Called
1Corinthians 1:1-9
Broadway play: Spider Man: Green Goblin has Spider Man in his grip as they fight atop the Chrysler Building in NYC. It is hundreds of feet to the ground. The Goblin says to Spider Man, “Look down there Spider Man. What do you see? Look at all those people. They look like ants. And they look exactly the same when you see them up close.”
There are many who would say, “We are all just ants. Life is an accident without meaning or purpose. There is no God of love who made it all. We are all just a mass of organisms with no worth or importance.”
Lakeside and Mayflies - Some feel that is like what we are - coming into existence, eating, breeding, and passing out of existence.
I was listening to the news where Jared Lee Loughner, who shot U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and nine-year-old Christina Green, was described by friends as a Nihilist: “A person who believes human existence has no objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value... Moral nihilists assert that morality does not exist, and that any established moral values are contrived.” - Wikipedia
Friend’s post on Facebook: “There is no right or wrong.” I wanted to write: “Matthew Hoffman will be glad to hear this.”
So when there is no meaning or purpose to life, there are no moral values, no right and wrong.
Not sure how people survive like that.
But that is not the biblical picture. The Bible’s view is the polar opposite. Our lives do have meaning, they are directed by a purpose and have eternal value because the beautiful God who created all things created us and loved us into existence.
1. There is a specific meaning to each of our individual lives.
Isaiah wrote: “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.” - Isaiah 49:1
Notice “Before I was born...” - God knew you before the world came into being. He called you into existence before you took your first breath. This is our story as Christians – a story the world does not know or understand.
Jeremiah: “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’” - Jeremiah 1:4-5
The Apostle Paul in the scripture today said: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God...” - 1 Cor. 1:1
And what was true for Isaiah, Jeremiah and Paul is true for you.
C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia — The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. Lucy, the youngest of the children stumbles through their uncle’s wardrobe into a frozen world of Narnia — a place where it is always winter and never Christmas. The other children at first disbelieve her, but eventually they follow her through the wardrobe and into Narnia. As they do, the creatures there begin to gasp as they see them and treat them as though they are someone special. At first they are surprised and think there has to be some kind of mistake. Then they are not sure they want this kind of responsibility, in spite of how flattering it is. But then they meet Aslan — a lion who is the Christ-figure in the story. He calls them by new names. They are now known as: King Peter the Magnificent, King Edmund the Just, Queen Lucy the Valiant, Queen Susan the Gentle. He gives them gifts to help them accomplish their calling. And they begin their wonderful journey of fulfilling their calling – a calling that was planned for them before the world began, and as they do, Narnia’s winter begins to break. The snow melts and summer’s warmth begins.
2. We have be respond to God’s call in order to experience his purpose for us.
You say, “Of course God called the prophets before they were born, and of course God called Paul. They were important, spiritual people. I’m a nobody. I’m just a farmer, an office worker, a teacher, a small business owner — I’m just ordinary.” Actually, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Paul were nobodies whom God made somebodies, because they responded to God’s call. All people are called by God, even before birth, but not everyone heeds God’s call, not everyone responds to it and welcomes it. Not everyone comes when God calls. The Bible says, “many are called, but few are chosen.” - Matthew 22:14, KJV
Old joke: One preacher asked another, “What is the spiritual temperature of you congregation? Are they on fire, are they warm or are they cold.” The preacher responded, “Many are thawed, and a few are frozen.”
None of the people God used in the Bible felt worthy. Not Abraham, not Moses, not Noah and not John the Baptist.
When the Pharisees came to John the Baptist they asked him who he was. They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?”He said, “I am not.”“Are you the Prophet?”He answered, “No.” Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ “ John 1:21-23
But Jesus said, “And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.” Matthew 11:14 Jesus saw him differently than he saw himself.
But it is not just people like John the Baptist who are called. All of us are called, but not everyone heeds the call. Not everyone lives out that call. Many try to avoid the call.
Jeremiah was in danger of not experiencing the plan God had for his life. He said, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” But the Lord said to him, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. - Jeremiah 1:6-7
Moses first made all kinds of excuses and then said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” Exodus 4:13
Moses and Jeremiah almost missed the call. They felt unworthy and inadequate. They didn’t want the responsibility. But think of what the world would have missed if they had not heeded God’s call.
What if Billy Graham had not responded to God’s call on his life? What if Martin Luther King, Jr. had not responded to God’s call on his life? What if Mother Theresa had not responded to the call of God on her life? How different would our world be? What if you do not respond to God’s call?
3. What we do now may not been seen for what it is until later.
We often ask, “Why is there so much evil in the world?” The answer is: Because so few people respond to God’s call on their life. We want to know why God doesn’t do something about the evil in the world, and God is wondering why we are not doing something about the evil in our world. We are not living out God’s call in the small corner of the world where we live. We need to step into our calling.
In the same passage that Paul talks of his calling, he says, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours - 1 Cor. 1:2
So not only was Paul called, but he wanted them to know they were called also. It is not only great people for big jobs whom God calls. It is the ordinary people who will do small jobs – people who will visit someone lonely, people who will give an unexpected a gift, say a kind word, forgive an offense or expect the best from someone who has failed. What God needs are people who are willing to do something even if it isn’t perfect. He needs people who are willing to do something small.
God works through people, and when we do not allow God to work through us, the work of God does not get done.
We keep thinking that God’s calling is for preachers and missionaries, and so we miss what God is calling us to do. God’s calling is not just for religious professionals, it is for all who belong to God and accept his call on their lives. God is not asking us to do big things with flair, he is asking us to do small things with faithfulness — treating the people in our homes well, tipping the waitress generously, being kind to the people who serve us, forgetting offenses rather than nursing them, forgiving people and treating others with grace and kindness.
Our calling, like theirs, is often unbelievable. We can’t believe that God sees us this way and wants to use us for his purposes. It is frightening and disconcerting. We are overwhelmed with what God is asking of us and the responsibility of it all. But to dismiss it is to lose our calling and our reason for existence.
I am reading Phillip Yancey’s new book What Good Is God? In it he tells of a group of American high school students went on a mission trip to Afghanistan. They had great success and saw many people come to Christ as a result of their ministry. Dr. J. Christy Wilson, their host who was born of missionary parents, took them to an unusual tourist site, the only cemetery in Afghanistan where ‘infidels’ could be buried. He walked to the first, ancient gravestone, pitted with age. ‘This man worked here thirty years and translated the Bible into the Afghan language,’ he said. ‘Not a single convert. And in this grave next to him lies the man who replaced him, along with his children who died here. He toiled for twenty-five years, and baptized the first Afghan Christian.’ As they strolled among the gravestones, he recounted the stories of early missionaries and their fates.
At the end of the row he stopped, turned, and looked the teenagers straight in the eye. ‘For thirty years, one man moved rocks. That’s all he did, move rocks. Then came his replacement, who did nothing but dig furrows. There came another who planted seeds, and another who watered. And now you kids — you kids — are bringing in the harvest.’
The group leader said, ‘It was one of the great moments of my life. I watched their faces as it suddenly dawned on these exuberant American teenagers that the amazing spiritual awakening they had witnessed was but the last step in a long line of faithful service stretching back over many decades. I’ll never forget that scene.’”
Perhaps you feel like all you do is move rocks — but you do it for God and you do it faithfully. Some day someone will come along and build on what you have done – and there will be a harvest. The Bible says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
And the Bible also says, “Therefore, my brothers (and sisters), be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:10-11
