Returning Your Calls
(Romans 10:13-21)
Intro
1. I do not particularly enjoy the world of phone message recorders. I am glad they exist, and I have one at the office.
2. Sometimes people leave important messages.
3. Sometimes the message is not crucial, but it communicates a piece of information. In a day when we have so much to do and remember, getting those calls out of the way helps make our lives a little less cluttered.
4. But sometimes I get calls from a salesperson. I rarely return those calls.
5. There is nothing in the Bible that says you have to return a call if you do not want to.
6. But God’s calls are different. He expects us to respond.
7. If we respond to His call, our lives are altered. If we ignore the general call of the Gospel, we do so to our own detriment.
8. Two strangely connected events that occurred in 1865 greatly impact American lives even today.
• General William Booth founded the Salvation Army and now millions are fed, clothed and given shelter in the name of Jesus. As Booth proclaims "A heart to God and a hand to man".
• 2) The other event involved another man named Booth (a distant cousin to William) his name John Wilks Booth who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
One cousin blessed a nation the other cursed it.
The Gospel makes a difference. (from Sermon Central)
9. Alice Cooper says he loves God but doesn’t want to become a ’celebrity’ believer. The father of shock rock whose music and stage antics have outraged parents for more than 30 years told how the fear of hell turned him to God.
Although he became a Christian in the 1980s, apart from brief comments in some interviews the 54-year-old singer has always been guarded about his faith – until now. But in a frank interview with a Christian music magazine, he spoke at length publicly for the first time about his love for God and reluctance to become a "Christian celebrity."
Cooper – who legally changed his name from Vince Furnier – has been credited with paving the way for the likes of today’s outrageous performers such as Marilyn Manson. But he maintains that … he was always insulted whenever he was accused of being satanic. Raised in a Christian home, he still believed in God, although he was not committed.
That changed when alcoholism threatened his marriage. He and his wife, Sheryl, attended a church with a "hellfire pastor." Cooper said he became a Christian "initially more out of the fear of God, rather than the love of God ... I did not want to go to hell." Interviewed for HM’s March/April issue, Cooper views his faith as "an ongoing thing."
"Being a Christian is something you just progress in. You learn. You go to your Bible studies. You pray," he said.
He has avoided "celebrity Christianity," because "it’s really easy to focus on Alice Cooper and not on Christ. I’m a rock singer. I’m nothing more than that. I’m not a philosopher. I consider myself low on the totem pole of knowledgeable Christians. So, don’t look for answers from me."
Yet he has been able to speak to others in the music scene about his faith.
"I’ve had a couple of people that were friends of mine that I’ve talked to that have vocally said they have [accepted Christ]. I have talked to some big stars about this, some really horrific characters ... and you’d be surprised. The ones that you would think are the furthest gone are the ones that are more apt to listen."
Songs on Cooper’s more recent recordings have hinted at his change of heart. He sees his stage persona now as "the prophet of doom," telling people: "’Be careful! Satan is not a myth. Don’t sit around pretending like Satan is just a joke.’ I think my job is to warn about Satan."
He no longer performs some of his older repertoire. Any song promoting promiscuous sex and drinking "gets the axe," he said. "I’m very careful about what the lyrics are. I tried to write songs that were equally as good, only with a better message."
Cooper told HM he answers his critics: "’I was one thing at one time, and I’m something new. I’m a new creature now. Don’t judge Alice by what he used to be. Praise God for what I am now.’" (Source: World Net Daily)
4. We can see that God sometimes saves those we would least expect to be saved.
MAIN IDEA: God calls, and we are responsible to return His call. Yet we will only respond to that general call if God calls us specially, in a way that melts down our natural resistance to Him.
TS--------------‡ Paul once again emphasizes the dual-track reality of man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty.
I. Human Responsibility: We Must Get Out the Gospel (13-15)
1. To be saved, we must “call upon the Name of the Lord.” What name is this?
(1) based on the verses that follow, it must be Jesus, because the unbelieving Jews called upon Yahweh God but not Jesus
(2) but turn with me to Joel 2:23
(3) therefore, Jesus must be Yahweh
(4) but to truly call on Yahweh you must recognize that Jesus is Yahweh
(5) John 5:23, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”
2. But to call on His Name in a saving way (rather than a mechanical or ignorant way) requires faith in Jesus (14a)
3. Faith is based upon content, information (in this case, the Gospel) (14b)
---to “preach” means to “herald.” In ancient times, important news was announced by heralds who would either read decrees or simply state the information….
---“preaching” or heralding is NOT the only way to communicate the Gospel, but 2000 years later, it is still one of the best ways…
4. Preaching requires a preacher (14c)
5. Preachers are not going to hit the whole planet unless they be sent (15)
(1) this is why we have missions organizations, and why we must look beyond our own shores…
(2) to preach effectively, missionaries must learn the language, understand the culture, and develop rapport with those listening….
(3) If you have to call on Christ to be saved, and if you have to believe in Him to call, and if you have to hear about Him to believe in Him, then those who have not heard cannot be saved….
• At a recent missions conference attended by thousands of evangelical students, only one third of the participants indicated their belief that "a person who does not hear the Gospel is eternally lost."
Timothy, George Tabletalk, 1992
• A minister tells the story of a preacher who asked a man why he did not join the church. The reply was that the dying thief did not join the church and he was saved. "Well," said the minister, "if you do not belong to a church, perhaps you help by supporting missions?" "No," said the man. "The dying thief did not help missions, and wasn’t he saved?" "Yes," said the minister, "I suppose he was, but you must remember that he was a dying thief, whereas you are a living one." -- Christian Herald
• World Population: More than 6,000,000,000
(6 billion). Number of people who speak a language with no Scripture: at least 380 million;
250 million don’t have the Scriptures or a translation program,
130 million don’t have the Scriptures but do have a program in progress
• About 3,000 languages to Go.
• But getting a Bible in the language of the people is not the same as leading those people to Christ….
• About 11 per cent of the world would now claim to be Bible believing Christians (born-again) in 1997, up from 4 per cent in 1960 (source: http://www.missionfrontiers.com/newslinks/statewe.htm)
• Matthew 9:38, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
• Our job is to (1) ask whether God is calling us, and (2) to support others who are called…
God calls, and we are responsible to return His call. Yet we will only respond to that general call if God calls us specially, in a way that melts down our natural resistance to Him.
II. Divine Sovereignty: God Must Prep the Hearts for People to Believe (16-21)
1. There are two conclusions often drawn by our brothers and sisters that are not necessarily so:
(1) Since man is responsible, I can determine other people’s destinies; if I use the right techniques, I can convince them out of hell to heaven.
(2) God is going to save His elect, so why should I trouble myself? This position is called, “hyper-Calvinism.” When John Carey, who believed in election himself, sensed a call to India in the 18th century, his church leaders said, “God will save His elect. He does not need your help.”
(3) There is a third alternative, however. Paul defines this most clearly in 2 Timothy 2:10, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.”
(4) The alternative is to be used of God to harvest His crop. After all, it is not about us: it is about glorifying and serving God.
2. But most Israelites did not “accept the good news.”
3. Here we see a principle (not a guarantee): faith comes by hearing the Word of God (17)
a. Too many Christians bemoan their weak faith, but often those same Christians do not know their Bibles…
b. This is WHY we say that Bible reading is important to nurture our faith….
c. This also explains why modern day evangelicalism is noted to be a mile wide but only an inch deep…we have gotten away from the foundation of evangelicalism, belief in and familiarity with the Scriptures…
d. I was talking to a man who was trained in a Bible college and served as a pastor for several years and is now considering missions; yet he confessed he has yet to read through the whole Bible, even once
4. But understand this: Bible content or reading alone can nurture faith, but only if God has softened our hearts! It takes the two together.
(1) It was God’s plan for the Israelites to mostly reject Jesus and for great numbers of gentiles to embrace Him (19-20)
(2) Yet, on a level of human responsibility, the Israelites are described by God as an “obstinate people.” (21)
God calls, and we are responsible to return His call. Yet we will only respond to that general call if God calls us specially, in a way that melts down our natural resistance to Him.
CONCLUSION
1. So let me ask you some deep questions for personal consideration.
2. Are you open to God’s call?
• What IF you sense He was calling you to missions or pastoral ministry or some other sort of vocational Christian service?
3. Do you have a heart for missions? Is glorifying God by building up the
Kingdom of God top priority, or do you view Christianity as simply a way to fix up
America? Do you pray for missionaries, encourage them, and seek to support
them?
4. Do you have the right attitude toward evangelism? Is it God-centered or man- centered? Do you believe God can use you, and that He has brought people into your life for you to reach? Do you view God as making appointments for you? He is. Take the attitude of Paul: seek to be used by God.
