It's God - He Is Calling You

Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 9:9

Theme: It’s God – He is Calling You

What does it mean to be called by God? Let’s look at what the Bible says.

INTRO:

Grace and peace this morning from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This morning I want to talk to you about your call/calling.

Each of us has been given a call or what has been called a calling.

Each of us have been called to follow the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Each of us have been called to repent of our sins, to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and LORD, to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then live a Spirit-filled Life sharing the Good News with those around us.

Receiving a call from God started all the way back with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They were called to live a life of holiness; a life in which they would separate themselves from anything evil and cling only to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.

They were called to take care of God’s Good Earth. They were called to oversee all of creation and be help mates to one another. They were to love the LORD with all their hearts, minds and souls while loving one another as they loved themselves.

For a time, they did that. They loved God, they loved one another, and they did all they could to take care of the Garden of Eden and creation. They gave the plants and the animals their names. They walked in the cool of the Garden with God.

Life was good. It was what the Jewish people call TOV – very good. Everything was going as it was created to go. Everything was going like a well oil machine and then it didn’t go as it was supposed to go.

Evil, sin and rebellion came into the picture. Adam and Eve listened to the Devil, to the one called Satan, the Deceiver and Liar. Satan lied to them and told them that they didn’t have to listen to God or obey God. He lied to them and told them that they could be a god to themselves.

They chose to believe him and follow Satan’s advice and as a result, everything that had to do with this earth and with humanity changed. No longer were humans pure; with a pure love for God and for one another. Sin had come to reign.

Adam blamed Eve and in return Eve blamed the serpent.

Now, Adam would spend his days working by the sweat of his brow while Eve would bring forth children in pain. She would constantly be tempted to control Adam, trying her best to always fix him or at least control him. He would be tempted to put himself above her and treat her as a second class human.

You would have thought that God would be finished with humans. That He would no longer have anything to do with them. That He would consider the Human Project a complete disaster and that the only thing that could be done was to rid the planet of humanity and the rest of creation.

But that is not what we read about in the Bible.

We read how God went with Adam and Eve as they had to leave the Garden of Eden.

We read how God continually watched and cared for them and their children and their children’s children and so on down to today.

We read how God came in Human Form – In Christ Jesus and died for mankind so that humans could be free from both the penalty and power of sin.

And we read about how God has through the ages of time called people to follow Him. To follow Him into a life of righteousness, adventure and victory.

Our first reading this morning has to do with a man by the name of Abram/Abraham.

Our second reading this morning had to do with a man by the name of Matthew.

Both were called – each a little different but mainly the same.

Our call to follow Jesus – each a little different but mainly the same.

Let’s look at these calls and our calling this morning:

1. We are called out of God’s Mercy and Love.

Neither Abraham, Matthew nor any of us for that matter are called because we have this big bundle of worthiness or holiness in our back pockets. We are like all human beings, fallen and flawed.

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” – Romans 3:23

The truth is we are called because of God’s love and mercy.

2 1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.