August 26, 2007 Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “God Calling”
Series: Practical Christianity (God’s Call/Provision)
Text: Jeremiah 1:4-10
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on August 26, 2007
“Now the word of the
Lord came to me saying…you shall go to all to whom I send you.”
Jeremiah 1:4ff
God Calling
Can we talk? Is
it just me, or do you get sick and tired like I do of dealing with those
annoying voice mail systems so many large organizations have? You know, “Press one if you are a new customer, press
two if you have an existing account, etc…” In the last few weeks I have
tried to penetrate the telephone systems of my mortgage company (Citimortgage)
because they failed to pay my homeowners insurance premium despite the fact
they have the escrow to pay it, and my bank (Regions) that deposited my check,
drawn on that bank, for my home equity loan, also with that bank, but then sent
me a nasty note saying I’d better pay up. And don’t get me going about the
large computer company (Dell) that has had me in voice-mail limbo more times
than I care to admit, usually before connecting me with
Today we’re going to talk about another kind of call—God’s call—in a sermon based on the passage we read this morning. Aren’t you glad that when we call out to God, or when he calls to us we don’t get in that endless voice mail loop? “Press one for salvation, press two if you’ve sinned, press three for healing, etc…?” No, as we’re going to see today, when God calls it’s not like that at all. We’re going to see that when God is calling he is personal, he is clear, and his great desire is to make the connection with you, not to keep you from getting through as those confounded voice mail systems are.
Before I go too far, let me begin by saying I’m not talking here about a “call” in the old sense of he or she was “called to be a preacher.” I believe all people are called by God. Certainly pastors, missionaries, and others have certain vocational callings we don’t all share, but one of the basic tenets of Protestant Christianity is the “priesthood of all believers.” That means we are all called. In fact, we’re going to see in just a moment, we each have at least three specific callings from God that I’m going to mention. So when I say “God Calling” here, I’m not talking about only those called to become preachers or full-time ministers of the gospel.
That said, let me mention a few things we can learn about God’s call from the account of Jeremiah’s call. By the way, I hope you noticed the account of Jeremiah's call follows a familiar pattern like that of Moses' at the burning bush (Exodus 3), and Isaiah, and Ezekiel. Classic elements usually include a vision of God or at least hearing his voice, the call to speak the word of the Lord, the prophet’s reluctance, usually expressed as his feeling inadequate for the task, and then God’s answer to that objection. Then the call is usually restated and accepted. That said, let’s look at four things we can learn from Jeremiah’s call.
GOD’S CALL IS PERSONAL
The first thing to learn is this. God’s call is always PERSONAL. As the passage begins we read, “Now the word of the Lord came to ME [personal] saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” When God comes calling one of the best ways to know it’s really Him is because you’ll know he’s talking to YOU. God doesn’t issue “generic,” “whoever calls,” he issues personal calls. God speaks of intimately knowing Jeremiah in this passage. The word “knew” in this passage in the original Hebrew language is “yada” and it means a deep, intimate knowing. In fact, it’s the same word the Bible uses for sexual intimacy. Remember back in the 4th chapter of Genesis where the Bible says Adam “knew” Eve and she conceived and bore him a son? Well that word “knew” is the same word used here. The fact that this word is used 873 times in the Old Testament to this intimate knowledge says something about how important this is to God.
God’s call to us is a personal calling proceeding from an intimate knowledge of who we are because he created us. I could speak on this one point the rest of the morning. We could talk about God’s personal call of Samuel, we could talk about Jesus’ personal call of his first disciples. God has a plan for you—a call—and that call is personal. Our task is to hear and act on OUR personal call, not someone else’s.
Have you ever put on somebody’s else’s shoes? I should do a little experiment here this morning and have everybody take off their right shoe and pass it to the person on their left (but we won’t do that). If we did, you’d see that your shoe, due to it’s intimate knowledge of the shape of your foot has, over time, gotten adjusted to your foot. Trying to answer someone else’s call is like trying to wear their shoes—it’s painful! God’s call is personal; enough said…
GOD’S CALL IS SPECIFIC
Notice, second of all, that God’s call is always SPECIFIC. As verse 5 continues we read, “…I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” God didn’t issue a generic, nameless, faceless call to do just anything to just anybody. He issued a specific call. In Jeremiah’s case it was to be a prophet to the nations. God may or may not be calling you or me to a prophetic role, but you can be certain he’s got a specific call for each one of us. Abraham was called to be the father of many nations, Moses was called to go to Pharaoh to tell him to “let my people go.” The first disciples were called to come and be “fishers of men.” Paul was called to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and the list goes on and on.
Every believer has a specific calling God has called him or her to fulfill on this earth. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God didn’t create you or me to fill some kind of general purpose on earth. He has a specific purpose in mind for each one of us that proceeds from his intimate knowledge of who we are. God has gifted you for something. Do you know what that specific calling is on your life?
GOD’S CALL IS A COMMAND
The next thing I want you to notice about Jeremiah’s call is teaches us that God’s call is a COMMAND. Look at verse 7, it says, and I’ll paraphrase the first few words, “Don’t go making excuses on me Jeremiah… “you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.”
This is one of those parts of Scripture that I call a “full name” exhortation. What I mean by that is it makes me think of when I was a little boy and my momma used to get really upset with me and she’d call me by my full name. Remember that? “Steven Allen Jackson, get in here and take out the trash right this instant!” Whenever I heard my full name being used I knew I’d better get a move on; things were serious. Come to think of it, that even happens today with Donna, although she usually just calls me by my full first name, “Steven!” But I digress…
It seems to me that we’re all guilty at times of picking and choosing our theology. When a church preaches grace and God’s love as much as we do here someone might get the impression that this is another one of those just “open up your heart to him” kind of suggestions from the Bible, but the reality is, God’s call is not something you can choose to do or not to do without consequences. It’s a commandment.
I’m reminded of
another prophet—a reluctant prophet named Jonah when I think of God’s call as a
command. Remember? God called Jonah and sent him to
GOD’S CALL INCLUDES HIS PROVISION
I want to mention one more thought about God’s call from this passage, and this one is a little better news than the last one, and that’s this: God’s call includes His PROVISION. Verse 8 says, “Do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you.” And then in verse 9 God put His hand out and touched Jeremiah’s lips and said, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.” God promised Jeremiah His abiding presence with him, and he filled him with the message he wanted him to take to the nations.
We have a saying about that around here, “Where God guides, God provides.” And, “Those whom God ships, God equips.” God’s call always includes his provision to carry out that mission. This is another of those situations I could stand up here and tell you about for hours. How God took care of me and my family when he called me into ministry. Or how he provided for the needs of this church when we were first starting. I’m sure plenty of you could tell stories of your own about how God’s provision always accompanies his call.
Amy was telling me about a friend of hers named Tiffany just yesterday. The young lady is a missionary who has come back stateside to round up support for her ministry. One evening recently she was having dinner with a couple and after dinner the couple went into the kitchen and returned after a few moments and asked if there was a particular need they could fill. Tiffany told Amy she began mentally calculating the need. The ministry was currently facing a $20,000 deficit but she already knew of $6,000 coming in. She was wrestling with whether or not to mention such a huge amount when the couple blurted out, “How about $14,000? Both Tiffany and the couple were blown away. They wrote her a check for $14,000 on the spot, the exact need of the ministry.
Friends, when God calls you, you can be confident that His call will be personal, drawn from an intimate knowledge of who you are. It will be specific. It’s a command, a “full name exhortation,” and whatever it is, you can be confident God will provide. He’ll equip you to carry it out. All these are valuable lessons from Jeremiah’s call.
Before I close let me give you a few examples of God’s call on each and every one of our lives. I don’t want you to leave here wondering, “What was he talking about when he said God’s call? God has three calls on each one of us?”
The Call to SALVATION (Love God)
The first call we all share is the call to SALVATION. It all starts right there. Every believer must know in his or her heart that Christ paid our sin debt on the cross so that God might justify you and me and make us His children. Some folks want to jump over this first call to the others ones I’m going to mention, but you can’t do that. As my friend Chuck Kirkland always says, the order you do things in is important. You’ll have to ask him what he means by that if you want to know. I can’t give you the example Chuck uses to prove that because if I did my momma would call me by my whole name. Trust me, the first call is the call to salvation and the order matters.
And here’s good news—the four things we learned about God’s call apply to the call to salvation. It’s personal. God calls each one of us personally to salvation. It’s specific, it’s a call to repent and to turn to Him. It’s a command, the Bible says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Jesus says, “Come unto me.” It’s a command. And finally, God’s call to salvation includes his provision to do so. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The Call to SANCTIFICATION (Grow to be like Jesus)
The Second call we all share is the call to SANCTIFICATION. Now I realize sanctification is a big old hairy church word, but all it really means is to be set apart for God; to walk in step with the Spirit. Being sanctified doesn’t mean being sinless, it just means surrendering your life to God daily and living as a believer, and not like everybody else in the world. It means adopting Jesus’ counter-intuitive way of living (first shall be last, least greatest, etc…) instead of running after and with the world. A large part of sanctification has to do with forming habits such as Bible Study, prayer, worship, and hanging out with other believers.
As before, God has extended a personal call to sanctification, it’s specific, it’s a command (be holy even as your Father in heaven is holy), and God gives us the means of grace to accomplish it.
So maybe you’re good with the first call of God, the call of salvation. But how are you on this one? The call to sanctification. If someone were to examine your life, would they know you are a Christian? Are you consciously doing all in your power to grow to be like Jesus each day? Have you answered God’s call to sanctification?
The Call to SERVICE (Share with the world)
The final specific call I’ll mention this morning that we all share is the call to SERVICE. Every believer has this call upon his or her life. As I’ve already quoted this morning, the Bible says, “We have been saved for good works which were appointed for us to do long, long ago.”
Truth is, when you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you gave up all rights to yourself. I know, that’s not something you hear preached very often, but it’s true. You gain everything and you lose everything, all at the same time when you become a believer.
Three calls…to salvation, to sanctification, and to service. Four things that are true about each of those calls; they are personal, specific, they are commands, and God’s provision accompanies each one. That’s what we’ve learned today. But now that we know, a terrible responsibility has come upon us. We know how. We must do something about it. Nobody is going to do it for us.
I heard a story about
a little girl who had been trying for months to learn how to tie her shoes. One
day, to her surprise, she did it. She finally was able to tie her shoes by
herself. Her parents expected the child to be delighted, but were surprised by
her disappointment. In fact, she burst out crying. Her father asked why she was
crying. She sobbed, “I just learned how
to tie my shoes.” He said, “I know,
that’s wonderful, Honey, but why are you crying?” She replied, “Because now I’ll have to do it all by
myself for the rest of my life.”
Now we know…when God comes to us with his call, we must listen, and we must
act. For some of us that’s going to
involve more listening. Are you listening carefully for God’s call?
A man was telling his neighbor, “I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me four thousand dollars, but it’s state-of-the-art. It’s perfect.” “Really,” answered the neighbor. “What kind is it?” And the man answered, “Twelve thirty.” :-)
Are you listening for his call? Really?
For others of us now that we know it’s going to involve more action, and action right away, no more “if’s, ands and buts.”
Some of you may have
heard of Peter Marshall, famous preacher and former chaplain to the US Senate. A
famous book was written about him by his wife Catherine called A Man Called Peter.
Where are you today in this process? Are you listening? Have you answered the call to salvation? To sanctification? To serve? God is calling you today….what will your answer be? Do you need to drop to your knees and cry out, “Speak to me, Lord!” Let’s pray.