Unlocking Your Calling | Lesson 1 of Called Course | Study with John Bevere

so you're calling the foundation of your calling is who you are all right so here's the truth your Effectiveness in your specific calling is dependent upon you knowing who you are [Music] well guys I'm so excited here to talk to you about discovering your calling you know this is something I've been studying for 30 years I interview people about this because I believe it's so important and you're going to understand my passion here as we get into this course but I'm just so excited to have Chris from Australia say something Chris come on baby here we are I love it I love it and then we've got Jonathan and Jonathan you're from Indiana which makes my wife very very happy she grew up in West Lafayette where'd you grow up what city Portage Indiana I know where that is actually and I'm so excited that Brandy is here your wife and Brandy's from Holden Beach North Carolina what's the coincidences we've had some great family vacations there and so good to have you Brandi and then our son Arden is here youngest and tallest and you just got back from Australia after a year of Bible school and then Casey it's so great to have you here a Wisconsin girl are you a Green Bay Packer fan I have to be you have to be if you live that's right well listen you know um I want to open up with Paul's uh word in second Timothy chapter 1 verse nine Paul says God who has saved us and I've got it on the monitor back here God who has saved us so right there he opens up saved we're done with talking about that because then he goes and now he's about to go to something else and called us with a holy calling so the first thing I want to say is your calling is Holy doesn't that excite you right there holding means it's pure it's Transcendent It's A Cut Above anything else there is no man woman or child on the planet that could give you a greater calling than the holy calling that God has given you himself but notice he says not according to our works so you can't change your calling that God has placed on your life no matter what you do how many hours you pray no matter how much you serve it's according to his grace which is free in unmerited favor from God but according to his own purpose so your calling has a purpose but it's his purpose that's behind us and grace and grace is a key word because you can never fulfill your calling without the grace of God which was given to us in Christ Jesus now you have a calling all right so let's just make this clear every single one of you have a calling now there are two types of callings that the Bible talks about first of all are General callings what do I mean by General callings this is the calling that God has placed on every single Christian it's the same but then there is your specific calling all right now your specific calling in other words other words that we use to coin this term uh unique vocational life calling all right let me first of all introduce you and show you that there are General callings in the scriptures number one we're called to live a holy life if you look at first Thessalonians 4 7 God has called us to live holy lives not in pure lives so a calling a general calling on our life is to live holy number two to know Jesus intimately Paul said I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call this is one of the highest calls of God in Christ Jesus so as far as general call to know him intimately three to forgive now remember this is just the sampling don't repay evil for evil this is a command don't retaliate with insults when people insult you instead pay them back with a blessing that is what God has called you to do I love this and he will grant you his Blessing he said he'll bless you for blessing those that have insulted you amazing that's a call on every Christian's life let me just go one more to live in Freedom and to serve one another Galatians 5 13 for you have been called to live in Freedom my brothers and sisters but don't use your freedom satisfy your sinful nature instead use your freedom to serve one another so we're not here to talk about General callings this course from this point forward we are talking about our specific our unique our life our vocational calling now for the sake of this course I'm going to call it our specific calling but when you hear specific think life calling think unique calling think vocational on and on so here's the truth you ready for this yes you have a specific call upon your life all right let's first of all Define what calling is Merriam-Webster's Dictionary I think gives a phenomenal definition of what calling is it is a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action or vocation especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence that is amazing isn't it now in regard to my life how does a young boy who who's raised in a town of 2 800 people who's a Catholic Altar boy for eight years who attends Catholic school for seven years who gets a mechanical engineering degree at Purdue University who works for IBM and Rockwell International end up preaching the gospel to over 50 Nations to millions of people how the call of God how how does a friend of mine in regard to a friend of mine's life how does this young man raised in church he is goes to Bible School intends on becoming a minister he actually interns for another year after Bible School how does he end up in military in 20 years being a Navy SEAL instructor and now his life is impacted many thousands of people how does this happen the call of God in regard to another friend of mine how does a man who's raised in a small town who's a janitor of a paper mill all of his life who's really unknown to the public but yet he has impacted millions of lives how the call of God how does my wife in regard to my wife's life how does a young girl raise in a small town in Indiana who loses her eye to cancer at five years who's given six months to live at five years of age who opts out of speech in high school a required course of speech Ops out of typing which is a required course how does this young girl end up speaking to millions of people and becoming a New York Times bestseller the call of God that's what we're here to talk about today look what Paul says in regard to his life he says in Galatians 1 15 God chose me and called me by His Marvelous Grace man I love this I'm getting so excited right now this is Paul's specific calling that he is addressing here so this is not a general calling this is his life calling so God chose him and called him by his marvelous Grace now here's a misconception that we need to blast and I mean Dynamite I mean better yet use an atomic bomb to get rid of this thing here's the conception that so many people have only ministers only people that are called to Ministry only people that are missionaries people that are worship leaders have a call of God upon their life that couldn't be further from the truth every single human being has a call of God upon their life that means all five of you that means everyone watching this course has a call of God upon their lives so are you ready for a truth this is a powerful truth okay here it is you were created on purpose for a purpose all right I want you to write that down you were created on purpose for a purpose on purpose Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5. Listen to What God Says now God is speaking to each of you okay yeah this is to Jeremiah historically but the Bible says there is no private interpretation of the scripture so I want you to hear God right now speaking to you Jonathan to you Arden to you Casey to you Chris to You Brandi you ready I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb so you weren't born by an accident you were born on purpose but here's the second statement you were born for a purpose how do we know you were born for a purpose because Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 says this you know 8 and 9 verse 8 9 says we're saved by grace not of ourselves it's not right it's the gift of God not of works less any man should boast but then he goes on to say in this same very important set of scriptures four which means my thought is not finished here four we are his workmanship all right now I want you to take this personally again created in Christ Jesus look at this for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them now I want you to notice that word should because I'm really going to go into that later but I want you to notice this we are created in Christ for good works now the word for there if you look up there I've highlighted did that for a reason it's a very interesting word in the complete words Study Bible dictionary boy that's a mouthful it says that this word is a marker of purpose it points now listen to this to the goal of an event all right so are you really good translation of this would have been for the purpose of so can we look at Ephesians 2 10 Again inserting that in look at this we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for the purpose here's your marker point you ready for this this is why you were created in Christ for the purpose of Good Works which God prepared beforehand that we should so that's not guaranteed we're going to talk about that word should because it's really really important so I'm going to say it again you were created for a purpose to do something isn't that exciting that Thrills me all right now I'm gonna I'm gonna reiterate the misconception one more time here it is people think oh he's a tremendous Minister tremendous author he or she they have a great call on their life you have a great call in your life Chris I mean you you may be in Ministry one day or you may not be you still have a great call on your life let me really illustrate this um a couple years ago I was in Hawaii and I discovered that a Navy Seal wanted to go to dinner with me now uh if a Navy SEAL wants to go to dinner with me I'm dropping everything and going to dinner my respect for the seals is huge right so we sit down in this restaurant in Hawaii and um I just I just looked at him and I said so what's your story and he began to talk and he talked to me for two solid hours I don't think I said more than 20 words in that two hours I was mesmerized by this man of God he said John I was raised in the church and I loved God passionately so he said I thought in order to really serve God wholeheartedly and purely I needed to go into Ministry he said so I went to two years of Bible school he said then I began to intern in a church a big church and he said I was interning in their youth group in my third year and he said I was accused of sleeping with a girl and he looked at me said John I never slept with her but he said the elders believed it and he said so they threw me out basically I lost all my credentials and he said when you're like 21 years old and you lose three years of your life that's a significant loss and he said I was devastated and he said you know my relationship with God was was about as big as this plate I remember him looking at this plate that was small he said I dug in and started seeking God like I'd never sought God before in my entire life and he said in the middle of seeking God God said this to me I didn't call you to Ministry I called you to military so he said I went to the Air Force the Marines I went to the recruiting office for the Army he said the last one was the Navy and he said I was a little nervous because I just felt no life on any of the others and I'd been praying and praying he said the recruiter in the naval office starts going down through a checklist and he says the word seals and he said when he said the word seals life exploded on the inside of me and he said that that that's it that's what I'm supposed to do and the recruiter looked at him and said no no no you don't want to enlist to be a seal every guy in this Recruiting Office enlisted and every one of us flunked out only 10 percent of the people that enlist for the seals make it and he goes I don't care that's what I'm supposed to do well what the recruiter didn't know and he didn't know is that he didn't know how to swim think about it Navy SEAL you don't know how to swim come on and the other thing the recruiter didn't know is that he had very narrow ear canals and as a young man they had to do several operations and put tubes in his ears and so he said John if I got any water in my ears just a few drops I would be in excruciating pain he said so I started praying God you've called me to do this right you got to help me learn how to swim and he said I taught myself how to swim through prayer and he said then one day I went down two feet I went down three feet I went down four feet I went down five feet said no pain he said God totally healed my ears he said then he went through the Seal training program and three times he came up to the activation week and three times some catastrophe happened the first time he was on an obstacle course and a piece of wood went right through his arm second time he was on a boat and a big wave came in in San Diego and the guy behind him's ore hit him perfectly in the ear and ruptured his eardrum he said so I had to drop out God healed me then I got in again and he said the third time they're running with a boat on top of their head on the beach and some kid dug a hole and his foot went right into him tore everything in his knee from his ankle up to his knee the doctor then he was he went in for his physical the doctor flunked him and he said John when you flunk when you flunk this physical you can never become a seal and he said I looked at the doctor and said Doctor I have to do this I have to do this you can't flunk me out and the doctor said young man because this is an officer the doctor boy did he let him have it so he said then I went to a Bible study that week and he said the guy at the Bible study I didn't realize it was the commanding officer of that doctor and the man was talking about being led by the spirit and he to illustrate said you know I had an application come across my desk that was denied and he said in my spirit I felt like that was wrong and he said so I overrode the doctor and he said John it ended up being me he became a Navy SEAL and he started telling me about his missions guys I'm telling you he was telling me things that would cause the hair in my arm to stand up I remember him telling about how they went into an ambush it was automatic fire and he said I heard whistles going by my head yet 30 of the seals went in got these guys and got out not one of them got killed he said two weeks later I'm talking to my mom and he said we always carry our phone on our sleeve and it has to be off and it can have pre-programmed numbers or pre-existing dialed numbers on it has to be totally clear in case they're captured he said my phone had turned itself on it was off and called my mother and she just happened to be in a prayer meeting and they prayed for our safety when they heard the bullets and the screaming and she and and he was spared he started telling me story after story after Story like this that night at dinner and I realized I was sitting with a man that was called to be a seal he has been now a seal for 19 years he is now an instructor which makes him the elite of the elite I remember going back to my room that night the first thing I did was I dialed my wife Lisa and I said Lisa I was I was trembling I said I've just sat with a man of God for two hours I have sat with many ministers and didn't sense the presence of God that I sensed on this Navy SEAL he's become a very close friend and I can call him now and I call him a lot because I want to know about him because I want to be a Navy SEAL for God how about you huh come on Pacey come on Jonathan come on Casey Come on Arden let's write are you getting it all right so so this leads us to a truth that I want to amplify all right who you are now listen to me this is so important who you are is the foundation of what you were created to do all right so you're calling the foundation of your calling is who you are all right so here's the truth your Effectiveness in your specific calling is dependent upon you knowing who you are so let's just go through it real quick you are in Christ I want you to think about this you are in Christ you are a member of his body you are one with him wow you got to know that to fulfill your calling effectively you are God's child we're his offspring acts 17 28 tells us that we have been born of God and whoever is born of God overcomes the world what's the world it's the corruption that comes into people's lives through sin and and lust we are free from enslavement as Jesus is so are we in this world we are the head and not the tail we're above only and not beneath that sounds like leadership to me we're ambassadors for Christ there's so much so what but what I want to get into is what's our primary identity we are servants okay I want to stress this because let me tell you why if you discover your your calling and you don't realize you are a servant your calling will destroy you just like Saul's calling destroyed him Saul came into his calling of being king of Israel but because he didn't have a servant's heart like David did his calling destroyed him so let me make this really clear you got to know who you are in Christ but you got to also know you're called to be a servant I prayed a prayer when I was a young man it was probably one of the wisest prayers I've ever prayed and that was this I said God never ever ever allow my calling to exceed the character that you've developed in me it may have slowed me up for a time but you know what I'm so glad I prayed that because I don't want my calling to destroy me so here's the problem you know what psychologists tell us people the average person 85 percent of the time they spend thinking about themselves and 15 percent of the time they spend thinking about others yet listen to what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 he says don't be selfish don't try to impress others be humble thinking of others is better than yourselves don't look out only for your own interests but the interests the interests of others too and then he says this is the mind that was in Christ as Believers that are fulfilling our calling we can't be the people that 85 percent of the time we're thinking about ourselves and 15 of others that was Saul okay Saul's destroyed himself because of that mentality we have to be servants that's why Jesus the last thing he did at that upper room was he washed those guys feet he said I'm your lord and king and you rightly say but here I am a servant this is why I came I didn't come to be served I came to seek to serve right all right so Albert Pine makes this statement I love this what we do for ourselves dies with us what we do for others is immortal in this course get ready you ready guys we're going to equip you to discover what you're called to do secondly we're going to show you how to get there and third we're going to show you how to succeed in your callings so are you ready to get to the next lesson yes yes all right let's do it foreign [Music]

Channel: John Bevere

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Id: KviG75oGtFo

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2023