TITLE : FINDING ONES CALLING (Adapted from a paper written by Fr. Thomas Hopko)
TEXT: St. Matthew 22:14
INTRODUCTION:
• Have you ever got up in the morning and while you were brushing your teeth asked yourself this question – “Why on earth am I here?”Ever thought, I know God has something for me but I am not sure what it is? Ever said – “How come others know their calling but I don’t?”
• Well the good news is you can!
Everyone has a divine (religious) call –
• This does not mean everyone is called to be ordained, read or acolyte.
• Everyone is called to serve God and their fellow human beings in some form of life which God Himself wills.
• This is not necessarily a job or profession
o Some may be called to suffer in this life and bear the results of the fall.
Mental Retardation
Disease, Victimization
o This is their call and they are blessed by God and loved by Christ as they accept the calling.
• Have you ever met people and just thought – “They just can’t catch a break.” Maybe they are just really good at their call
PROPOSITION: Jesus said – “Many are called but few are chosen.” Those who are rejected are so not because they do not have a call from God but because they refuse to accept it.
ORIENTATION: The goal of my sermon today is to help you understand and accept your call.
TRANSITION: So lets begin with this point…
I. YOUR CALL IS COMMON AND UNIQUE
EXPLAINATION:
• Your Call is Common
o In one sense all of us have the same call – To Become a Saint.
Romans 1:7 – “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.”
o We were made to fulfill “ourselves” to become image and likeness of Christ. (Gen. 2)
o God has commanded this of us and as such (In HIM) it is possible:
Mt 5:48 - “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
o God has done all He can to help us by sending His Holy Spirit.
o All has been given by God and the rest is up to us, to choose to cooperate with Him.
• Your Call Is Unique
o While all are called to be saints we are called to do it in our own unique way.
Some will sanctify their lives being single, others married.
Some will be ordained, others will be lay people. Some will suffer greatly, other not much at all
Some are Artists, Scientists, Business people
ILLUSTRATION:
o Flowers are called to be flowers, the more they are flowers the more they bring glory to God. But some flowers bring glory by being red, others blue. Some tall others short, some perennial others not…
o The same is true with you, your called to be a Saint, Saint (Fill in name.) But you may have to suffer, you may not. You may be rich or poor and in that sense your call is unique to you.
APPLICATION:
o The first step in finding ones call in life is knowing it exists!
o Your call is to BECOME A SAINT.
o Secondly we must understand the commonality and uniqueness of our call. The same finish line different roads.
o You were called to be a Saint and that is your primary call, how you get there will be unique.
II. YOU MUST DESIRE TO KNOW YOUR CALL
EXPLAINATION:
• Desire to Know your call
o There are three components in knowing your call:
A Pure desire to hear – God’s Call
A Pure desire to see – Who You Are
A Pure desire to obey – What you know to be true
o Matthew 7:14 – “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
o If we are honest to what we hear, see and then obey what we know… God will do the rest.
• We Do Not Know Our Call Because We Do Not Want To
o It takes courage to hear God when He speaks and to follow Him.
God stretches us
o It is also quite painful
Our egos and agendas must die
Personal plans and agendas must die
Our ideas about ourselves must be abandoned
ILLUSTRATION:
o Do you remember what it was like as a kid, when you had to take medicine you did not like? You knew in order to get better you needed to hold your nose and swallow.
o In a similar way we must face the fact that each day we let pass us by without embracing the call of God for our lives we grow more ill.
o We must swallow God and Lord of our Lives… Yet if you do this you may just find it tastes sweet.
APPLICATION:
o The main reason we know not the call of God is because we really don’t want to.
o Today do you have the courage to say yes to God? To say yes to whatever He has called you to do?
o To stop avoiding His desires, to drop your own ideas about this life and to adopt His plan.
o When you are ready to really hear Him you will.
III. WE MUST BE FAITHFUL WHERE WE ARE
EXPLAINATION:
• Faithful Where We Are
o To know God’s call we must be faithful to and in the conditions in which He has placed us.
Not Where We Want – Where we are
Not Who We Want – Who We Are
Not What We Want – What We Have
o 1 Cor. 7:20 – “Every one should remain in the state in which he was called.”
• Clear Disobedience and Self Will – “Then I Could Be Holy”
o I often hear people say – “If I only lived in such and such or at such and such a time.
If I only had this job or that, this house or that, this life or that, then I could be holy.
o To be someone else
o To be somewhere else
• We must come to see how sinful such an attitude this is!
o It is crazy and deluded
o We are saying that our failures to live Holy lives, for not pursuing our calling are His fault for making us:
Who we are
Where we are
What we are
• God has made us who we are.
o He has put us where we are, even when it is our own self-will that has moved us.
o He has given us our time and our place. He has given us our specific destiny.
• We must come to the point when we not only resign ourselves to the calling of God but LOVE IT!
o when we love them, bless them, give thanks to God for them as the conditions for our self-fulfillment as persons, we experience life to its fullest.
ILLUSTRATION:
o Being bi-vocational is very challenging. There is no time, between Church and my “day job” I work 80 hours a week. I only get one day off.
o I often find myself complaining to God, saying – “You are screwing everything up by not giving me fully to the Church.”
o It is very difficult for me to embrace the fact that this is exactly where God has me and to love it as my sacrifice and calling.
APPLICATION:
o What about you, are you willing to accept that God’s call on your life is may not be what YOU want or expect?
o Are you willing to be faithful exactly where you are and to love it as a great joy?
o To know your call is to begin living it out exactly where you are. To become a saint of God in the place God has put you.
o Being faithful where we are is the basic sign that we will God’s will for our lives.
o Jesus said that only those who are "faithful in little" inherit much and get set over much.
o We must accept who we are, where we are, when we are and how we are,
o struggle to sanctify our real state of existence by the grace of God
o Resisting the world, the flesh and the devil and gaining the Spirit of God through Christ in the Church.
CONCLUSION:
• To will God’s will is essential. Without this, nothing can happen.
• This means that we have to pray and to participate in the mystical life of God’s Church. Jesus said, "Ask, and you will receive." (Mt 7:7) And the apostle James reminds us that if we do not ask rightly, we will not receive. "You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:2)
• To find our vocation in life we have to pray to God to show it to us, and to guide us into it for His Name’s sake, and ultimately, for our own.
• God promises that those who seek instruction will never be left without it. He Himself will see to it, as the saying goes, that "when the disciple is ready, the Master will appear." Without obedience to God’s Word and Spirit in the services, sacraments, scriptures and saints of the Church, we who claim to be Christians will never discover our calling in life.
RESTATE MAIN POINTS
• Those who are rejected are so not because they do not have a divine calling in this life but because they choose to reject it.
• Today We Have Seen that a divine call is:
• common and unique
• revealed to those who pursue it
• begins exactly where you are
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION
• In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. "Your Majesty," said Prior Richard, "do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king."
• "I understand," said Henry. "The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you."
• "Then I will tell you what to do," said Prior Richard. "Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you." When King Henry died, a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient." When we tire of our roles and responsibilities, it helps to remember God has planted us in a certain place and told us to be a good accountant or teacher or mother or father. Christ expects us to be faithful where he puts us, and when he returns, we’ll rule together with him. (Steven Brown)
