or reason unconnected most Christians today are living decaffeinated lives all the letters gone and like a hamster on the wheel ever moving never arriving anywhere I don't know how many Sunday drivers we have here people who simply like to get on the road and just drive you know really you don't really going anywhere you just want to drive it's a pretty day let's go riding well I'm a driver I love to drive but but even I must admit after a while that gets all cuz you're not going anywhere you're just out there far too many of us are living lies like the flicker of a candle rather than the blazing of the noonday Sun meandering no brilliance no significance we don't really feel that we matter that much because there is no sense of ultimate purpose destiny or the word we're going to use in our series calling your calling may be defined as the customized life purpose God has ordained for you the customized life purpose God has ordained for you to accomplish in order to bring him the greatest glory and the maximum expansion of his kingdom you're calling your reason for being is your customized life purpose which God has ordained for you and you alone to accomplish which is designed to bring him greatest glory and the maximum expansion of his kingdom there are three things I want to say about this definition of calling which has to do with your purpose for being first of all it is a creative purpose purpose calling it's your reason for being it's the reason why you were made you were made to fulfill your calling a car is not fulfilling its calling if it doesn't run a piano is not fulfilling its calling if all the strings are broke and there is no tune coming out it's not fulfilling the purpose for which it was produced it's there but it's not doing anything or certainly not doing its ordained thing to live life without purpose for calling is to be like the Dead Sea over in Israel in no life there its death fish can't swim in it you can't swim in it you get the salt in your eyes it'll burn you it is a lifeless existence because it is not fulfilling its purpose you see you can't flow out of the Dead Sea it's the lowest point on planet Earth and and the water runs in it it just has nowhere to go far too many of us are living dead sea kind of lives no outlet no progress perpetual stagnation no calling God did not create you for fun he created you for purpose he didn't just look up one day and said oh I'm bored let me come up with something to do today why don't I make folk no you were made with a purpose you see this at the very beginning of the Bible this created purpose and we could go through the whole first chapter but let's just look at a couple of items here verse 14 of Genesis 1 says then God said let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years and God verse 16 made two great lights the greater light to govern the day the lesser light to govern the night he also made the Stars God didn't just wake up one day and says her boys lonel and I just throw something up there to shine he said no no let me make two great lights one that will govern the day it will determine how bright the day gets the other one will govern the night and it will have a supporting cast of stars in other words he made the Sun he made the moon and he made the Stars for a reason not just to do it not because he had nothing better to do it was an intelligent thought through reason verse 20 that the waters teem with swarms of living creatures that birds fly above the earth and open expanse of the heavens well if he's going to create waters it's natural that he's going to create sea monsters he says in verse 21 that is the fish of the sea the big ones he didn't know it fish were made to swim you show me a fish that's not in the swimming and I'll show you a depressed beast because it was made to swim the beast on the field in the field they weren't made to swim and if they try to live in the water they live dead sea lives because they're not fulfilling their purpose that's not their sphere of operation that's not they were called to do he says about man in verse 26 let us make man in our own image according to likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea birds of the sky the cattle of the earth and all the creeping things that God created man in his own image he says in verse 28 be fruitful to multiply fill the earth and subdue it he doesn't just say let us make man he says let us make man because we have something for him to do not just be there not just meander around not just go around and notice how beautiful the animals are and how wonderful it is to float on the water there has got to be more delight than this most of us spend a lot of time making a living not a lot of time making a life and so we suffer for what I call the same-old same-old disease every day you get up out of that same obey and you go to that same o bathroom to look in the same old mirror at that same old face go to that same old closet to look at those same old clothes and put it on that same old body to go to that same our breakfast table Eve that same old breakfast cook buy that say my wife you know you get in the same old car and go to the same old work down that same old road work mixing them same old people for that same ol pay doing that same old job then you go back down that same old road into that same old house here that same old noise from those same old kids pick up that same old remote sit down and go over those same old programs go to the dinner table need that same old dinner from that same ol cook you know go to bed and wake up the next day to rehearse that same ol routine and there's nothing wrong with routine if it's tied to purpose but if it's routine tied to nothing you wind up like deal on a Warwick raising the question what's it all about Alfie no manufacturer designs and markets a product until he is determined what is for you know you know you don't go make something and market it and not be able to answer the question what you do with it but when you live your life raising the question why am I here that question however you phrase it that's a question of purpose it's a question of calling when God created he created with a purpose now let me tell you a secret the created thing cannot tell you what's this its purpose until it's create or tells the created thing what its purpose is come on do an exercise everybody here sitting on a pill right ask that peewit is here for good don't look at me ask the Pew what is here for that pew has no knowledge of its reason for being that's determined by somebody else I'm talking to you over a microphone right now if I were to ask the Mike Mike why are you here the Mike couldn't tell me it was the creator of the mic that says why the Mike is here one of the reasons we can't find out calling is because we're trying to tell ourselves while we were gone that was beaten and I think about we're trying to self define our calling a calling assumes a caller if the phone is ringing somebody else is calling you god is the caller you are the colleague he is the manufacturer you are the product that's why you can never discover your calling apart from God it's impossible to discover your calling from God but far too many of us are functioning outside of our divinely ordained a reason for being or we're not functioning in it at all which means we are existing and when you exist you have to create callings you have to make stuff up now when you get a bunch of folk who don't know that calling living in the same house you got a miserable place to live because he don't know what he's there she don't know why she's there so that already enter frustration you put on top of that just the regular trials and tribulations of life there is nothing that is calling them that is bigger than who they are the successful single versus the defeated single is the distinction between the cold one and the one who does not know their calling the one who does not know that calling things all of life is wrapped up in that man or woman they have not yet found and God is not yet supplies the one who is not frustrated still desiring but not frustrated is because they have been called to something bigger that no other person can fix for them they're into something so much bigger let me show you a great verse Acts chapter 13 verse 36 what a wonderful verse the book of Acts it's in the New Testament after John chapter 13 verse 36 listen to this for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep and was laid among his father's and underwent decay what a great verse you say I almost think I'm great about that verse ever said a man died became worm food under winter came why he didn't die until he had completed his purpose what a horrible way to die never knowing why you showed up in the first place what a horrible thing to do till we have 75 80 85 years and all you can talk about is your job in fact we got poked into 30 and 35 years old who all let you talk about is retiring from their job cuz you hate to get up in the morning you hate where you're going when you get up in the morning you hate the people you're going to see when you get there cuz they got up in the morning like you did it's just one miserable thing what is missing your calling proverbs 29:18 says that without a vision without a word from God people perish what he's saying is that when people have no direction in life they wither they die so this is not a small subject this is not an insignificant subject God said of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5 while you were in your mama's womb I called you boy that's great news that God calls in advance so calling is critical but it's tied to your creation you were created with a calling everybody in here who is saved who has accepted Jesus Christ by faith alone who has been born in the God's family has been called once you receive the call to salvation God now gives you the call to life's purpose secondly it's not only a creative purpose it is a customized purpose nobody has your call but you and they say that's good news nobody and I mean nobody has your call but you nothing else matters anymore than knowing that you're fulfilling the purpose for which you were placed on the earth nothing once you get that then you can sing like one great song person you can't touch this because once you have that you are now alive you I am never more alive than when I stand up here I had a sister tell me she said you sure come to life up there I was thought now what you're trying to say I'm a boring person down there maybe that's because this is my colleague I used to preach on street corners in front of bus stops in Atlanta Georgia so I wait for folk to gather at the bus stop and I stand up in front of the bus stop and stop preaching you must be born again every Friday night I'd lead a group of students out in college and I pre you must be born again same sermon cuz that's all I knew but I was called let me tell you what'll happen if you do not pursue your calling you'll spend your life wishing you with somebody else and then think about that kid that was a little deep too you're not happy with who you are that's cuz you've met yet discovered who you david says in Psalm 139 I am fearfully and wonderfully made coz I am distinct in fact this principle is is biologically solidified your fingerprint is not like your neighbors free fingerprint every fingerprint in this room and in the world is distinctly different it's hard to commit a crime cuz where they discovered how to get DNA off everything that's another subject but they can get DNA now I can track you that way because your DNA is uniquely you what is true of your fingerprint what is true of you DNA is true of your calling nobody has your calling but you because nobody is you but you so the the beautiful thing about it is it's customized calling its calling with your name on it Jesus says I finished the work which my father gave me to do he gave me my old job my own special reason for being and I completed that task that is I fulfilled my purpose for being my wife wrote a book her first full single book seasons of the woman's life and some of its drawn from Esther and of course Esther Keith's statement is in chapter 4 where the Esther is a beautiful woman she's a fox she's a bad mamma jamma she's you know she's got it all together and her beauty causes her to be selected by a has you eros as his new breath he saw her and said oh shoot whoa and he takes her so she gets all comfortable in the king's house because she now living large she in the big house she's got money she's got cars she's got clothes Wow the Jewish people were in trouble and about to be extinguished genocide her uncle Mordecai says well aren't you the helpouts cuz I can help y'all because me and the King we kind of knock talking for the last 30 days he might get irritated so you know I pray for you Mordecai Lee writes her back and that's the chapter for and it's the zinger he writes her back Evans translation girlfriend don't think that you're gonna escape just cuz you two moved uptown so don't think just cuz you moved uptown now you you not in the hood no more you're not living with the rest of us anymore that somehow you have escaped all this cuz when the hammer comes down and they find out who you are you're gonna be just like the rest of us secondly don't think that God can't do this without you cuz if he can't use you he'll call somebody else alright but then after Hitler with the negative stuff he answer with this positive line the positive line is this have you ever considered girlfriend that you have been called to the kingdom for such a time as this have you ever considered God made you pretty so that a had you errors was falling in love with you because he knew the Jews were going to be in trouble and so he wanted to have one of his people in a strategic position at the right time to fulfill their calling for a greater purpose than you just being able to shop and customise your wardrobe in other words esta was to look at hang night in terms of her calling not merely in terms of her money her status her cars her houses and her stuff she was to look at it in terms of her reason for being called to the kingdom for such a time proverbs 25 20 verse 5 says the purposes of man of a man's heart are deep waters but the man of understanding draws them out in other words a person who Sirius searches for their calling wants to know their calling then that satisfied to exist they want to know why their existing great verse you all know it Romans 8:28 all things work together for good to them that love God now watch this and are called according to his calling and purpose are linked watch this now calling and purpose are linked and for the purpose personal knows their calling so they're fulfilling their purpose everything that happens is working that thing out everything that's happened is working that thing out I know some of you are thinking you know whoa whoa whoa if I miss my calling then you need what I had to do today I had to go up to this place I bought my car from because they had a recall right someone right on the door so they recalled it it's called grace grace is when God recalled you but that's a whole nother message whenever I get to that thirdly finally it is a comprehensive purpose it is a comprehensive purpose it's a creative purpose you were created for your calling it's customized it's yours and yours and nobody else's you are unique as you are you don't have to be somebody else why do you want to be somebody else by the way God already has one of them duh he already has one of them if you become then them then he doesn't have one of you I think it's deep your purpose his web his while many people don't find their calling because their calling is not linked into anything bigger than themselves once you live life with a mindset of me myself and I once you take this independent view of life God will not show you your calling cuz he has called you to something bigger than you if you have a piece of a puzzle it is therefore incomplete if you only have one piece of a puzzle and don't have a puzzle it's incomplete because that piece belongs to something bigger until that individual piece of the puzzle can be related to something that is bigger it loses its significance you got a piece of puzzle over here and it's not tan to the puzzle that piece no matter how pretty the picture is on the cardboard it's insignificant why are so many of us feeling insignificant because we're pieces without a puzzle and we get all hype because we are pretty piece my piece is pretty it in your piece you know what matter what does it matter but all these pieces of a puzzle sitting out in front of me if they never connect you still don't have a picture it leaves the significance many Christians are like puzzles they're beautiful cardboards but they don't see the picture what's the picture what is this bigger thing God has called all of us to all of us to a third in the definition it is the maximizing of God's glory and expansion of his kingdom that's it that's it if you are a Christian whatever you are called to do will achieve those things let me say it again whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever God calls you to do we'll give him greater glory and we'll expand that his kingdom in history the Bible says in Romans 11:36 that all things are to him and through him and for him to him be the glory that men may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven I can tell you that if you're a secret agent Christian God won't tell you your calling because that means he won't get more glory from your life and if your purpose is not tied in to the expansion of his kingdom now what is God's kingdom God's kingdom is his master plan God's kingdom is this comprehensive rule over all of his creation to be involved in your calling means that the presence of God is being manifested to a greater degree because you are fulfilling your calling now let me tell you here's where we get mixed up and it's preachers fault on this one is it's a preacher fault because we have limited the word calling to professional ministerial occupation in other words called to preach or call God has called me into the ministry okay that language messes stuff up because you have been called into his kingdom Colossians 1:13 says you have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son every Christian is part of the kingdom that means all work for becomes Kingdom activity even if it's quote/unquote secular ok in fact it's technically incorrect to make the distinction between secular and sacred because if you're a kingdom person it is sacred even if you're washing dishes you wash them sacredly even if you're producing a widget you do it sacredly because you're fulfilling a calling if that is happens to be your calling and we'll talk about that because calling may not necessarily be your occupation I was talking to a young lady a couple of years ago and she works for Billy Graham world famous evangelist dr. Billy Graham and she inputs data been doing it for years she said oh I love what I do yeah yeah but I love it you like sitting I love it why she said because this is my calling how is that your calling God called me she said to help expand the ministry of dr. Billy Graham using my computer background of skills so I don't just sit down and input I know that a name I put in to that computer bank has just been led to Christ in one of those Crusades and I understand that the letter and the book that I'm sending out to them has eternal value and gives me purpose not because she was called to input in the computer that's not her calling that was a job her calling was to support the Ministry of Billy Graham and in that calling she does that job the calling is always bigger than you because it's always expanding God's kingdom and bringing God glory whether it's in a medical field whether it says a lawyer whether it says the doctor whether it says a janitor if you are called it has eternal repercussions and God will always be seen in it and through it and it'll be so natural that's a whole nother subject how do I know most of you know you're calling but don't know you know it and I'll give you a little down payment right now it is one of the ways you know you call it is that you were doing anyway if nobody paid if nobody ever gave you a dime to do it you'd still do it because it's like Paul woe is me if I don't or like Jeremiah it's like fire shut up in my bones and I can't shake it it burns me it sets me a flame now watch this now watch this my time is running i watch this now because it's kingdom it always involves discipleship the kingdom of God is God's comprehensive rule the process of discipleship is bringing people in line with their comprehensive rule so therefore if you are a kingdom person fulfilling your calling those around you who you affect you will infect with this kingdom worldview because it's gonna it's gonna rub off on them to some degree now watch this when this happens you will be part of the greatest coup d'etat in history and the reason you will be part of the greatest coup d'etat in history is that when you fulfill your calling in the kingdom rubbing off on other people so that they are investigating this Kingdom - you are now confiscating the goods of hell and bringing them them into the realm of heaven your job is to go out there into the world with your calling representing the kingdom and confiscating that which has been stolen by Satan so he can be used by the kingdom of God that is what your job is do you know why the kingdom doesn't have more because we have people who leave the kingdom with no calling and therefore do whatever they do out there and it stays out there it never is harnessed for the kingdom of God that's why Paul says in chapter one of Ephesians that God has done this that he might bring all things the sum of all things under the authority of Jesus Christ we are his body and we are sent to be the fulfillment of all things that is everywhere he calls people in every direction you don't have to feel bad if you're not called to be a preacher if you're not called to be a missionary certain people should be called and you won't be fulfilled unless you respond to that call but God is also calling people to be entrepreneurs and he's called people to be doctors and lawyers and engineers he's calling people to be politicians and actors and actresses he's calling people to invade hell with the kingdom so that helping grows that's what the Lord's Prayer is all about you know we went over there our Father who art in heaven I know who you are you're my father I know where you live way up there and so because I know who you are where you live hallowed be thy name so since your name is gonna be hallowed I got a reverse my plans so that thy kingdom comes which means I got to redo my life's plan so that thy will is done now if I'm a hollow your name service your kingdom and do your will that I'm gonna need you to supply me the goods the carbohydrates the starches and the fats so that I have enough physiological energy the howl of your name service our kingdom and do you will so why don't you give me the day to daily bread I need to pull at all and then because you want a pure vessel forgive me for the things I've done against you as I forgive those who've done things against me because if I don't forgive those who doesn't things against me you won't forgive me you've done things that gave you and if you don't forgive me who's done things against you you will not accept me handling your name servicing your kingdom or doing your will then lead me not into temptation because if you leave me in anything I can't handle I'm gonna embarrass your name embarrass your kingdom and embarrass your will and the only reason I'm praying any of this anyway it's cuz it has absolutely nothing to do with me that is the kingdom behind is the power behind of the glory for ever and ever amen you're part of something bigger something bigger and so we close every few months we ordained a minister here in Auckland Bible fellowship we have an ordination meeting and the young man who's gone to seminary or studied comes up and he sits down ready to be bombarded with all manner of theological biblical practical ministerial questions he's nervous he's sweating he's wondering whether he will make the orden deigning cut but that's never where the process starts I always open it up with one simple phrase tell me about your call cuz I don't care how much Bible you know if you haven't been called then folk gonna run you about it show you right then folks go run you love you every color if I wasn't card I will deal you've got to be called to deal with folk soca kill you and Jesus already died for you want to hold me to die for you too you got to be cool you've got to know this is the word God wants you to do cuz when the hard time comes sometime all you have is your call all you have is your car and when they pass the exam they get the title Reverend they are now identifiable as duly appointed duly call ministers while the reverend's are not the only ordained folk around every person who names the name of Jesus Christ has been all day and you have the call of God on your life or as the old folks put it a charge to keep I have under God to glory

Channel: Tony Evans

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Keywords: dr. tony evans, destiny book, sermons on calling, Christian calling, Christian sermons, Tony Evans, Tony Evans sermons, what is my calling, my calling as a Christian, God's calling on your life, how to discover your calling, how to know your calling, sermons on destiny

Id: 6sl0JmxlyKk

Length: 42min 0sec (2520 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 11 2013