When God Calls Your Name 10/19/02
You all know the show “The Price is Right”. Your name is called out and you have the opportunity to be a participant to win lots of prizes. Can you imagine setting in that audience and hearing your name called out, only you don’t answer that call. No, you would jump up screaming and run down that isle and you might even give Bob Barker a kiss.
Sometimes our names are called and by someone a lot better then Bob Barker and prizes worth more valuable than any new car or any exotic vacation. I’m talking about the times in our life when God calls our name and we have opportunity to win prizes that last forever in our eternal vacation with our Lord Jesus Christ. I’m talking about when God calls your Name.
How do you respond?
Do you set in your chair and pretend you don’t hear?
Do you hear but delay your response?
Do you hear and respond with Joy?
Today we will talk about the types of calls and the responses that proceed after them.
2 Timothy 1:8-9
Types of Calls
When I say types of calls it makes me think of hunting. I grew up on the river and growing up on the river you either went hunting or people would go think you were weird. Now I had a pet chipmunk, Chipper, who lived for over eight years. I had pet groundhogs, raccoons, and rabbits. It was not my nature to go and point a gun and shoot some animal, and by no means am I condemning those who do. I guess I was never hungry enough to use hunting as a means to fill my stomach or I’m sure I would. My point is I don’t know that much about hunting.
I love the computer games, Deer Hunter, and all of those. But I never knew there were so many different types of calls. You have grunts, snorts, and all them other funny noises. Let’s talk about the different types of calls that the Lord calls to us.
The call of Service
If you are here today and are a Christian, then you are called to service.
Ephesians 2:10; “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
His workmanship, we were created for a purpose. What is that purpose? To reach the lost however he chooses.
For some it may be to serve in some aspect in the church. The word Deacon literally means servant. It could be to teach a class or to sing a song or share a testimony. You may also be called to preach the Gospel. A call that you will have no peace until you answer it with the proper answer.
Others may be called to be a beacon, a light to others in their workplace and in their community. You need to be the salt that makes others thirsty for the Living Water. You need to be the light that shows others to Jesus.
Some people are called to service that are never seen. The ones who decorate the Church, the ones who rake the leaves, or shampoos the carpets, those who work behind the scenes without the recognition. Every Church has them and every Church needs them.
Then you have those prayer warriors. The ones who you go to knowing they have a Gift of a fervent prayer life and they spend their call on their knees praying to God.
The call of Repentance
Luke 19:10; “ for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.”
If you are here today and you have never accepted Jesus Christ; then He is calling you.
Revelation 3:20; “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him and he with Me.”
Have you ever heard someone knocking at your door and you look out the window to decide if you want to answer the door or not. I have. We don’t see a lot of door-to-door sales people today like we use to, but I’ve heard about people who have a Jehovah Witness come to their door and they don’t won’t answer the door. That sure is showing them the Love of Christ.
If you are here today and have never have asked Jesus Christ into your heart and life then Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart, and calling for you to let Him in.
Maybe you are here today and are a Christian, but you have sin in your life.
2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
If you are here today and you are a Christian and you have sin in your life then Jesus is calling you to repentance. He loves you and desires a relationship with you.
Now that we have talked about the types of calls, let’s talk about the responses of these calls. When God calls your name, either you Obey, Delay, or Decay the call.
Let’s talk about the first and the proper response. Obey
With two boys of my own, I cannot think of any one better example of obedience than our Father Abraham.
Genesis 22:1-3
Here we read of God testing Abraham and telling him to take his only son, “whom you love” the scripture says and offer him as a sacrifice. Not that it would be any easier if he didn’t love him. Now looking back at the circumstances of how God made a covenant between Him and Abraham and promised him a son, even though he and his wife were up there in years. The birth alone was a miracle. Now God was asking him to offer this miracle as an offering.
What did Abraham do, he got up early the next day to obey God. We know how the rest of the story goes. Abraham went as the Lord had told him and he bound his only son and was ready to do the deed but the God provided a ram caught in a thicket for the offering. What was his reward?
Genesis 22:15-18
He passed the test and God awarded his obedience.
We have baby dedications in our churches, but when you do that you should be saying that this is your baby Lord. You gave it to me and I commit it back to you.
But then if something ever happens to that baby then remember that dedication.
If you are obedient to Gods call then He will bless you. It might not make sense at the time, but He knows the big picture and you have to trust that He only wants what’s best for you.
Then we have the response of Delay
You know how it is when you call your kids to do something they instantly come up with every excuse in the book to delay your request. The lawn needs mowed, the grass is to wet; clean your room, my favorite show is on; the list goes on and on.
When God calls on us, we are just like our kids and start making excuses. Adam said it was Eve, Eve said it was the serpent; Moses said he couldn’t lead, and the disciples said we only have five loaves and two fish. This is just a few of examples.
When God calls on you for service, what is your excuse?
You might be looking to blame someone else like Adam or Eve, saying I would but so in so is not doing it, and they are suppose to be one of the leaders in the church. You know when you stand before Jesus it will be one on one. So in so will not be with you to point the finger at.
You might say like Moses, I can’t do that. God doesn’t need your ability; he needs your availability.
You might say I can’t do that; I don’t have enough time, like the disciples said we don’t have enough food. I can assure you when God calls you, he will provide the means and the method to do it. You have to remember it is not you but Christ that lives within you who is doing it through you.
Some people try to delay Gods call by hiding. Adam and Eve hide themselves. Jonah fled to Tarshish, from the presence of the Lord and ended up in the fish’s belly. You cannot hide from the Lord. You can as the saying goes, “You can run, but you can’t hide”.
Delay can also apply to the lost. Jesus is calling you to repentance but you delay answering that call. I know with my kids, sometimes I call for them and they use their selective hearing to answer.
Sometimes the lost do the same. They know what they need to do and someday they say they will. 2 Corinthians 6:2, tells us today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow.
Delay your call from Jesus will only lead to our last response, Decay.
Webster defines decay as decline or to rot. When I think of decay I think of roadside kill. With deer season and the deer a stirring you see a lot of decay along side of the road. The smell is awful. Or when the Dentist tells you that you have decay and he is going to have to drill out the bad and put in a filling. Do you fill the pain?
Without the proper answer to Gods calling you will suffer more pain than any Dentist can apply and the just like the Dentist, Jesus is only trying to get out the bad and fill it with good.
If you are here today and have accepted Christ then I would refer to Webster’s definition of rot for not answering properly to Gods call. Deer meat when cooked properly is great. Dear meat along side the road rotting is worthless. It decays so will your relationship with the Lord. It stinks and everyone around you will smell your disobedience.
Webster’s other definition of decline would apply to you if you were here today and have not accepted Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. For whatever reason, weather it is an excuse or a delay, you have declined Him.
That’s a lot worse than being on the price is right show and hearing your name called only to sit and say, “I decline”.
Do not decline Him today.
If you are here today and you don’t have the proper response to His calling, please take care of it today.
