Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. – Isaiah 41:10
We are Kingdom people, we are servants of the King and He has not abandoned us, He is not unaware of who we are or where we are.
Thomas Chisholm penned these words inside the song Great is Thy Faithfulness
“Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow”…
We are part of God’s unshakable Kingdom – and it is in that context that we look at God’s call.
There are different callings of God:
- To belief
- To salvation
- To holiness
- To ministry
We are considering Jeremiah 1 and Luke 5 – both record God’s call on individuals though centuries apart we are privy to God’s approach to these Kingdom people.
Luke 5
5 One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee,[a] great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. 2 He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon,[b] its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”
5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” 6 And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! 7 A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.
8 When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.” 9 For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. 10 His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.
Jesus replied to Simon, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” 11 And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.
KINGDOM CALLING
Here’s the thing about God’s call – this is no choice on our part regarding who God calls. God inexplicably calls all sorts of people. Young, old, talented, scandalous – we could all name several Biblical characters who do not make sense. Likewise, we might look at each other and wonder – what was God thinking?
What we know is that God calls all sorts of people to all sorts of tasks and duties.
Noah to build an ark and save a generation
Moses to rule a land and save millions from starvation
Jonah to go to a city he did not want to go to, and to deliver a message of repentance – which he then was upset about when they repented!
Jeremiah to deliver warnings to God’s people and to do so in some very unusual ways…
Some whom God calls seem quite successful, others not so. Some end up sacrificing a great deal, even their lives, while others seem to end up in pretty swanky positions.
Whatever the calling, here’s what seems to be in OUR control: our response.
Some grumble,
some argue,
some refuse,
some thrust headlong,
some proceed but with reservations.
****
Now I know little of your calling – but I’ve been wondering if we shouldn’t be talking about this more?
What I mean by that is,
Should we be sharing more publicly our own story, on how God worked in our lives to bring us to where we agreed to respond to some call of God on our lives?
Do our children, our siblings, our parents, our friends, know our story?
***
So here’s what else I’ve been wondering about.
This has been a tough season of ministry and isolation, and even though we are starting to get back to something which might be called normal, in this time of isolation many people experienced desertion of friends, colleagues, and/or criticism of leadership decisions.
So do we sometimes need to remind ourselves of our own story, of why we said yes to the LORD?
Was it for the vacation package?
Was it for the salary or the travel opportunities – I mean who doesn’t want to be on the prairies in January?!
We said yes because we genuinely believed that God was calling us.
We said yes because we saw genuine spiritual evidence that God was making a way for us.
When Jesus approaches Peter, James, John, and Andrew, he calls them away from what they are most familiar with. They are fishermen, and he calls them to follow Him.
He’s the teacher, the Rabbi, the Master. It takes them some time to understand Him as the Messiah and to arrive at a place where eventually He calls them friends.
They did not follow for the benefits or ease of life, and in fact, like you, they learned following, that is responding positively to the call of God has really serious consequences and entails sacrifice.
But what a wonderful way to respond to God’s call …to live with no regret, to have the opportunity to tell the story of saving grace and the transforming power. We have the opportunity to pour into other people’s lives because we are called.
VIDEO: That cup of coffee
Of course, this isn’t about coffee, is it. It is all about pouring the Hope of Christ in to a person’s world, it is all about believing that we have offer in Christ is not some boring, out of touch, irrelevant Saviour. No this is about Jesus, who defeated sin and death – who brought us to life, called us to mission and desires nothing more than to bring salvation to others through our witness.
We have said yes to this Jesus….
Gowans and Larsson, wrap this up so well in the song which they included in their musical The Meeting and now is in our songbook: I want to say yes to the Lord of my life.
I want to say yes to the Lord of my life
Say yes to his way, his design
I want to say yes to his plan for my life
And no to ambitions of mine
I want to say yes, I want to say yes
My will with his will to align
Yes to your will Lord and your will alone,
Yes to your plans Lord and no to my own
Take all I have Lord I cannot give less,
Here is my answer, it’s yes
And why can we say yes?
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. – Isaiah 41:10
Hybrid Thoughts 