The Call Of God
The Call Of God
Many Christians mistakenly believe that God's calling is reserved for pastors, missionaries, or other full-time ministry professionals. However, every believer has a divine calling and purpose. According to Scripture, all Christians are called to be witnesses and make disciples, making us all ministers in God's kingdom. The church isn't a building we visit on Sundays - we are the church, carrying God's presence into the world wherever we go.
God has a pattern of choosing ordinary people for extraordinary purposes, often calling them during routine, everyday moments rather than dramatic spiritual experiences. Moses was simply tending sheep when God spoke through the burning bush. God had been preparing Moses for decades through his palace education and wilderness experience before revealing his calling to lead Israel out of Egypt. Similarly, God prepares us through our experiences, education, relationships, and even struggles long before we recognize His call.
Your calling might manifest through your profession, hobbies, or current circumstances. A nurse might be called to medical missions, a business person to demonstrate Christian integrity in the marketplace, or a parent to raise the next generation for God. The key is recognizing that God has strategically placed you in your current network of relationships - your personal mission field. When we surrender our skills, resources, and circumstances to God, He can use ordinary tools for extraordinary kingdom impact, just as He used Moses' shepherd staff to perform miracles.
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Understanding God's Call on Your Life: Moving Beyond Inadequacy to Purpose
Have you ever wondered if God has a specific purpose for your life? Many Christians struggle with understanding what it means to be "called by God," often thinking it only applies to pastors or missionaries. The truth is, God has a unique calling for every believer - and it might be closer to your everyday life than you think.
What Does It Mean to Be Called by God?
Every Christian Has a Calling
The call of God isn't reserved for a select few. Jesus commanded all believers to "go into all the world and be my witnesses" and to "make disciples." This means every Christian has a responsibility and calling to serve God in some capacity. You can't escape this calling - it's part of following Christ.
We often misunderstand ministry language. When we think of "ministers," we picture paid church staff. But according to Revelation 5:10, all believers are "kings and priests" - which means we're all ministers. The church building isn't the church; you are the church. When you leave on Sunday, you don't stop being the church - you take the church into the world.
God Calls Ordinary People for Extraordinary Purposes
God has a pattern of choosing ordinary, often reluctant people, equipping them with His presence, and sending them out to accomplish His purposes. He doesn't typically call the qualified; He qualifies the called.
How Does God's Call Come?
The Call Comes in Ordinary Moments
God's call doesn't always arrive with dramatic fanfare. Often, it comes during routine, everyday moments. Moses was simply tending sheep when God spoke to him through a burning bush. He was doing his regular job when God interrupted his ordinary day with an extraordinary calling.
Sometimes God's call manifests as a stirring in your heart - a growing sense that you're not where you're supposed to be or that you need to move in a different direction. Pay attention to these stirrings. They might be God preparing you for something greater.
God Prepares You Before He Calls You
Moses' story reveals how God prepares people for their calling long before they realize it. Moses spent 40 years in Pharaoh's palace learning leadership principles, then 40 years in the wilderness learning the geography and survival skills he'd need to lead three million people through that same wilderness.
God doesn't call you to do something and leave you unprepared. He's been preparing you through your experiences, education, relationships, and even your struggles.
What Is God's Mission for Your Life?
Partnering with God in His Mission
God's call is always about partnering with Him in His mission to reach the world with the gospel. Jesus came to bring good news, die for our sins, and redeem humanity. Now He wants us to be His representatives on earth, sharing this good news with others.
Your calling might be overseas missions, but it could just as easily be in your neighborhood, workplace, or family. The key is understanding that God wants to use you where you are to impact the people in your sphere of influence.
Your Current Environment Might Be Your Mission Field
Consider this: psychologists say most people have about 100 acquaintances and close friends on their hands' worth of truly close relationships. That's your world - your mission field. Some of these people are fellow believers, but many aren't. God has strategically placed you in this network of relationships for a purpose.
Could Your Passion Be Your Calling?
When Desires Align with God's Purposes
Your ambition to work in a particular industry or profession could be God's call on your life. That desire to become a nurse, teacher, business owner, or tradesperson might be God directing you toward your ministry field.
Consider the woman training to be a nurse who realized God might be calling her to medical missions. Her professional training wasn't separate from her spiritual calling - it was preparation for it.
Using Your Interests for Kingdom Impact
Your hobbies, education, business, job, or family situation could be the arena where God has called you to minister. A man who loves model trains uses his hobby as an opportunity to share the gospel with fellow enthusiasts. Parents can see raising their children as one of the greatest ministries possible - shaping the next generation for God.
Even traditionally secular environments can become ministry opportunities. Business people can demonstrate Christian integrity in the marketplace. Government workers can serve with excellence and honesty. Stay-at-home parents can create communities of support that naturally share Christ's love.
Biblical Examples of Ordinary Callings
Everyday People Making Eternal Impact
The New Testament is filled with examples of people who served God through their regular occupations:
Lydia was a businesswoman who supported Paul's ministry and helped plant churches
Simon of Cyrene carried Jesus' cross and later his whole family came to faith
Erastus served as city treasurer while faithfully serving God
The Ethiopian eunuch returned to his country and helped establish a church that exists to this day
These weren't professional ministers - they were ordinary people who allowed God to use them in their everyday roles.
Overcoming Inadequacy and Excuses
God Addresses Our Fears
When God called Moses, Moses responded with a series of excuses that sound familiar today:
"Who am I?" (God answered: "I will be with you")
"What if they don't believe me?" (God gave him miraculous signs)
"I'm not good with words" (God reminded him who made his mouth)
"Send someone else" (This made God angry - don't try this one!)
God has an answer for every excuse we offer. He doesn't call us because we're adequate; He makes us adequate for the calling.
What You Have in Your Hand
God asked Moses, "What do you have in your hand?" Moses had a shepherd's staff - an ordinary tool that became extraordinary when surrendered to God. What do you have in your hand? What skills, experiences, resources, or relationships has God given you that He wants to use?
The Choice Is Yours
Surrender Is the Only Requirement
The call of God requires only one thing: your surrender. You don't need to be perfect, fully prepared, or completely confident. You just need to say yes to God and trust Him to equip you along the way.
By faith, you must choose to step out of your comfort zone and follow God's leading. Like Peter stepping out of the boat onto the water, there comes a moment when you must choose faith over fear.
You'll Never Be Fully Fulfilled Until You Follow
You can pursue money, pleasure, success, and experiences, but you'll never be completely fulfilled until you follow God's call on your life. This doesn't mean you can't enjoy good things, but it does mean some things will need to be sacrificed for the greater purpose God has for you.
The joy that comes from ministering to someone in need and seeing God work through you is incomparable to any worldly pleasure.
Life Application
This week, take time to seriously consider what God might be calling you to do. Don't dismiss the stirrings in your heart or assume you're not qualified for whatever God has in mind.
Start by examining your current environment, relationships, skills, and passions. How might God want to use these for His kingdom purposes? Consider talking with church leaders about what you're sensing and ask for their guidance and prayer.
Remember, God believes in you far more than you believe in yourself. He has a plan that's greater than you can comprehend, and He's simply asking you to step into it.
Questions for Reflection:
What stirrings or desires has God been placing in your heart lately?
How might your current job, relationships, or circumstances be preparation for something God wants to do through you?
What excuses have you been making that might be preventing you from fully surrendering to God's call?
What do you have "in your hand" that God might want to use for His purposes?
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A discussion guide for the sermon can be found here.
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Lord Jesus, please bless us, make me behave myself, and help us to take your word and digest it so that it becomes part of us. And help us not to be hearers of the word only, but help us, as you said, to be doers of the word in your name. Amen. They told me I can preach for as long as I like, so if you can endure it, we'll be out of here by 2:30, just in time for Adrian to get home and watch the race, which I think is so ungodly.
And he probably won't have time for lunch because Narelle won't let him eat on the lounge, so he'll be punished for that. If you have to leave earlier, don't.
Okay, I'm going to start with my conclusion. I want to talk. That doesn't say much. You know, I want to start with my conclusion. I'm going to talk today about the call of God.
And I want you, whatever your thinking is about the call of God, the vocabulary of it, I want you to analyze it carefully. And for some of you, I want you to dismiss it and get a new thought. Because we minimize the call of God. I want to just talk about that for a moment and then I'll get into the message proper. But first of all, all Christians are called of God.
Jesus said, go into all the world and be my witnesses or go in the world and make disciples. Which means that all of us have a call to do something for God. You can't get out of that. He didn't say please. He didn't say if you're willing to.
He didn't say if they pay you enough. He didn't say if it suits you. He said, just do it. And who knows? When God speaks, that's where Nike comes in.
Just do it. So we don't have a choice. We have to be witnesses. The Greek word for witnesses is where we get our word martyrs from. So if you get shot for it, don't whinge about it.
Just say hallelujah because you've done what you're supposed to do. I know people who, they tell me they got sacked from their job or got told off by the boss for talking about Jesus. Well, that's probably fair, because if you're supposed to be working and you're telling everyone about Jesus, you're cheating the boss. And Jesus doesn't like that much. If you feel like you need to read your Bible and you go to the toilet to read your Bible and you spend time in there when you're supposed to be working, that's not what we're supposed to be doing.
One of the ways we witness at work is by being good employees or as the case may be a good employer. Because people look at that and say, why everyone else is trying to get out of work and you're working hard. I know some Christians who have been told, you've got to slow down because you're making the rest of us look bad. Well, I wouldn't. I would keep working hard because that's what we're supposed to do.
So we're all called to be witnesses and we're all called to make disciples. That is, encourage and help people to follow Jesus in the correct pattern. But we've unfortunately changed language over centuries, and it's so ingrained into us that we find it hard to change. So for Example, if I were to say to you, you need to do some kind of ministry, you would think a paid position, like the great, amazing Pastor Adrian up on the stage showing his biblical prowess and his small understanding the benefits of racing. But you would see that that's ministry.
And then there's a team of them around here, and they're ministers, therefore they're in the ministry and we come along. But no, we're all ministers. If I were to say to you today, could all the ministers of this church stand, please? You should all be on your feet. Because we are told we are ministers.
In fact, Revelation 5:10 takes it to an extreme. It says, but we are all ministers, kings and priests. So some of you guys need to settle down a bit. Kingship is a servanthood. It's not a bossy thing.
But we are kings and priests, which means that we are qualified as ministers. The Old Testament has it differently. The New Testament, sorry, we're all in. And so you can't get out of it, we're all ministers. Then.
Another language problem we have is the word church. I love the church. One of the three things my parents taught me was to love the church and I love the church. But guess what? This isn't the church.
This is the place of worship for the church. This is the building where we have our services. You know this. You are the church. And when we disperse from here, you don't cease to be the church.
Some of you kind of do, and your pastor would be very disappointed. But we are still the church. When we leave this place, we're not alone. The church, the body of the congregation are praying for us, and we've got support and so on. But we're out there in the world doing the work that we're being trained for in here, which is Ephesians 4.
That's very clear in Scripture. The pastors and the leaders that we call the ministers, they are here to equip the saints. That's all of you, even if you don't act that way. We are here to train the saints for the work of the ministry. So we train you, you go to the ministry.
We sit down and watch a race. It's very simple formula.
The church is not an institution, it's not a building. It's actually the people of God. We find that Ephesians 2, 10 and Ephesians 4, 11, 16. So that's another language. I don't know how to change that one.
I just thought this morning maybe we could say, instead of calling this the church, we could Call it a place of worship, which is a political word. Or, you know, that's how they describe. Because now we've got other forms of religion. So they call it a place of worship. And on your maps you'll find this is a place of worship.
But you can worship God anywhere. I don't know whether you do or not, but you can worship God anywhere. I've been deep into one of those pine forests. That's a great place to worship God. I even worship in my car.
People look at me and think, the guy's a maniac. That's my driving they're talking about, not my. But. But you can worship God anywhere. So even that I don't know how to change it.
But we need to change it because. No, we don't need to change it. We just need to know in our hearts that there's a different meaning to the church than the building and the institution. And then the called. We see them as a special breed of people, and they're set aside for a position and a title and a role.
But in actual fact, we are all set aside for a special purpose. Romans 8:28 tells us that for all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And so we are all called for the purpose of God. What is God's purpose for your life? Don't all shout at me at once, but I hope you think about it as I'm sharing.
What is my purpose in life? Well, what is God's purpose for me in my life, in my world? Psychologists tell us that the majority of people, you have to be extra special, like Harry over here, to have more than 100 acquaintances. Now, the only reason he's having a youth camp with 150 is he wants to get above the psychological figure of 100. But psychologists tell us that if you've got more close friends than the fingers on your hand, you're a very lucky person.
But your acquaintances will probably be about a hundred, some more, some less, but not on average, we're around 100. So that's your world. Now, some of those people are here at church, some are in the building. Some of them are workmates, some of them are neighbors. Some of the people you've met along the way and you still acquaint with them, they are your acquaintances.
That's your world. It may overlap with mine. So, for example, you've met Trevor and Gail today, and therefore you've met part of my world. And now if you're friendly people, they can become Part of your world. So our worlds overlap.
That's the way it works. So we are all called, set aside for the purpose of God. Now let's preach. When I was. I don't know if you've heard my testimony, I don't tell everybody this, but when I was.
Before I got saved, I was involved in drugs and alcohol and all sorts of things. And the change came when I got caught by the police for being a getaway driver from a bank robbery.
And then at the age of eight, the Lord lifted me out of the gutter.
For those of you who are new to this thing, okay, the age of 8 onwards was true. I gave my life to Jesus at the age of eight. But at seven, my father and mother took my brother and I to a dinner to which the Governor of Queensland was invited, Sir Henry Abel Smith. And. And we were just minding our own business at this dinner, and we ended up somehow getting to talk to the governor.
And while we were talking to him, there was a funny little man next to him with a pen and paper writing notes. And the next day there appeared a newspaper article, Family Gatecrash's Governor's Dinner. And they said that we had. For those in the younger generation, gatecrash means go to a party you're not invited to.
You've all done it now, you've got the right words for it. So we were actually members of the organization that was running it. We had tickets, we were invited to be there, but, you know, the papers like to tell a story. So the story was that we had gatecrashed the dinner, but it included in the story that the governor had asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. And I had said, a preacher.
I'm seven years of age. I said, a preacher. Now that tells me something. First of all, you can't believe everything you read in the newspapers. No, no, what it tells me is this, that sometime before that dinner, I knew that I was going to be a preacher.
So I'd had. Something had happened in my heart that made me realize I was going to serve God in that capacity.
At the age of. By the way, my dad forced the retraction of that story. Not my part of the story, but the fact that we were gate crashers. And they put it in page 175, about that big, in tiny little writing, and it said basically nothing, but at least they've legally retracted. So at the age of eight, I gave my life to Jesus.
And then at the beginning of 1970, well, no, after I gave My life to Jesus. My dad took me to what we used to call an open air meeting where people are out on the street preaching. And the gentleman asked me to preach. Now I have no IDEA what an 8 year old says. I listen to my grandkids and I think, oh Lord, was I talking like that when I'm supposed to be preaching?
But while I'm preaching he says to my dad, if you give me this boy, I'll make him a preacher. And so he was 76 years of age, I was 12, sorry, 8. And for 12 years I worked alongside of him until I went to Bible college. So he's now 88. And he taught me all the principles, preaching, praying, preparing sermons, all that sort of stuff.
He taught me all of that. And I know I should be a lot better by now but, but that was how God began to prepare me for the task that he had for me in my life. And then in the beginning of 1970, that's a long time ago guys, isn't it? You didn't even know those numbers existed in 1970. I clearly heard the voice of God.
And let me just say here, they've told me I can go all day and I can.
When a pastor says he heard the voice of God or God spoke to him, don't get all furry about that. And you're sitting there thinking, well he never talks to me. My dad said God never talks to me. And I realized he means I'd never hear God's voice audibly. When we say God spoke to us, it doesn't necessarily mean we heard the voice of God audibly.
80% of hearing from God is reading the scriptures. If you are not reading your scriptures on a regular basis, you've cut off 80% chance of hearing the voice of God. And then there are many other ways and it gets too complicated to share in one message. People talk about this all the time. How do you hear and know the voice of God?
But God clearly spoke to me so clear that I thought it was an audible voice. In fact I woke up out of a deep sleep and the Lord said to me, I want you to go to Bibles college. We are from a very poor family.
We had so little money I couldn't pay attention at school. A burglar broke into our house and saw our plight and left a check on the table we didn't have. I didn't get hand me downs as a second child. There was nothing to come down, you know, but literally I would go to school sometimes in just a pair of shorts. Nothing else, literally, because we were so poor.
And so my immediate reaction was, God, if you want me to go to Bible college, then you're going to have to provide the money. And miraculously, I'd love to tell you the story, but that was on a Saturday morning. At 2 o' clock Monday morning, I went to work and my boss's wife said, we are going to pay your fees to go to Bible college. I had never talked to them about that. They knew that I wanted to be a pastor one day, but they never knew that.
And they certainly didn't know. Why would they say that two days after God had spoken to me and I'd said, well, you'll have to provide the money. I could tell you why, but you figure it out.
So I knew that I was on the way and off I went. The call of God just doesn't make you a pastor or a preacher. It makes you who you are meant to be. And then it places you into a sphere where the call of God can have the greatest impact on your world. Okay, so the call of God is God talking to you in some fashion to place you where he wants you to be so that you can then do the task that he's not only got for you to do, but gifted you to do.
So let's talk first of all about how and when it comes the call of God comes in the ordinary. It's not always spectacular. I've talked to people, even in this church this weekend, and they talk to me about what they're feeling going on in their lives. And one couple, I just spoke to a dear couple this morning, and they're feeling a stirring in their lives. There's circumstances that are making following it difficult at the moment.
And I encourage them, that's okay. God will work that out. But they're just feeling this stirring in their lives that maybe they're not where they're supposed to be, in the direction of their life and they need to do some things. And so we were able to talk that through. And I hope they'll go to their church leadership and talk that over so that they get some more direction.
But it comes in the ordinary moment sometimes. Mine was probably a little bit spectacular, but when you think about it, I was a teenager sleeping. That's not spectacular. They all do it and they do it very well.
So it was just an ordinary moment in my life. I did that every night. Strange. Now I know I was one of the few. Most of them were outraging, but I was asleep when God spoke to Me.
So it isn't always spectacular. We're going to look at somebody whose life, it was probably a bit more spectacular. And in some ways it was. In some ways it wasn't. But, you know, the Israelites had been in slavery for many years.
Moses had been brought up in the Egyptian palace, but he was an Israelite. You remember, some of you remember the story that Moses was born in Egypt into a family of slaves, and all babies were supposed to be killed. Pharaoh had given an order. All the babies were supposed to be killed. His mum dropped him in a basket and floated him down the river.
If you want to get rid of your kids, that's not the way to do it. But she floated him down the river. And the Princess of Egypt. This is why that movie came out, the Prince of Egypt, because the princess of Egypt found the basket and took him in as her own child. And he became adopted as a.
A grandson, I suppose, of Pharaoh and lived in the palace for 40 years. But at some point, something began to stir in his heart because he began to realize he was an Israelite. And he said, I'm going to go down and visit my brothers and sisters in their slavery. And he went, saw what was going on in their lives, decided to take action on his own behalf instead of God telling him to do it. But it was because something was stirring in his heart.
I've got to set these people free. But he did it his own way, which is dangerous, and it got him into trouble. So he ends up exiled for 40 years out in the wilderness. And you would think that's the end of him, he's finished. But God's doing something in his life, and we're going to look at that right now.
But now we find Moses at a point where he's just going about his everyday work. He's out of the palace, he's in the wilderness, and. And God steps into his life. And one day, in Exodus 3, verse 1, One day, Moses was tending the flock of his father in law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness to Sinai, the mountain of God.
So he's out there in a wilderness leading a bunch of sheep and goats, which is the perfect definition of a pastor.
And a ripple went through the congregation.
Verse 2. There, right there in the wilderness, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of the bush. Now that is a bit amazing. Moses stared at it in amazement. That's what I just said.
Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up. Moses said, this is amazing. There he goes again. Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go and see it.
When something unusual happens in your life and you feel maybe this is something that I need to know about, stop and think about it. Don't just blaze on. Think about it. So he went over and had a look. When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush.
Moses, Moses. If he calls your name twice, you better listen.
And Moses said, here I am. And from there we see a story. Go on. Where God is calling Moses into a ministry. Now, Moses hadn't desired this position.
He was living in the palace. Who wants to give up the palace to lead a bunch of motley people out into the wilderness? I mean, why would you want to do that? And so he hasn't desired it. He didn't win it like Esther did in a beauty contest.
In fact, there's no way Moses would have run a beauty contest. You've seen the guy in the movies. He hadn't applied for it. He didn't put in a resume. He wasn't asked, would you like to do this?
There was no question like that. He hadn't even had a hint about it, really, other than this stirring that was going on that he didn't fully understand. There was no election campaign. He didn't have the corflutes up on the light poles. I think I was told they were.
I went out and looked, and there's no lights, but apparently they're light poles. But you know how those signs are all up over the place? Thank the Lord. They've made them illegal in South Australia now. So there's no election campaign.
We didn't all have to go to a box and vote for Moses. We want Moses. We want Moses. It wasn't a popular vote, you know. In fact, the people were a bit annoyed about Moses because he got them into trouble.
He wasn't really prepared for it, although we'll look and see that. He didn't realize he was prepared for it. So none of those things that happen. The Lord chose him. The Lord chose him.
And the Lord can choose you. In fact, the Lord has chosen you. We just haven't worked out what department we're working in yet. The Lord has chosen you for a task. To fulfill his purpose.
God calls ordinary, reluctant people. He equips them with his presence, and he sends them out to accomplish his purposes. So that leads us to the next thought, that God's call is to partner him in mission.
Jesus says, I came into the world to bring good news to everybody. He came into the world to die for our sins. He came to redeem us. Etc. Etc.
Etc. All the words we were singing today in our choruses and all of that. That's why Jesus came. That was his mission. Now he wants us to partner in his mission and he wants us to be his representatives on earth.
To go out and let people know the good news of Jesus. To let people know that he wants to be their friend. He wants them to come into his family. He wants us to serve him. He wants us to spread the gospel.
In fact, there's one verse in the Bible that says he's not coming back until the Gospel has been heard by everybody around the world. So if you're one of those people that's busting for the second coming of Jesus Christ, then instead of telling me about it, get out there and win people to Jesus Christ. It's all very nice that you know exactly when he's coming, which you don't. But please feel free to do what he asked you to do and go and tell the gospel to everybody. Instead of sitting around here telling us all that stuff, we'll read it in the Bible for ourselves.
Thank you. You go out and do it and we'll follow. Whoo. I've been waiting for someone to say that to my church for years.
So the mission is for us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. Might be overseas, might be locally, might be in your district. Who knows? We'll talk a bit more. So Moses reaction was dramatic because the revelation of God was very dramatic.
And then the Lord said to Moses in verse seven, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. Very important for us to understand this. God is saying, I'm aware of the problems the Israelites are facing.
Oh, they're good looking over this side. God is saying, I'm aware of it and I want to do something about it. What happens then is that you and I become sensitive about certain things in our lives and we become moved by them. For example, for me, in my. I don't know why, but in my late teens, people began to come to me talking about marriage problems.
I didn't even know how to spell marriage, but they came talking to me about that. And from that day on, I began to become concerned about marriage and family. And I began to realize as I. One of the first sermons I preached in what was cleansing, became paradise, became paradise, became paradise, became futures, became influences and all that, whatever. One of the first sermons I preached in there was from Ephesians 5.
You know, husbands love your wives, wives submit, and boy, did I get into trouble. But I preached that because I was concerned about marriages. And my wife and I, and Adrian and Arel will tell you, spent years counseling people in their marriages. We haven't got around to them yet. We'll fix them later, but we'll have lunch, we'll talk about that.
And when I even sometimes when I'm watching a movie that has something about broken marriage or whatever in it, I get teary. And what I feel it is, it's God coming to me and saying, I understand the pain of a broken marriage, and I want you to understand it, and I've given you the to do something about it.
So God said, I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. So he tells Moses the goal. Now he commissions Moses, and I love this. God says, I'm coming down to rescue my people. And he says, now go, for I'm sending you to Pharaoh.
You must lead my people, Israel, out of Egypt. So God sees the problem, he finds the solution to it, and then he finds the person who will be the solution. He says, moses, I'm really worried about my people. You go fix the problem. And that's what happens with the call of God.
God places an area into your life. He may not give you the sensitivity, he might just put you there, but you need to have the intelligence, the spiritual intelligence, to understand that that is the call of God for your life, at least for that period of time.
So Moses, as I said, was a sheep and goat herder in the Sinai wilderness. It's very interesting that the Sinai wilderness is the place where the Israelites wandered into that area and beyond for 40 years. Moses has been a shepherd and a goat herder and in that very area for 40 years. And God says, I want you to take my 3 million people. I mean, hard enough leading your kids 3 million people.
I want you to take 3 million people and lead them through this wilderness. Now, don't you think it's strange that God does that? No, it's strange that God sent Moses there in the first place because Moses learned where to find water, what kind of food you can eat, what animals you can eat, what bushes you can eat food off, where you can find shade, where the naughty people are that you want to avoid. He was learning all of those things in that first 40 years after he got out of the palace. And by the way, interesting that he lived 40 years in a palace when he's going to have to lead 3 million people through a wilderness.
You've got to know what you're doing. You've got to know what leadership is all about. You've got to know how to give a command and get people to follow you. And so he lives in the palace and learns from one of the greatest leaders in the history of the world how to lead people. Now, whether the guy led people well or not is not an issue, but God was giving him leadership principles.
Then he gives him geographical location and trains him in that. And he says, now get yourself down there and do the job. It's amazing. And do you think God says to you, go and do my work, and doesn't help you and train you and prepare you? It would be rather obscene, I think.
So is it possible that your call will be fulfilled in your current environment or at least start to be. Whatever your role in society, you can help people. You can help people to.
When you've said things three times in a weekend, you can get confused. And when you're Paul Newsham, you've got even more possibility. When you've got gray hair, it gets worse still.
And then they start to talk about your memory. What memory? It's not a lack of memory. The problem is that our hard drives, as we get older, gets more and more information on it and slows down. You know how your computer slows down?
That's what happens to us. This hard drive, it's not a fault, it's just overload of information.
Let me do that bit again. Whatever your role in society, you can fulfill your calling. And as I said, you may not be in your final calling yet. But you know what? Wherever you are, you can fulfill your calling.
So had it occurred to you that your ambition to be involved in an industry or a profession could be the call of God on your life? I talked to a lovely lady yesterday. If she's here, I don't want to embarrass you. Just dive under the seat for a moment. Nobody will know it's you.
I think I'm safe.
And she told me that she's training to be a nurse now. She for some reason decided she wants to be a nurse now. She's been training for a nurse a while and perhaps getting closer to God as well in her life. She's felt that maybe she's being Called to be. To go overseas as a missionary into a country where it's hard to get in without such a profession.
Whoa. I mean, just want to be a nurse. She looked after little dollies, and then she looked after damaged animals. I'm making this up. And then she looked after her brothers and sisters.
Then she's had to look after somebody else. And I think, I'd like to be a nurse. That's good fun.
But actually, now she's beginning to realize maybe this is the call of God on my life and he's going to use me for that. And that doesn't have to be you. Some of you would make terrible nurses. But it's this sense of the growth, of the understanding of the call on her life that really blessed me. And so is it possible that the same thing could happen with you or is happening with you, or has happened with you?
Is it possible that your passion for an area of life could be your entry point into your area of ministry? So I know a guy who loves model trains, and his email address has train man in his address, and he's in a club that played with. I mean, he's a grown man. His kids are bigger than him now, but he plays with model trains. But you know what he does with that, he uses as an opportunity to sing the gospel.
Trainers come in, get on board. No, to tell people about Jesus and to lead them. I'm deteriorating, aren't I? I mean, last night I was really serious. This morning I was a bit silly, but.
Oh, don't put Tim hall on me. Nobody's like Tim Hall.
But, you know, your hobby, your education, your business, the club, the job, the profession, the family, could that be the area where God has called you to minister? Let me just throw something in here that will cause all the ladies to want to get up and walk out. And if you do, please come back soon. You know, we live in a world now that has totally demoralized the role of a mother.
Totally demoralized it. Am I against women in the workforce? Absolutely not. Am I against women succeeding in their career? Absolutely not.
But, you know, if I say to you, what do you do? I'm just a mother. You're not just a mother. You're a mother. And one of the greatest ministries in life, one of the greatest callings in life, is to bring up a child in the way that it shall go, so that when it's old, it will not depart from it.
There's an old saying. I think it was either Napoleon said it or he got Dizzy when his mother was saying it, I think it was. But the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. You know, every one of us blokes in here who may look down on women and think we're better than them, every one of you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a woman.
Oh, the women are getting excited. A couple of men agree. Whoa, we're gonna have a party. No, I'm not. I'm not trying to.
I am. I'm trying to go against the culture of our world. Am I telling you to quit your job? I'm not telling you anything other than this. When you look at your kids, see them as God's holy mission for you.
We put our kids into the hands of school teachers and carers and the government when they're little babies, while the greatest role anyone can have is to bring up a child in the way that it should go. If I've offended you, I think I'm sorry.
Some of you are looking at me very strange. But then that could be a reflection of what you're looking at, I suppose.
You know, I said to a lady this morning who is a stay at home mum, which is a nicer way of saying what we often say, but she's a mum and she looks after her kids. That's her role at the moment. And I said to her, you know, you could. You could get a group of women that don't know Jesus, that have babies and have a meeting in a coffee shop. You don't have to sing hymns and shout hallelujah, but just get together with them and let them see your love for your children, your love for your husband, your love for Jesus.
And maybe you could win some people to Jesus that way. Whoa. And that's using again. I'm not talking about outside of this, but that could use your motherhood as a way to win people to Jesus and fulfill the mission of God. Men, boy, they're harder to talk to.
They have this thing called a men's shed, which is actually the place you go to when you're trying to avoid your wife and the list she's given you to do. But, you know, if you like to tinker with things, make things and so on, you could go there and you could be a good Christian man and show an example to others of what a good Christian man is about. You never know where that could take people. Now, I don't think they let ladies in even to make the coffee, but one day I'm sure we'll have women's sheds because it's really discriminatory to have something just for the men. So they will get there sooner or later and they'll fix cars and stuff like that.
Nobody's going to teach crocheting and knitting. It's all going to be fixing cars and building houses. Sorry, but could it be that one of these things could be your opening to your ministry? Perhaps the desires of your heart, when fully submitted to God, can cause you to have significance in the kingdom of God. Oh, I just noticed I forgot to start my timer.
There's a number of people. There's a number of people cited. I'll start it now. That's a good idea.
Oh, still got about 40 minutes to go.
I can see a clock up there. Curse of every preacher.
There's a number of people in the New Testament that are cited who were used by God in their everyday lives. For example, Lydia, she was a businesswoman in Acts chapter 16, a maker of purple, which means that purple was a very rich color. And it meant that she was probably making clothes for royalty. And so she was probably a very rich, very rich woman. You know what she did for the kingdom of God once she got saved.
She supported the ministry of the Apostle Paul and other preachers, and she assisted in the planting and growth of a church. There was another guy called Simon from Syria. He was the man that carried the cross of Jesus. When Jesus stumbled on the way to Golgotha or Calvary or whatever you want to call it, he stumbled and they forced this guy who was a visitor to the city to carry the cross. He did it.
And though we don't see it in Scripture, he must have given his life to Jesus because we do see in scripture in Mark 15:21 and Romans 16:13, if you put those two passages together, we do see in Scripture that at some point he must have given his life to Jesus and his boys and mom or wife, I'm not sure which one it was, gave their lives to Jesus. And we find them later in the Book of Romans in 1613. That's the chapter 1613, not the year 1613. They gave their life to Jesus and they're now in the church in Rome. And Paul congratulates one of the boys on his whatever he's doing, and also says, and give my greetings to the mother or the wife.
I can't recall which one it was, but to her, because she has been like a mother to me. You imagine the Apostle Paul commending someone for being like a mother to him. So she must have Been doing something, but she was just the wife of a cross carrier. There's nothing special about these people except that they love Jesus and do what they have to do. There's erastus in Romans 16:23.
He was the treasurer of the city he lived in. Now that's an important role, but we need people in government roles. Boy, do we need people in government roles, particularly in the treasury. So it's all right, you're not going for an election here yet we are. Back there he was a Christian and was working for the Lord.
We have the guy that was the treasurer of the nation of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian eunuch, as we refer to him in Acts chapter eight, who gives his life to Jesus in the middle of the desert, gets baptized by full immersion, which is a great experience, as you've heard. He goes back to the nation of Ethiopia. History tells us we don't find this in Scripture. History tells us he started a church or there was a church started because of him going back as a Christian. And that church grew and grew.
And there's still church in Ethiopia. There's still a Christian church in Ethiopia, traces its roots right back to that. And we met a lady in 2014 in Israel who could trace her genealogy back to that original group of Christians, which is stunning. You know, nations like that keep their family histories much better. And so he's just the treasurer, but he is able to be part of a multiple century body of Christ that's still going for Jesus.
There are millions of ordinary people today who have been called to serve God. I was boarded with a lady when I came from Brisbane to Adelaide to take up my role at Paradise Church. She was an elderly. I used to call her my little gray haired old lady. She didn't like that for some reason.
But she was a mother of five boys. She was widowed very early in life and she had, I would think you would call it the gift of hospitality on her life. I was getting three, three course meals a day. They told me, if she can't fatten you, nobody ever will. Guess who won?
Oh, yeah. But brilliant hospitality. 50 people went through that home in one weekend. Had meals, most of them not expected. I don't know how she did it.
I didn't see food coming and going through the door, but there were meals on the table. But she also had another gift and that was she prayed. She felt called to prayer and she would go every day. Amongst other times of prayer, she'd go every day into her room and pray for certain list of needs. Three of them were Certain men that she knew that didn't know Jesus.
And she would pray and pray. I would hear her praying for these men. And by the time I'd left her home and got married and gone, all three of those men had come to know Jesus Christ. One of them is a man who some of you may have heard of by the name of Pastor Tim hall, who travels overseas and preaches to hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people since he got saved from a ratbag schoolteacher that terrorized his school class because he was so drunk when he went into it. How he kept his job, I'll never know.
He was a terrible person. Got totally transformed since then, has led a million people or more to the Lord Jesus through his ministry. That little widow woman prayed him into the kingdom of God. Tell me that's not a call of God on her life. My good friend David Bredick, a tree lopper.
He was a businessman, a successful businessman. And he had this line. He would say, excuse me, are you a Christian or a potential one? And then he'd proceed to get the guy right to the point where he's about to give his life to Jesus. And then he'd say, he's nearly saved.
You get him, I'll go for another one. And you know, he went on an airplane with us to the Philippines. We had 43 of us on board the plane. 39 people gave their lives to Jesus just in the flight alone to the Philippines. And we thought the pilot would be getting mad with all the Christians.
But then we discovered that one of his mates, because he was a pilot by trade, had got himself into the cockpit and was sitting in there with all the pilots crew telling them all about Jesus.
Just a tree lopper, winning people to Jesus. Had another friend called Ken Trelor. Fabulous man. He said when he got divorced, he lost half of his friends. When he got saved, he lost the other half.
But he worked in the sewage department. I don't think he worked in the sewage, but in the department. And that was what he. But he would, after he got saved, he would deliver truckloads of furniture and clothes and food to needy widows and people. He just was everywhere.
People adored him because of his ministry into their lives. Was that a calling of God? Of course it was.
Moses was called because God heard the cry of a nation. What is the cry that you could answer? So let's get down to the point now.
God calls. God's call confronts our inadequacies.
You can come to God and say, for all sorts of reasons, I can't do the job. Moses said, who am I? And God says, I will be with you. I will be with you. So wherever you go, God's going to be with you.
Whatever he's called you to do, he's going to give you the strength, the ability, etc, etc, he's going to be with with you. You can't get out of it by saying, who am I? Secondly, Moses says, what if they won't believe me or they won't listen to me? And that goes through our head. Well, God says, here's some miracles you can perform.
Here's some little magic tricks. Pull the rabbit out of the hat. It wasn't those tricks, but I'll give you some magic tricks. You do those tricks and they'll believe everything you say after that. And they did.
Then he says, and then he says, I'm not very good with words. I can't speak, I can't talk, I don't know what to say. And God says to him, who made your mouth? I did. And I'll put the words in it.
Sorry, you can't use that excuse. You're in an environment where you know the language and you can speak and you need to speak. You can't use that excuse. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but so many people say, oh, I don't know what to say. Well, find out what to say.
That's why we do courses during the week to train you on answers of questions that people are likely to ask you. Go and find out. Read your Bible. So when they ask you, who is Moses? You can actually say, oh, he was the guy that built a boat.
No, he didn't. That was the ark of the Covenant, not the ark that floats, but go and learn this stuff. So Moses says, I can't talk. And God says, and then Moses does the dangerous thing of saying God, send somebody else. You don't do that to God.
When God says, moses, Moses, you don't say, send somebody else. It's like when mom says, go and do that job. You don't send somebody else. You know you're dead if you don't do it. And Moses hears his name called and he says, here am I, and now he sends somebody else.
What he's actually saying is, God, you don't know your job. You don't know how to pick the right person for the job. You don't know who's got the skills and the ability. So send somebody else. And God says, don't you tell me my job, my boy.
I know exactly what I'm doing and you're doing actually says, God got mad with that one, so don't try that one. There's lightning bolts fitted, just your size and voltage.
So then God says rather sarcastically, what about your brother Aaron? I know he speaks well. Well, he's on his way to meet you. He'll be delighted to see you. So Moses goes, I will be with you.
What have you got in your hand? Throw it down and I'll use it. And then he placed him in an environment where he had people to help him, just as we're in an environment where people can help us. The only thing the call of God requires is our surrender.
I was resigned to the fact that I was going to be a pastor from seven. But there came that point in 1970 where I said, okay, Lord, I'm going. I'm going to do what you've asked. And I went on the track to prepare and be whatever God wanted me to be. And that's what it requires.
It requires surrender. After I did that, by the way, I felt this pull in my life. It was almost like a rope coming out of my belly that just pulled me along a trail. And it tried to stop me or it stopped me from doing things I shouldn't do. And it drew me towards things that I should do.
It was just the strength of God making sure that I was going to be prepared and ready for what the Lord had for me. And by the way, it's been an incredibly exciting life. So I had a choice. Am I going to follow this or not? And I look back and think, lord, what would I have missed out on?
I would have missed out on all you lot. But what would I have missed out on if I hadn't chosen to follow the call of God for my life? So Moses goes back to Jethro, his father in law, and he says, please let me go back to my relatives in Egypt. I don't even know if they're still alive. And Jethro says, go in peace.
And he went, went back and he did all the things and eventually led the people of Israel out of Egypt. We're all confronted with a choice by faith. The Bible says by faith. Faith is when you step out of a boat. You know, when Peter stepped out of the boat, he had at one point, he had one foot firmly in the boat, but the other one was on water, which, you know, doesn't hold you up.
And you got to get down into the water even to swim. So there comes a point when you're balanced, you need to fall into faith and say, lord, sink or swim. I'm going. And guess what? You won't sink.
Even if you do start to sink a little bit out from the boat, Jesus will pull you up and get you back into the boat. So that's another sermon. And. But God will do that by faith. When he became of age, he refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
You know, there's lots of things in our life that we could do and enjoy and lots of things that will make us money or give us happiness or give us experiences or whatever. But you will never be fully fulfilled until you follow the call of God in your life. Does that mean you can't have money? That you can't do this? You can't.
Probably not. But it does mean that there'll be things you'll miss out on, but there'll be things you'll get to do that you never would have thought. Because God has got a great life in store for all of us. For some, it is martyrdom, but I haven't met a martyr yet that wasn't happy about. No, you read stories of people who have been martyred and you'll see that they knew what was going to happen.
They went joyfully because they were experiencing the call of God on their life, and it was a great blessing. We're not as likely to have that problem, but whatever comes, I'm telling you what, it's going to be the best thing for all of us. However you serve God, and the rejoicing that comes when you minister to someone in need and are successful in helping, helping them is mind blowing. So today I challenge you. If my message or anything that's been happening has been drawing you as if you have a call of God on your life, then please follow that through.
Talk to your pastors, and I know you've got numbers of pastors. Talk to leaders in the church and hopefully those leaders won't just say, oh, you're not useful for that, but hopefully they will help you to work out what it is that God wants you to do in your life. I'm going to be around for, for a couple of minutes because Adrian will want to get me out so he can get to the race. But I'll be around for a while if you want to chat. I'm happy to chat about the call of God on your life, but take it seriously.
What is your call for my life? What am I supposed to do. And let the Lord bless your life. I do feel I should pray for you musicians. I notice you've all got hearing problems.
You're all wearing hearing aids.
Let me pray for you, Lord Jesus. I just pray for this beautiful crowd of people that have come because they love you and they serve you and they want to do what you want them to do. I pray that the word we have spoken today will go deep into their hearts. They will feel and sense your presence leading them and guiding them. Let us see some great people of God raise out of this that we call great because of their great success.
But let us see other people who are humble, ordinary people who have success in fulfilling your mission for them even in their everyday life. Be with us all. We pray in your name. Amen.
Why don't we give Pastor Paul thanks a hand? Thank you.
Well, praise God. Hey, I'm excited by that because I just felt the Lord stirring me. And next week I'm going to continue on the that theme because I. I felt the Holy Spirit just, you know, he looks at us, he looks at this group of people, those watching, and he. He. He believes in you far more than you do.
Yeah, that's right. He believes far like he's got a plan that is so much greater than you can comprehend, and he just asked us to step into it. The plan God had for Moses was so far beyond what Moses could even comprehend, and he didn't even see it for so long, but God wanted to do a work in it and he wants to do it in you. He's got greater things. And that inadequacy that we feel, we all feel it at different levels.
We all have to step past it and we can do it together. And he's going to do something mighty. I want to encourage you over the 21 days of prayer and fasting, seek God and say, God, what's the call you have on my life, young people? He wants to. I'm telling you, God wants.
We are just getting started with what God wants to do. I've got a dream, and God's showing me that we're going to raise up a generation of mighty men and women of God who are going to believe God for greater things than. Than. Than we ever thought possible in this region, in this area. Who knows what God can do through you if you dream and believe?
And this place, this is what this place, this group of people, what we're called to do is, Is called to challenge each other like Pastor Paul's done today, to keep dreaming and believing this should be an incubator of dreams and visions from God that says God, I've been empowered, I've been challenged, and now I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna do something greater. In the midst of a world that wants to push down and reject God and all of these things, we're gonna go out there and we're gonna change the world. Amen. Amen. So, Lord, I pray for you people that we would be encouraged and.
And empowered to be the men and women of God that you have called every single one of us to be. That we will step out in boldness and faith, God, and surrender to the call of God that you've put on our hearts and our lives. Lord Jesus, we pray. Let us change the world for Jesus in your name. Amen.
Amen. We're going to sing this as we close, but if you would like to, Pastor Paul comes over here, and he doesn't ask us to cover anything, but I would love us to be able to give him and his wife a love offering to say thank you for the ministry they've given to us and continue to do in churches across different places, small churches, wherever God's called them in people's lives. If you'd like to contribute to that, you can go online. You can just say it's a love offering, Pastor Paul. Love offering.
You can go out to the desk and contribute. That'd be really wonderful. You're able to do that and feel on your heart to do that. We'd really appreciate it. That was good.
Hey, why don't we stand to our feet? Come on. We're going to finish with this song. We're going to have a great rest of the day. God bless you, church.
Yahweh Worthy you worthy you are worthy you will be forever Yahweh worthy you were worthy you are worthy you will be forever I know of my hand praise you again and again all that I have is a hallelujah, Hallelujah And I know it's not much But I'm nothing else before king except for haunting Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, my soul oh, don't you get silent up your song Cause you got a lion inside a lo get up and praise the Lord.
Oh, come on, my soul oh, don't you get shy on me Lift up your song Cause you got a lion inside a low song get up and praise the Lord So I throw up my hands to praise you again and again.
See you guys next week. Have a blessed week. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah Amen.
Related Bible Verses
Revelation 5:10 (NKJV)
And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.
→ Click here to read Revelation 5:10 on Bible.comEphesians 4:11–12 (NLT)
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.
→ Click here to read Ephesians 4:11–12 on Bible.comRomans 8:28 (NKJV)
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
→ Click here to read Romans 8:28 on Bible.comExodus 3:1–4 (NLT)
One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. "This is amazing," Moses said to himself. "Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it." When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, "Moses! Moses!" "Here I am!" Moses replied.
→ Click here to read Exodus 3:1–4 on Bible.comExodus 3:7–10 (NLT)
Then the Lord told him, "I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt."
→ Click here to read Exodus 3:7–10 on Bible.comActs 16:14–15 (NLT)
One of them was Lydia from Thyatira, a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God. As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying. She and her household were baptized, and she asked us to be her guests. "If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my home." And she urged us until we did.
→ Click here to read Acts 16:14–15 on Bible.comHebrews 11:24–25 (NKJV)
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
→ Click here to read Hebrews 11:24–25 on Bible.com