Ring, ring! “Hello. Who is this?”
The call. How often do we answer calls? They come on the telephone. They may be a letter or e-mail. Calls come in different shapes and sizes. If you have noticed during a baseball game the manager will make the “call” to the bullpen to get a relief pitcher in the game. We have telemarketing calls, phone calls, judgment calls, sales calls, personal calls. In days gone by, some churches made evangelistic calls.
The important thing in each of these calls is “Who is calling?” Think about the call to the bullpen in a baseball game. The manager or pitching coach usually makes the “call.” What if the guy in the bullpen picks up the phone and the batboy is making the call? Is he going to listen to the call? Is there going to be any response to the call of the batboy to the bullpen?
We give more credibility to the caller depending upon their position. If we get a call from someone identifying themselves as law enforcement in the middle of the night telling us a loved one has been in an accident, we listen to them more closely than we would to someone who failed to identify themselves. We pay closer attention to the diagnosis of a doctor than we do the diagnosis of the mail carrier.
What happens when the call comes from God? What is our response then? Sometimes we turn and run away as fast as we can. Other times we embrace the call. The Bible, God’s Word, calls us to several things. It calls us to repentance. It calls us to service of God. It calls us to love God and others. It calls us to a holy life. The big question is “Who is calling?” God calls.
Turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 5, in the Old Testament.
Read 2 Samuel 5:1-12.
This is the story of how David assumed the position of king of Israel, and how he moved the capital city to Jerusalem. It tells us about the call of God on the life of David.
Israel had been engulfed in a civil war. King Saul was dead, and the last of his surviving relatives, Ish-bosheth, was fighting David and his army for control of Israel. In chapter 4, we find the Ish-bosheth dies, leaving David the man of the hour to rule Israel. We find out several things about the call of God in David’s life. The first is…
I. The CALL of God.
Some twenty or so years earlier, God had chosen David to be king of Israel. To understand the process, we must first understand the events behind Israel getting a king in the first place.
When God delivered the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, he was going to be their king. God would be the king of Israel. For a long time, this was the case, but after a while, the people of Israel wanted a king like everyone else. God was not happy about this. So he gave them Saul as their king. Saul was given as a judgment. As Saul went along, he walked farther and farther from God.
Then in 1 Samuel 16, we find that the prophet Samuel goes out and anoints David as king of Israel, but the problem is that Saul is still alive.
A. God CALLED David.
In 1 Samuel 16, we can read the account of how Samuel, under the direction of God, chose David to be the king. In the next chapter, we find David fighting the giant Goliath.
God had called David to be the king, but he had to wait twenty years before he actually became king. Saul knew his days were numbered, and he tried to kill David on several occasions. David, though, had the utmost respect for King Saul. He knew that God had placed a call on his life, and he was patient to wait for God’s timing.
We see that the leaders of Israel said, in verse 2 of our passage, “It was you who led out and brought in Israel.” David had been a great warrior and leader during the times that Israel was having skirmishes with their neighbors.
Verse 10 tells us, “And David became greater and greater, for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him.” God placed his call on the life of David, and he remained with him.
B. God CALLS us.
Like David, God also places his call on our lives. Like I mentioned earlier, we are called to several things. We are called to repentance. We are called to service of God. We called to love God and others. We called to a holy life. The call of God is on all who are his followers. Some of us are called to different things. Some are called to pastors and teachers. Others are called to be helpers. We all have the call of God on our lives.
It’s not always easy to follow the call of God for our lives. Sometimes we have to struggle with ourselves before we can embrace God’s call on our life.
I think back to when God called me into the ministry. It was not easy. I struggled with that for a long time. I went back and forth in my mind. The thing is, we have to come to a point where we either embrace the call of God or we turn our back on him.
I remember when I was running cross-country and track in high school. I was a running maniac. I ran every single day. In fact, at one point I ran over 650 consecutive days, which was about 2 months shy of two years. From July of 1990 through April of 1992, I ran every day. I was training. I knew the value of training. I had no natural talent when it came to running. I remember when kids would come out for the team, and they had incredible natural talent. The problem is that they did not have the drive to train. The coach would call them to train and get serious about the running program. Most of them would eventually turn their back on the coach and walk away from the team. They failed to realize that being on the track team was more than just showing up at the meets and running. It included practices. It was long distance runs one day, and short speed work the next. It involved spending time in the weight room and eating right.
God is like the coach. We can either embrace the training schedule he has for us, or we can forget him and walk away. Like the short-timers on the track team who just wanted the glory of the big track meet, we sometimes want only the blessings of God without the discipline that goes along with it.
There is another important aspect of the call of God, and that is…
II. Others recognize the CALL of God on those he calls.
We moved the Kansas City right before my freshman year in high school. I had the privilege of having Coach Hull for freshman social science class. Toward the end of the year, Coach Hull, whom I had grown to respect, approached me about joining the cross-country team the next fall. I had tried track in eighth grade, and I didn’t really care for it, but the idea of cross-country sounded interesting. I wasn’t really excited, but I decided to say “yes,” more or less because I couldn’t say “no.” After all, Coach Hull had said that he thought I would make a good cross-country runner. He paid me some nice compliments, and I was on the team.
I made varsity my junior and senior year. My first year, when I was a sophomore, was filled with running at the back of the JV pack.
Coach saw something in me that I did not see in myself. I was never a great runner, but I wasn’t awful. At least, I beat all the girls. Coach saw a runner inside of me, and he helped to draw that out of me.
A. All of Israel recognized the CALL of God on David’s life.
When the leaders of Israel assembled at David’s headquarters in Hebron, they acknowledged that David was God’s choice to be king. They told him, at the end of verse 2, “And the Lord said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.’”
The leaders recognized that God had called David to be their king. God had empowered David to be a mighty warrior. They knew that God had called him.
Verse 3 tells us, “So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.”
God had Samuel anoint David king before, and he had been anointed king of the southern part of the nation, as recorded in chapter 2 of 2 Samuel. This was due to the ongoing civil war. Now all the elders or leaders of the nation gathered to anoint David king. They accepted the fact that God had called David to be their king. Through all that David had done in leading Israel even when Saul was king, they realized that God had called David.
B. Others will recognize the CALL of God on our lives.
One of the things that was so important to me when I accepted God’s call on my life was the fact that others had recognized that. The father of one of my former pastors recognized it. When he would visit the Church, he would tell me that I was going to be a pastor. For the longest time, I politely told him that God wasn’t calling me to be a pastor. When Tammy was young, she knew that she would be a pastor’s wife. When I told her about my decision to accept God’s call on my life, she said she already knew it. It was a confirmation. God doesn’t call us and not reveal that to others.
I remember when I preached my first sermon, after the service people came up to me and told me I had done a good job. I know a lot of that was them being polite because I listened to the audio tape later, and I fell asleep. People told me it was a blessing. Now, I had nothing to do with that, it was all God, and he was using them to confirm the call of God in my life. God was also using my pastor to confirm the call, because he allowed me the opportunity to preach. Even after my first sermon, he allowed me to preach again.
When I preached in Haiti last summer, I was concerned about my ability to communicate through an interpreter. I was more nervous then, than I was at any other time. After the service, a Haitian man came up to me and said, in broken English, “That really blessed my soul.” It wasn’t anything I said, but it was God using that man to confirm his call on my life.
God uses others to say, “Hey, you are on the right track. Keep going the direction you’re going.” Without the confirmation of God through the words and actions of others, we will feel lost.
From Coach Hull, who told me that I would make a good runner to the Haitian man who told me that the message blessed his soul, our lives are filled with the confirmation of others.
III. The CALL of God has POWER.
When we are in the center of God’s will we have power from him. When we are where God calls us to be, we have power from him. We can see God’s power exercised in our life. It is unmistakable.
A. David CONQUERED the Jebusites.
Israel had never conquered the city of Jerusalem. A group of people called the Jebusites occupied the city. When the nation of Israel went into occupy the land, they kicked out several groups of people. We read that in the book of Joshua. They kicked out the Amalikites and all the other “-ites” people. The Jebusites had managed to hold on to the city of Jerusalem.
David made it known that he was going to conquer Jerusalem. The Jebusites knew that any army could not penetrate their fortress. They failed to realize that David’s army had God on their side. They taunted David by saying, “the blind and the lame will ward [him] off.”
David was used to impossible challenges. When David had faced the mighty giant Goliath with a sling and some rocks, Goliath taunted him saying, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” David was used to being underestimated. He knew one thing, though, God was on his side. God had been with him when he defeated Goliath, and God would be with him when he went to conquer Jerusalem.
The Jebusites thought for sure that David could not possibly capture the city. Verse 7 tells us, “Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion.” David stepped up, and with the help of God conquered a stronghold.
B. We can CONQUER strongholds with God’s power.
What strongholds do you face? What insurmountable obstacles lay in your way to accomplishing the will and call of God on your life? Have you ever seen God move in a supernatural way in your life?
When we had decided to come out here to North Carolina, we had to sell our house. We had only a few weeks to do so. We had only lived in the house for about one and a half years, so we couldn’t sell it through a realtor because we would lose money. In fact, one realtor came and saw us, and she told us that she couldn’t do anything for us. We had an open house one Saturday and had only one couple showed up. On the Sunday afternoon before we left, while we were loading the truck, a man came and looked at our house. He offered us an amount that was unacceptable. He left. “God, what is going on?” we asked. At 9:00 that night, the man came back with his wife. He told he had come up with some more money. At 9:30 the night before we left, we sold our house. That is God’s hand. That is God’s intervention. You can’t tell me otherwise. We were in God’s will, obeying his call, and he used his power to help us overcome that obstacle.
When we are in the center of God’s will, he uses his power to help us overcome strongholds and obstacles. That doesn’t mean that it will always be easy. David still had to take on the Jebusites. They didn’t just lay down their arms and walk away. They put up a fight, but with the power of God behind him, David conquered them. It wasn’t a piece of cake to sell our house, but with the power of God it happened.
Conclusion
God calls us. Others recognize the call of God on our lives. The call of God has power. What is God calling you to do today? God may be calling you to deepen your relationship with him. He may be calling you greater service for him. He may be calling you to renew a broken relationship with him. God’s call on our lives is as real today as it ever has been.
Listen to God. Our choice is clear. Either we can listen to his call for us, or we can turn our back on him.
We can have the assurance that we are following the call of God in our life. Verse 12 tells us, “And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” We can know that we know that we know that we are doing God’s will and obeying his call.
