God has already picked you! You are the one he loves the most! You are his child, he knew you before the world began, had a plan and purpose for you before the world began. He chose you! Do we really realize that and do we have a role to play in his choosing us?
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
The Father’s heart is that all would come to know him. Jesus told us that hell was not created for human beings but for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). He calls us to always work (occupy) until he comes so that everyone who will come to Christ, will! (God knows everything and he knows who will come to Christ and who will not but he still desires all to come….God is a god of hope)
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
Ephesians 1:4,5
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
We often battle. Does God really love me? Does he see me? Does he know me? The answer to all of those questions is “Yes,” and these verses tell us that! Before you thought of or had any knowledge of God, he knew you and chose you to be exactly what he called you to be through every gift, skill, talent, and personality to bring him great pleasure
Romans 8:29-30
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
The question here I often ask people…Is God’s knowledge of people limited? Is there anyone who God doesn’t know? If He knows everyone and has predestined everyone whom He knows to be conformed to the image of His Son. He had His son pay the price to justify each of us and even though we haven’t necessarily seen it yet, we have in God’s eyes, already been glorified
But with all of these promises and understanding the Father’s heart about his love for us and his call on us, what do verses like this mean?
Matthew 7:21-23
21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
While God does pick us, choose us, desires for us to not perish, verses like this and the parable of the sower which describes about those who receive the word with rejoicing but then it dies in them, gives us an understanding that we too have a role to play other than simply saying “Yes” to the Holy Spirit’s tug on our hearts to believe. The demons believe and are not going to heaven; there is a call to follow Him!
Luke 9:23, 24
Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.
We read these verses with great encouragement and then we come across verses like this and we are challenged what does this mean? If God has called us, even predestined us to be his children then how is this possible? Let’s take a look at what I am talking about; let’s take a quick look today at Jesus calling on others to see if it helps with our growth and understanding of our calling.
Matthew 8:19-22
Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.”
Notice both of these men are disciples, followers already of Jesus, but to go deeper to accomplish all they have been called to be required each of them to step away from something and step to Jesus.
We are told he was a teacher of the law and people thought that they would be able to accomplish salvation through the law and the work and study of the law. Jesus is saying I have nothing but the Father if you want to follow me you have to not grab onto the religion of this world but forsake it and grab onto God. The law is good but salvation and freedom come through holding onto the “son of man” and following him first. If we are pursuing the abundant joy-filled life, we must pursue him first then the intellect will follow. We find ourselves tripping up over things when we get caught up and focus on only one aspect of loving God. Our love for Him must be heart, mind, soul, and strength!
One of the highest calls of a son or daughter as well as part of the law was to honor their father and mother and it sounds like Jesus is violating that law here but he is not he is challenging those who would be true disciples to realize their commitment to Jesus must be greater than even their commitment to family or in our world, sports, dance, school. It is not that family isn’t important, but like everything, if we put it first, then we are responsible for handling it, whereas if we put God first, he is responsible for handling it. In a similar fashion, we must make sure that our children’s commitment is to God first. Jesus challenges us that if we hurt one of the little ones we might as well tie a millstone around our necks and be thrown into the sea. That is how important our helping our children understand their faith is to the Lord.
One of the things that drags many down and pulls them away from their call is watching the battles their children face and lose. We all face battles struggles, warfare, but as we give them the tools to trust the Lord we know rather than being overcome they will grow and win
Matthew 9:9
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him.
In Luke and in Mark we see Matthew called Levi meaning “joined” as in his occupation, Levi was joined to Herod and the Romans. Jesus changed his name to Matthew, which means “gift of God.” Obviously, Matthew was not a disciple; however, there was no challenge to his call. He didn’t fight or fuss he simply left the future that he had, for the future Jesus was offering. He left the best that he could do in the world with his gifts, skills, and talents and chose instead to trust the Lord with them. We are all blessed because he did.
Place God as first priority in your work and with your work ethic. He desires to be Lord over every aspect of your life and if he is, your occupation will go from being a burden to being a blessing, from battle to ministry.
Matthew 4:18-21
One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19 Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” 20 And they left their nets at once and followed him.
21 A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22 They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
In our call to come and die and follow Jesus, we can find our gifts being amplified. Peter, Andrew, James and John were fisherman. They were doing their best to supply for their families and develop a good reputation in the community as reputable businessmen. Jesus called and without regard for anything that they saw as valuable before, they chose to follow Jesus.
Just a few results of their choosing to say “yes,” completely to the call
They took the leap of faith and what happened?
– Their needs were met as we know the treasury Jesus had was also used to supply the needs of their families
– Peter’s mother-in-law may have died had he not chosen to follow Jesus instead she was healed
– They were known throughout Israel
– They saw miracles, up close and personal no one had seen for at least 400 years
– They had an intimate personal relationship with Jesus
– They changed the world
God calls you to follow him. He will use everything you give to Him and amplify it to cause you to become who he has called you to be in the first place. Often there are dreams in our hearts that we seek to achieve, desires the Lord has actually placed there but things inhibit those dreams and desires from being fulfilled. When we choose to “come and Die” the inhibiting factors of our old life are eliminated and it is now he who lives through us.
My challenge to you is to look at your calling. Are there aspects of your calling where you are holding back? Christ has called you to follow Him completely. Often our frustration are because we are not recognizing how great the calling is on our lives and his call to completely trust him that is one of the biggest challenges to coming to die to ourselves it is control.
In each of the callings we have talked about today the big question Jesus is asking…I have designed and created you for a purpose, I have amazing plans for you but in order to fulfill those plans you must come and die (give up control) and trust me, will you?
Will you trust me with your future, your family, especially your children? Will you trust me completely with your life? You hanging onto your life limits your potential, your greatness, my plan for you and causes death to the dreams and plans I designed for you….but letting go brings radical joy, peace, love, hope, and so much more…but Jesus reminds us it must be daily