Well, good morning. Happy Father's Day to you
guys. My son reminded me when he said, Happy
Father's Day, Dad, you've been a father for 55
years. And I said, whoa, that's a long time.
I still don't get it. But welcome to you, Pauldin,
and those of you that are in Baghdad this morning,
we're glad you're with us. And happy Father's
Day to you guys, too. You know, I was thinking
of Father's Day. I have a four -year -old great
-granddaughter. She's a sweetheart, and she calls
her dad. Daddy. She calls her grandfather Papa,
and she calls me Old Papa. And that's my little
granddaughter there. She's a sweetheart. And
so the message is coming to you from Old Papa
this morning. You know, John talks about family,
and I feel like I'm still a part of the Heights
family. And so thank you for having me come up
here from 115 degrees. to spend some time with
you this morning. So thank you for having me.
We've been in a study of the book of Galatians.
We've been in Galatians and Todd did a great
job of just opening things up last week. And
boy, you talk about Paul being confrontational.
He kind of whacked him upside the head, didn't
he? With the church of Galatia for buying into
some wrong teaching. And so Paul got pretty straight
up with them and pretty authentic to correct
them. But it seems like the passage that I'm
in this morning in Galatians chapter 1, verses
11 through 24, it seems like he backs down a
little bit just to make sure that they understand
that he's a very creditable apostle. So he decides
that it'd probably be good for him to just go
through his calling and how God has processed
him so that his credibility would increase with
these folks because he had a bad reputation,
as you know. But God changed all that when he
was confronted on the road to Damascus, right?
And so Paul writes this, and he's talking about
his calling. And John wanted me to talk about
his calling, and so I dug into this a little
bit. And so I want to share with you a little
bit, but I wanted to give you, first of all,
the definition that I feel like defines what
God's calling is. It's God's defined purpose
for your life. It's God's defined purpose for
your life. You know, calling has been kind of
misconstrued, I think, in the church over the
years. It seems like the only people you hear
talking about calling are ministers and missionaries,
right? Well, that's crazy. Every one of you are
called for a purpose in your life. God created
each one of you in a special, unique way, and
every one of you have a calling in your life.
And your calling is just as important as my calling
or anybody else's calling because that's how
God called you, and that's special, and you need
to understand that. So Paul begins by giving
us some hints as to what a called person looks
like when we start in verses chapter 1, verses
11 and 12. And here's what he says. He says,
dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand
that the gospel message I preached received by
my message from no human reasoning. I received
my message from no human source and no one taught
me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation
from Jesus Christ. He makes it very clear that
every calling should start with Jesus. Every
calling should start with God. When we start
with other people, other issues, Let me explain
that a little bit. How many of you have ever
gone online and looked up comparisons of car
insurance? Anybody done that? Don't do that ever
again. One, two days, I had 47 robocalls. 47.
I still get 20 a day, people wanting to sell
me car insurance. And it's just driven me absolutely
bonkers. And so I decided I'm going to block
all these guys. And so I blocked everything not
in my contact list. And then I realized that
I may be missing a few phone calls. And so sure
enough, in the middle of all that, I had two
phone calls that I missed. And I regret that
because each of them were two wives who just
lost their husbands and wanted me to do their
funeral. And I thought, how? I felt so stupid.
But sometimes that's the way we are. You know,
I call them spam calls, robocalls, whatever you
want to call them. There's all kinds of things
in our world today that are trying to get us
and change the purpose of our life, to confuse
us. And we sometimes, in doing that, we end up
blocking out the most important call in our life,
and that's the call of God in our own lives.
And so we don't hear from God like we need to
hear because there's too many spam calls, if
you will, in our life. So Paul wanted to make
sure that where we start is always sitting down
face to face and trying to figure out with Jesus,
what is my calling and purpose in life? And so
that's where he started. Now he moves on and
he says something else because he realized that
part of our calling is defining our purpose.
That's a part of our definition. He talks about
it in verses 15 and 16. He says, but even before
I was born, God chose me and called me by his
marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal
his son to me so that I would proclaim the good
news about Jesus to the Gentiles. What was Paul's
calling in his life? God was very specific and
said, Paul, I want you to go to the Gentiles
and share the gospel. Now, if he didn't do that,
99 % of you wouldn't even be sitting here, right?
God gave him this great honor and privilege and
calling in his life. And so he followed through
on that very uniquely to who Paul was. And he
made a difference in many, many people's lives
and still here today. You have a unique purpose
as well. Have you ever thought about Psalm 139,
verse 16? He said, you saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life is recorded in your book.
God had a plan for your life the minute you were
conceived. God had a purpose for your life just
as much as God had a purpose for Paul in his
life. And your calling is very unique to who
you are and how God's created you and how he's
gifted you. Every one of us have a calling in
our life. We need to take that calling seriously.
Because we've always seemed to relegate it to
the minister and the missionary. Your calling
is just as important as a minister or a missionary.
Whether you're a teacher or a student or a mom
or a dad, whatever it is, your calling is specific
to you, how God has created you. And so Paul
was so obviously gifted in his own life and God
called him and defined his purpose. Thirdly,
We see in this particular passage that basically
God defines our calling based upon my uniquenesses,
which is what I've just covered. But in Psalm
139, verses 13 and 14, he said, you made all
the delicate inner parts of my body and knit
me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for
making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship
is marvelous. How well I know it. David writes
this psalm to remind us all that every one of
you are uniquely created by God. You're all special.
According to scripture in Ephesians, he says
you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.
You're a special, special person uniquely made
by God. And he's called you with a specific calling
and purpose in your life. And so if you're meandering
right now in who you are and where you're at,
hopefully this message will help solidify you
to understand that you have a purpose, a special
purpose, unique purpose in your life, and God's
using you, hopefully, to bear fruit because of
that. Well, fourth, we see here that sometimes
there's often a gap that is used to prepare for
our calling. Sometimes we get the message. about
something, about God wants us to do something,
but sometimes there's a gap in between. The reason
why I say that, because in Galatians chapter
1, verses 16 through 20, Paul says this. He said,
when this happened, when he had this transformation
on the road to Damascus, he tells these people,
he said, when this happened, he said, I did not
rush out and consult with any human being, nor
did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those
who apostles before I was. Instead, I went away
into Arabia, and later I returned to Damascus,
and then three years later, I went to Jerusalem
to get to know Peter. He went into a sabbatical
for three years just to be reprogramming his
whole heart and life. After all, he was killing
Christians, and now he had changed so dramatically,
he needed time to really spend that time with
intimacy with God. Have you ever had that happen
in your life where sometimes somebody, you felt
like God was prompting you to do something, but
it just seemed like there was delays. There was
just a time gap. I remember when I was struggling
in my first church and there was so much negativity
and criticism and backbiting and gossip in the
church and I was wounded deeply by it. And so
I had to really sit down and think, do I really
want to stay a pastor? And so there was a time
where I resigned from the church and I decided,
do I want to really pursue going back into ministry
again? Or do I just need to go find a secular
job and do something different? And so I prayed
about that. But for six months to eight months,
I was looking and putting my name out to various
churches to see if they were looking for a pastor
and nobody wanted me. And so it was very, very
discouraging to me. But God was preparing me
and making sure that my call was so solid that
I was going to stick with it. And by the end
of that period of time, God spoke to me and said,
I want to make your highway in the desert, Tom.
So I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona, starting a
church. That was 42 years ago. And I'm grateful
for that. But there was a time lapse between
my calling and what God really wanted me to do.
And sometimes those are times where God's just
preparing you, just like he was preparing Paul.
And so if you've been feeling like God's been
prompting you to do something, but it just hasn't
come to fruition yet, it hasn't grown, hang in
there. Because if you heard from God, he's got
a plan for your life and he will follow through
on it. Here's the fifth thing that I noticed
about Paul. When we function in our calling,
there's fruit produced. If you're functioning
in your calling, you can't help but produce fruit.
You really can't. And so in Galatians chapter
one, verse 22, he finishes this little passage
and he says, after that visit, I went north into
the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. And still
the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn't
know me personally. All they know was that people
were saying, the one who used to persecute us
is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy.
And they praise God because of me. You see, Paul,
because of the change in his life and hearing
his calling, God was producing so much fruit
in his life. So when you're in your calling,
you're a fruit producer. I just read a book recently
called, Aging Faithfully. And it was a great,
great book. And in that book, she was talking
about when you're in your latter days as a retiree,
she said it's interesting because most of your
life you've been trying to be productive, right?
You're trying to produce something. It's all
about bottom lines. It's all about making things
happen. And she said you need to shift your focus
from productivity when you're a retiree to fruit.
And it's an interesting concept because what
she's saying is that when you start, when you
end your particular vocation, oftentimes you
go into cruise control and she's saying, no,
no, no, that's the time where you really go inward
and you really understand the fruit of the Spirit
and that becomes the manifestation of your life
and now you're productive again. So I'll stop
right there because I'll get going too much and
I might get off on a tangent here. But how do
you know if you're functioning in your calling?
How do you know that? Well, Paul gave us some
clues here, but I have a few other ideas here.
Number one is you have the privilege of functioning
in your giftedness. It's so much fun when you're
operating in your giftedness. Have you noticed
that? It's just a delight. It's exciting. It's
fun to be in your giftedness. I'm hoping I'm
a gifted communicator to some degree, and it
brings me delight just to spend time with you
this morning. It's fun. It's exciting. I love
operating in my giftedness. It's great to be
able to focus on the positive and not all the
negative stuff that goes on in my life. So it
gives you the privilege of functioning in your
giftedness. In Acts chapter 13, verse 12, it
says, when the governor saw what had happened,
and this is when Peter or Paul was preaching,
He said he became a believer for he was astonished
at the teaching about the Lord. See, Paul's giftedness
was shining all over Asia Minor. His giftedness
of church planting and being a pastor and missionary,
it was coming out in Paul and he was just enjoying
it immensely. But secondly, it was so compelling
for Paul. It says in Acts chapter 20, verses
22 and 24, he said, And now I am bound by the
Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what
awaits me except that the Holy Spirit tells me
in the city after city that jail and suffering
lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me
unless I use it for finishing the work assigned
me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others
the good news about the wonderful grace of God.
So what this point is, is that you can know you're
in your giftedness when you feel like you have
great determination and conviction to hang in
there no matter what the circumstances are. Paul
knew that everywhere he went, he was going to
find somebody pushing back. Not only by his reputation,
but by his new reputation of really changing
the world for Jesus. I remember Many times in
ministry over my lifetime, over 50 years of ministry
full -time, how many times I wanted to quit.
People were driving me crazy. There were situations
where the church had issues, and it just got
wearying after a while. And there were days where
I thought, you know what? God, I just don't want
to keep going. But something in my spirit was
binding me. I felt captured by this calling in
my life, and it kept me in the game. And when
you're operating in your calling, it's not like
the grass is always greener on the other side.
You're there for the duration. You're there until
God says you can quit. And Paul was so compelled
and so constrained and so convicted that it didn't
matter what obstacles were in his life, he was
going to fulfill that calling that God had in
his life. Thirdly, and I've already said this,
but you have sense of being bound by your calling.
And sometimes that being bound gets frustrating.
A little illustration about... a fish in a fishbowl,
if you can bear with me, but let's pretend Nemo's
there. And you found Nemo, but Nemo's been swimming
around in his fishbowl for quite a while, and
he's looking at this world out there, and he's
thinking, man, I got to get out of here. I can't
do this anymore. I just want to flip out of this
fishbowl, and I want to be free. So old Nemo
flips himself out of the fishbowl and he starts
flopping around on the floor and all of a sudden
he realizes, I can't breathe. And see, that's
what happens to us. Sometimes when we quit too
soon and we want to get out of the fishbowl and
we think that that's going to be a better place
for me, when God says, uh -uh, I got you right
where I want you. I got you right in that fishbowl,
right where you belong. And you can swim all
the way around in the fishbowl all you want to.
You have all the freedom to do that. But I'm
holding you captive because I've called you to
be a fish. So if you're feeling fishy this morning,
bear with me. Number four is this. You have a
sense of contentment. Remember what Paul said
in Philippians? Paul said, I have learned to
be content in whatever circumstances I am in.
And boy, he had some rough ones. When you're
in your calling, there's a contentment, there's
a satisfaction. There's a kind of a restful feeling
that's in your life and saying, yeah, it feels
good. And even though there's opposition, even
though there's struggles and so forth, I'm not
going to jump out of the fishbowl and try to
do something else before God tells me. So there's
this feeling of tentment. And then finally, you
see this fruitfulness. Philippians 1, verse 22
was just a verse that came to my mind. It says,
if I live, I can be more fruitful for Christ.
And he was in that battle of saying, you know,
for me to live is Christ, but to die is to gain.
I'd rather die, but I know that as long as I'm
alive, I want to be fruitful. And what's really
fun is when you're operating in your calling,
God reveals to you various times in your life
of the fruit that's existing because you've been
living your calling out, living your purpose.
There's fruit there. It's been fun for me. The
older I get, then people come back into your
life that you maybe invested in 20, 30, 40 years
ago. And I've had phone calls or people just
falling into my life lately and just saying,
you know what? You've meant so much to me in
my life. I'm thinking, I didn't even know I touched
that person. But when you're in your calling,
you realize that there is fruit being manifested
out there. And it's just a great feeling to know
that that's happening. And sometimes God rewards
us with those kind of phone calls. And sometimes
we're going to have to wait till we get to glory.
And he says, well done, thou good and faithful
servant. So you have fruitfulness when you're
in your calling. So the next question that I
came up with as I was preparing this message,
well, how do you determine your calling? If you're
kind of in that place in your life right now
where you're saying, you know what, I'm not sure
what my calling is. I'm not sure what my next
step should be. Well, let me give you some ideas.
Number one is I would firstly ask God to reveal
it to you. Have some time out. Get away. Take
some time in your life to just get away and just
rethink and listen to what God has to say and
just... Ask God to reveal it to you. God, what
is it you want me to do? Where is it you want
me to go? What's next for me, God? And be a good
listener. Secondly, seek counsel with godly people.
There are people out there that sometimes know
you well and love you and have a godly heart.
They can look at you and say, you know what?
I believe that this is what God's calling you
to do. Now you put those together from the word
of God and God revealing it to you and now it
begins to percolate in your life and you begin
to say, well, maybe I need to consider that.
Maybe I should look at that. Obviously embracing
your giftedness. What are your giftedness? Might
be good for you to go through growth track and
figure out what maybe your gifts are if you're
not sure what your gifts are. But there's great
tools out there as well. Diagnostic tools like
strength finders and disc tests and personality
gifts and gifts to disc test. All those kind
of combine into ways that we can help understand
who we are and what God's called us to do and
to be. And I would challenge you to think about
that. And then obviously there's times where
there's actually direct revelation from God.
There are times in my life where God has actually
spoken in that still small voice, just like he
did with Elijah when he was on the mountaintop
trying to figure out what's next for his life.
But if we don't slow down long enough to hear
what God has to say, we're never going to know.
And so a lot of it is that life gets in the way.
There's too many spam calls if we go back to
our illustration. Everybody else has a wonderful
plan for our life, don't they? Culture does.
The TV does. Everybody has a wonderful plan for
our lives. But if we don't stop long enough,
God sometimes just wants to whisper and say,
look, this is what I've called you to do. I remember
when God spoke to me very clearly. I want you
to make your highway in the desert. I want you
to be a pastor. That was a scary day, believe
me. But God spoke to me so clearly, it was just
undeniable that God revealed that to me. I'll
never forget the day when that happened and I...
I never wanted to be a pastor to begin with.
And I said, God, why are you doing this to me?
And I made a U -turn. I was driving and I came
home and I told my wife, I said, honey, I guess
I know where we're at right now. She said, what?
I said, God wants me to be a pastor. She said,
are you kidding? I said, I don't want to be a
pastor's wife. Yeah, they're the unsung heroes,
by the way. But that was a direct revelation
from God. I couldn't deny it. That was God's
voice speaking to me. And it's fun, but I was
able to, when I was complaining to God, that's
when he spoke to me because when, you know, I
get into these arguments with God. I don't know
if you do, but I get into these things where
I get so upset with God some days. And I was
upset that day because, man, I'd gotten beat
up in the church and I was trying to survive
on being a carpenter, which I was lousy at. And
I said, God, what's the deal? And he said, you
know, if you just shut up for a minute, I'll
tell you. You know, and there's a lot of us are
like that. If we just shut up for a minute and
listen to what God has to say, we might find
some very compelling information in our lives.
He wants to speak to us through the word of God
and through other people and through a still
small voice. And I wrote this down because I
remember when Samuel was being called by God.
Do you remember that story? And he was going
to anoint Samuel to be a prophet. And he was
speaking and Samuel heard this voice. And what
was the first thing out of his mouth? It says,
speak, Lord, for what? I am listening. We are
lousy listeners in our culture. So listen to
what God is trying to say. Now, when I opened
this message up, I asked God if God was maybe
calling you to something, and you've had him
blocked, okay? And so I had these thoughts in
closing and I want to share these things with
you. Maybe you've been serving your calling and
that maybe God is calling you to something else.
Why do I say that? Here's the reason. When I
retired, quote retired, at 70 years old, I'm
going to be 77 in a couple weeks. And when I
first retired, I really struggle a little bit
with my identity. Anybody relate to that, using
our retirees? Because you've spent your entire
life in your vocation, which you have always
considered it to be your calling, right? And
now my calling's over. Now what do I do? Well,
unfortunately, a lot of retirees kind of put
their lives on cruise control, and you just kind
of go through life, the rest of your life, in
your fourth quarter, I would call it, of your
life. And you're just kind of enjoying life together,
but the fruit's not there. Maybe the satisfaction
isn't there. The joy isn't there. And I'm going
to get on a little soapbox here because I feel
like that I'm still in one of the most productive
and fruitful times in my life because I was able
to shift from essentially being, quote, a pastor
to now a disciple maker. And I've been disciple
-making all my life. And you know what's really
sad? There was a survey done by Back to the Bible
not too long ago by Arnie Cole. And he served
hundreds of people who they quoted were mature
Christian believers, many of them older, many
of them retired. They all had all of the earmarks
of being a mature Christian. They had a prayer
life. They were into the Word of God. They were
active in their church and so on and so forth.
But then he asked the question, how many of you
are investing right now in somebody's life? Disciple
making. 80 % said nothing, zero. And I feel like
if you're a retiree, you can be in the most fruitful
time of your life right now. I want to challenge
you. Reinvent yourself. No, you're not what you
were. But you have more wisdom, more maturity.
You're the very people that God needs to be using
to pour into people's lives, amen? Now, I'm challenging
you on that. I could go on another hour on that
whole topic itself. But here's the second thought
I had in closing. God never calls someone to
something without equipping him. If you're feeling
called right now and you say, not me, Lord, I
can't do that. Remember Moses? You know, he didn't
want to go back and leave the people to the promised
land. God, I can't even talk. How am I supposed
to? God, you know, don't you remember I killed
a couple Egyptians? I'm not a very popular guy
in Egypt right now. And God just basically said,
suck it up. I'll give you Aaron, right? I'll
give you a staff, right? What about Joshua? Can
you imagine the poor guy? He inherited that whole
mess. A couple million Jews trying to cross the
land and they were stiff -necked and a problem
all along the way for Moses. And that's why God
said to Joshua, he said, Joshua, listen, man,
be strong, be courageous. Go for it because every
step you take, you're gonna bear fruit. You're
gonna see victory in your life. God never calls
somebody that he doesn't equip. And if you're
feeling inadequate, God's the God of your inadequacy.
Third, don't confuse your calling by being driven.
You know, sometimes it bothers me when I see
people that are just go, go, go, and they are
type A personalities and they've got to get it
all, get her done, get her done, get her done.
And I'm thinking, what is your motivation? Is
it insecurity? Is it control? Or is it God compelling
you from the inside out that you are called to
do this? So don't confuse being driven with being
called. And finally, no matter what, We have
one calling we can't resist. We can't let go
of this. I've served several hundred churches
when I was consulting with churches all over
the West Coast. And every one of them had the
Great Commission in their bylaws and their constitution.
But I always ask you a question, but how many
people are really being discipled? How many people
are taking one step closer to the Lord? How is
this church really living out disciple making?
And I'm so thrilled when I hear what Heis is
doing right now. But the point is, I don't care
who you are. Your calling is not to be argued.
We are called to go and make disciples. And if
nothing else in your life today, You are called
to do that. Don't rationalize that, but accept
it because God made that one really clear for
us. And so I really challenge you to do that.
Well, old Papa is done this morning. I want to
challenge you this morning. Let me pray. God.
You are an amazing God and you want to speak
to us. You want that relationship with us. You
love us so much that you created us uniquely
in a way that each one can be living life with
purpose. God, if there's a person here right
now that's just struggling with that right now,
God, I pray that they would take some time to
just dive into it. Get it squared away so that
they have direction in their life for their future
and each day. God, I pray for that person that
maybe has been challenged today and you're trying
to block that call because you don't feel adequate
or you don't feel ready or prepared for that.
But God, I pray that you would break through
all the spam. I pray that they would take that
call. Because you never know how exciting the
fruit that will come from that in the days that
are ahead. So God, thank you for giving me the
opportunity to share this morning. And I just
love these folks so much. And so I pray all this
in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.