团契与门徒训练

You and Your Calling (Gen. 37:1~11)

2019.03.03P. Stephen Cha

God's first call is to belong to Him as His beloved child. Out of that, He guides us through the world's needs, our gifts and our desires to do all our work for the Lord.

Know the Caller before the calling

Watching little children take baby steps reminds us how God delights in us even when we bring and do nothing. We want to learn to walk with Jesus as His apprentice at home and at work. People with a sense of call live with purpose rather than climbing a ladder that leans against the wrong wall. Os Guinness, in The Call, asks whether we know the Caller: the God who created, gifted and redeemed us through Christ, and who invites us to walk with Him.

The first call is to belong to Christ

Calling means becoming as well as being, and God invites us into what He is preparing. The prior call is to follow Jesus and be His, as Romans 1:6 says, "called to belong to Jesus Christ." Guinness says God calls us so decisively that everything we are and do is lived as a response to His summons. A Fellowship of Christian Athletes leader spoke of coaches who are Christians versus Christians who happen to coach. Are you a Christian who happens to be a teacher or doctor, or the reverse? The Bible also records about a hundred people with a direct, unmistakable call, such as Noah, Moses, Samuel and Abraham.

Work is not evil, and no job is higher

God is a worker, and He gave Adam and Eve the work of gardening and naming the animals. Exodus 20, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 and Isaiah 65 all show that work is not a necessary evil. Missionary work is not a higher call. Moses was a political leader, David a king, Joseph a prime minister and Daniel a governor. Nor does work define who we are, which is a special temptation in an Asian context of performance. Whether you are raising children, caring for aged parents or running a carpet-cleaning business like Service Master, do everything unto the Lord.

Look at the world's needs and your gifts

Guidance toward a particular work begins with the needs of the world around you, which God has put a burden on your heart to meet. In the early 1980s, praise-team retreats showed me the need for pastors for Korean American youth, and I could not ignore it. The kids growing up under stress in Korea moved me to help them see that life is more than getting ahead. Second, your skills and gifts: God has probably pre-wired you for the work He has in mind. Ask Him what He is showing you.

Joseph's dream, gifts and the journey (vv. 2-11)

God gave seventeen-year-old Joseph a dream that his brothers and parents would bow to him. His gifts were already at work as he pastured the flock, probably with a gift for management and administration, and he brought a careful report to his father. The same gift appeared in Potiphar's house and in the prison, where he improved how things were done. Needs, gifts and the deep desires of your heart come together over time, and calling is a journey. Joseph's repeated troubles did not mean God had no plan. God was preparing him, and we too need our gifts affirmed.

Start where you are planted and take baby steps

Do not think you have missed your calling. Many people in the Bible were slaves who could not change their situation at once, yet God used them as they were faithful in small things. Start where you are planted and bloom there. God will not judge you for failing to become an actuarial analyst. He will judge by what Jesus has done and how you have placed your life in Him. Even with a boss you dislike, do everything unto the Lord. As you take baby steps, falling and getting up, others will experience God's grace through you.

Apply to Life

  • Let us remember that God delights in us as His beloved children, even when we bring Him nothing.
  • Let us respond first to Jesus' call to belong to Him, before we ask what job we should have.
  • Let us do everything, whether paid or unpaid, unto the Lord, and not let our work define who we are.
  • Let us look at the needs around us and at the gifts and desires God has given us, and ask Him what He is showing us.
  • Let us start where we are planted and keep taking baby steps with Jesus, saying yes to Him.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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