May 23, 2005

• Friday’s Bible study (a few days late)

  
  

  The Call of God

  
  

  This call is established on four levels.

  
  

  1. Salvation
  2. Service (everyone has a calling to serve in some capacity)
  3. Initiate the call, to be a vehicle that calls or makes other people aware of their calling.
  4. Mentor the call

  
  

  The call of God has nothing to do with age. Moses was 80 years old, in the backside of the desert. This calling of Moses was prophesied when he was a child, and Moses did not wait until God’s timing, he stepped into it early, killing a guard, and ended up in exile for 40 years, learning what God wanted him to learn, then God made the call.

  
  

  God placed Jethro in Moses’ life to help mentor Moses. Jethro helped Moses organize better, so that Moses could get about the business God had in mind for him without being side-tracked by petty squabbles.

  
  

  When God brings forth fruit, the fruit has a seed in it.

  
  

  Matthew 20:1-16 is the parable of the vineyard workers and their wages. v. 16 “So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.“

  
  

  God made a call and arranged payment with the workers of a denaris, which was a day’s wage of about $38. The laborer had a choice to accept or reject the deal. When God calls us to salvation, he will let us know what the deal is, abundant life (but at times that may be with persecution). The call may come early or late in our lives.

  
  

  We are so fortunate that God is an 11th hour God. We should not be comparing our lives to others, even if others seem to be doing less to get the same reward. It is not about who started first, comparison and greed. God put the call of salvation out, and it is good whether you receive it at 7 years or 80 years old. God just wants to get you into the field. The reward is the same, no matter the age.

  
  

  The reward is ETERNAL life. How can you get EXTRA eternal life? In the scope of eternal life, that is kind of ridiculous.

  
  

  Matthew 20: 17-19 “Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.‘”

  
  

  Right after Jesus gives the call to the workers, he tells about his death and resurrection. He gives the gospel by which the vineyard workers will be saved in the same context.

  
  

  Pastor Don then made a point of saying that it doesn’t matter if you are 30 years saved or one day saved. If a person who is 30 years saved has to throw that fact into the face of someone who is newly saved, than the person who is 30 years saved has some major issues to resolve. We do not rest on the number of years in the Kingdom. A newly saved person could have remarkable insight, it isn’t about the time “served” but about being in the Kingdom. We should be humble.

  
  

  How did Jesus make the choice, the choosing. He says, many are called, few are chosen. Why are some people chosen in the 11th hour? Perhaps they were in the wrong field and did not realize it until then, it might have taken time for them to figure out that the path they were taking was fruitless.

  
  

  ALL got called, but your attitude determines how God chooses. God lets us make the call whether we accept his calling or not. He will not twist our arms. Matt. 20:13-15 “But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things/ Or is your eye evil because I am good?‘”

  
  

  We have to deal with God directly. He does not have grand kids, we are his children and we make our choice directly with God.

  
  

  It is our choice whether we go to heaven or hell, complain or agree, do the work God wants us to do or not.

  
  

  People eliminate themselves from the process.
  
  Jesus will seek you and will draft you and give you what is right.

  
  

  Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

  
  

  Most people only quote the first half of this verse, leaving out the being called according to His purpose. If you say it out of context it can lead to confusion in people. For when we walk in our own ways, God is not honor bound to make our own choices come out to God, it it is not part of God’s purpose for us.

  
  

  Some people assume that God engineers all things, good and bad, to produce something.  God does not need to do that. We can learn from the experience of others (in the Bible or in our lives). We don’t need to learn from bad experiences in our own lives. If we are open to learning from God or others, we can skip a lot of bad experiences in our lives.

  
  

  The law of God is not that everything that happens to you will turn out to the good. If God calls you to a particular path, then everything that happens is God’s responsibility. If God did not call you to do something, then it is not according to His purpose.

  
  

  Romans 8:26-28 reminds us to pray in the spirit to find out God’s will for us.

  
  

  Sometimes God has saints intercede for other saints who are to carry out God’s purpose. Sometimes we wake up and feel the urge to pray, but don’t know why or about what. So we pray in the spirit and it could be at the exact time that God needed a prayer to intercede in another person’s life.

  
  

  Some seem to believe that all need to be martyred, but Hebrews 11 is full of people who received abundant blessings from God and were not martyred. Abraham died in faith, Isaac, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, etc. were not martyred.

  
  

  Some are martyred, and they made the decision to do so, and for that receive a better resurrection. I asked if that didn’t conflict with the previous Matt. 20 passage that all would receive the same wages, but Pastor Don pointed out that there were crowns.

  
  

  Jesus wondered at one point if when He came again He would find faith on the earth. In these last days we are to pray. God needs our prayer to do His will on the earth.

  
  

  Feelings have nothing to do with faith, Faith sets the mood for feelings. And then you bring your feelings to your faith.

  
  

  God calls us before we were born. He knows we will be a success at what He calls us to do. We just have to do what God calls us to do.

  
  

  Why fall in love with your feelings which will destroy you?

  
  

  God will use us in what we have faith to do. In Acts, Philip went to Samaria, and did many miracles.  But Philip sent for John and Peter to baptize the Samarians in the Holy Spirit. Philip did not have the faith to lay hands on them and impart the Holy Spirit. God will do what you have faith for.

  
  

  The church has not done its job. It does not say to fallen people, you can get back up and ride. You can get back to God. You disobeyed God, but he did not throw you out, just repent and get back to God.

  
  

  1 Cor 1:24-29 If God can do something with something that is not much, God can get all the glory.

  
  

  1 Cor 7: 15, 20-24 This is passages about marriage, but it is also passages about service, or any calling. (verses 17-24 are not just about callings from God but also about marriage).

  
  

  If you have a calling as a kitchen worker, then God calls you to serve as a pastor, that does not mean that the calling as a kitchen worker disappears. It is still there and can be used if needed by God. There is no problem with a pastor serving a stint as a kitchen worker if it advances God’s plan.

  
  

  We also need to remember that God does not want us to suffer anything He has not called us to suffer. We have to be careful not to ascribe our daily aches and pains and hurts, or poverty, loneliness, etc to be something that God wanted to advance His kingdom. He is not always involved in our suffering and it dishonors God to put Him in the picture of wanting the suffering to expand His glory if that was not His purpose for us.

  
  

  John 10: 1-3 Jesus said that His sheep hear his voice and respond. In Jerusalem, Pastor Don told us, at night all sheep were corralled into a pen, and many shepherds were there, each taking a turn to guard everyone’s sheep. In the morning, the shepherd would stand at the gate, and call out. The sheep that belonged to that shepherd would come at the sound of his voice.

  
  

  We must be certain that the call we receive is really from our shepherd.

  
  

  God has  something for us to do, he has a calling for us. We must make sure we are following our shepherd with His calling for us.

  
  

  Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in the hope of your calling.”

  
  

  As always, these are my notes from the Bible study, if there are any errors, it is me, not Pastor Don who would be in error.

  
  

  Heather

  • 9:03 am
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