Answering the Call

This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

God, there's a lot of confession in those words.

There's a lot of things that we're claiming you are.

And if we believe just a little bit in you, we certainly know those to be true.

God, what I pray is that it's not just a confession, but a belief.

And God, I pray that beyond belief, we trust it.

We can believe the chair is in the room, but we have to trust it to sit down in it.

And so, God, move us from confession and belief to full trust.

God, let us fully trust in you.

And Holy Spirit, what I pray this morning is that you fall fresh on us.

Speak to us individually as necessary and corporately as the church, so that we better understand you, we better love you, and therefore we better serve you.

For it's in your name, Jesus, that we pray these things.

Amen.

All right.

Hey, folks, if you would, before we get started, if you'd just squeeze in a little bit, if there's some space between you and your neighbor, get to know them.

You can write down your favorite deodorant or perfume if you need to and suggest that to them.

I like several Calvin Klein scents if you're buying them at the store.

Well, good morning.

Uh as Neil mentioned in the beginning, my name is Wade Burgess, and a couple of weeks ago the church announced uh my decision to say yes to the offer of executive pastor uh here at Grand Parkway.

Now that won't begin until April, as also Neil mentioned.

But uh, since making that announcement here and at my current employer, I've gotten several questions around that.

Wade, how did you arrive at that decision?

Do you have any formal training?

Can you even spell ministry?

Simple questions like that.

Um different ones kind of raise a cocked eyebrow about you're you're doing what?

By the way, that was one of my fears is that at work I would tell them, hey, I'm going to work at the church.

You go to church?

Um so uh that that has not happened for the record.

But um I I've got a lot of questions about that, and uh those questions really can be kind of summed up or boiled down into two.

One, what is a calling?

I heard you say that you were felt called to this, or you sent out an email at work, you called.

What what is a calling?

And then the second thing, uh, the second question that I got was, how did you know to say yes?

I was telling my boss, I said, Yeah, um, uh, this is what I've decided.

And and he said, Man, uh okay, are you sure?

And and he asked about literally every three days, he'll say, Hey, did you change your mind yet?

Change your mind yet?

And I keep saying no, and he says, How did you know for sure?

And I he he said to me, He said, I've never been sure of anything in my life.

How did you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were sure about that?

And so I want us to explore those two questions today, but also want us to explore a third question that I think those two beg, and that is, if we ask, what is a call, and we define that, and I tell you about my experience related to my call as executive pastor, then what do we do if we get a call?

And I believe we're all called by God to be on mission with Him.

If you are a believer in Christ, we are called to be on mission with what God has done and is doing, and we'll talk about that more in in just a minute.

Uh and there's different quote sizes of calls.

We'll talk about that as well.

But what do we do with that?

What does that look like?

And so those are the three questions that I want us to explore today.

And my goal is to maybe help you better identify what that feels like to you, what does that look like to you, and then encourage you to respond in that.

So turn with me, if you would, to 2 Peter.

Uh while you're turning there, let me give you a couple of things.

Uh one, if you don't have a Bible, there should be one on your row.

If you don't have a Bible at home, you're welcome to take one of those with you.

That's our gift to you.

As you're turning to 2 Peter chapter 1, the second thing I'll tell you is that today I'm going to use uh about three references from an author by the name of Oz Guinness, writer of several books.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

But he wrote a book entitled The Call, and a good friend of mine gave that to me several years ago, and I couldn't help but reference it today.

So you'll see some quotes come up on the screen related to that as well.

So, 2 Peter, if you're using a Bible on your row, we're on page 1018-1018.

2 Peter chapter 1, we'll begin in verse 5 and read through about verse 11.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Let's see what Peter is telling us here.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things, you will never stumble.

For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

So, what is this definition of a call?

Osgenes kind of summarizes about three ways that it can be used in the Bible, and it's used multiple times, but we're going to look at three of them.

The first one that he highlights for us says really, it's just a calling out to someone.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for call translates very closely the meaning of our English word call.

And so it's really just a calling out, calling out to a friend, even calling out to God.

Oz says it's even calling out to an animal, a pet that you might have.

Very simple definition of call.

But here's the reason I wanted to include that.

That very simple definition has a relational usage.

Rarely do we call an animal to us that we don't know.

Rarely do we call out to someone that we don't know and try to get their attention.

And so that's why I wanted to be sure we understood the very first definition of a call is just this idea of a relational usage.

As we just call out to someone.

And it could be God calling out to us.

It's really just kind of a it's catching someone's ear for a season, I think.

Maybe you might look in the dictionary and find that that just says, hey, for a little while, let me let me bend your ear.

The second way calling is used is in the Old Testament, and it was to name something.

Specifically in Genesis, uh, you know that God called into being the earth, and he put the water where it needed to be, and the land and light, and all of that, right?

Just kind of this calling into being.

He also called us into being.

He called man into being.

Now you remember from Genesis it said a couple of things.

One, it he made us in his image, but he also did it for a relationship with himself.

And so he's calling us.

Let's take a look.

This is the first quote we'll use from Oz, and I think it'll come up on the screen there.

It's this idea of calling is not only a matter of being and doing what we are, but also of becoming what we are not yet, but are called by God to be.

That's a pretty good mouthful there.

Calling is not only the act of being and doing.

So st stay with me here.

As God called man into being, he made him something particular, and then made him to do something.

But also because it's God's calling, he said, You're not yet what I want you to become.

I think that's what Peter tells us here.

In verse 5, he says, For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith, meaning to continue to grow, to continue to becoming what you're called to do.

And he talks about supplement your faith with goodness and with knowledge and with self-control and endurance and godliness and brotherly affection.

For if you possess these qualities, verse 8, in increasing measure, they'll keep you from being useless or unfruitful.

That's the second definition of this idea of calling.

It's the fusion of being and becoming.

What is it that God has us becoming?

What does that look like?

And then the third way calling is used is in the New Testament, it's where God calls people to Himself.

Now, that in essence is really no casual suggestion where God calls us to himself.

Oz says this, he talking about God, he is so awe-inspiring, and his summons so commanding that only one response is appropriate.

A response as total and universal as the authority of the caller.

God is so awe-inspiring, and his call to us, his summons, his command to us is so great, we have only really one choice.

And that is to have total and universal authority equal to his in terms of our answering that call.

And so taking all those, I kind of came up with my own definition of what does it mean to be called?

And it's this it's more than a casual suggestion that requires action on the part of the hearer.

More than a casual suggestion that requires action on the part of the hearer.

Now, by the way, um, you could, it takes a little practice, you could ignore when someone calls you, hey Todd, it would be kind of hard if you're Todd to not turn around.

You could practice it.

But here's the thing, we're gonna talk about today.

When God calls us with that kind of authority, that kind of summonsing, it's virtually impossible for us not to turn when we hear our name coming from that source.

So that's gonna be the definition of call that we're looking at.

The idea that it's more than a casual suggestion that requires action on the part of the hearer.

Now, if you'll indulge me a few minutes, I'd like to talk about my favorite subject, me, and I want to I want to uh kind of kind of walk you through um that this what led me to this decision to say yes to the executive pastor role and and what did that look like?

Um and so for for a few years, uh as I got to know Neil, and you know, we've been coming to the church a long time, as I got to know Neil, Neil in his unique way would mention to me that he'd like me to consider coming on staff here, and here's kind of what that looked like.

Wade, when you're ready to stop cashing large checks, start cashing small checks, you let me know.

Well, all right.

As appealing as that sounds, Neil, I think I'll pass.

Um and and he would do that.

I'm being a little bit flippant, but but he would do that, and I'd just be, yeah, no, I got nothing, Neil.

And uh I'd say every now and then, hey Neil, you know I work in healthcare, right?

That's where all the sick people are.

Jesus says I came for the sick, not the well.

Hello.

And and he'd blow it off like he typically does when I talk.

And um and let me let me sidebar here for just a minute and tell you this.

I have grown accustomed in my long Christian walk to hearing what the prompting of the Holy Spirit sounds or feels like.

It's really more of a feeling.

It's the first thing I get when I feel a prompting, it's it's it's a feeling.

Then I I hear something, and I'll tell you about that.

We um I'm at work one evening a couple of years ago, and um uh I'm leaving, and I'm getting in the elevator to the parking garage, and a couple of guys get on the elevator, and I notice one of them has a cross on his chain, on his necklace, and uh they get on and we press the button, and and man, this guy wearing the cross, boy, he is using all kind of foul language, and he's just going off and he's being ugly, and I mean just I immediately felt this tightness in my chest, this kind of compression.

And then I heard this little inside voice, and he said, Hey Wade, why don't you ask him a question like, hey, how come your language doesn't match your jewelry?

And I'm like, uh I'm like, test one, two, is this thing on?

Come again, come again.

Thought maybe I had a filling that was picking up radio frequencies.

And uh I'm like, Holy Spirit, that's kind of a big old boy.

I don't know if I can take him.

And uh and then I'm like, well, I can't really get away from him in this elevator.

Let's let's maybe wait till we get outside, and then I'll, hey, your language doesn't match your jewelry.

Um the elevator door is open and and and we exit, and I don't say anything, and I keep feeling this, and this thing's getting heavier, and it's getting heavier, and I'm walking a little slower to my car, and I get to my car, and I I can't even, I'm just ooh, this thing is on me.

Okay, all right, Holy Spirit.

I turn around and I'm like, oh, oh, where'd he go?

Now I'm gonna be obedient now.

Where is he?

Can't find him.

He's he's gone.

And I get back to my car, and it's just the sensation of being kicked in the gut.

This kind of, ooh, I think maybe I I missed something there.

Maybe I, oh boy, that that doesn't feel good.

I don't want to miss that.

So fast forward a couple of months, I'm I'm over here on sweetwater at a gas station and I'm filling up with gas, and this this lady comes walking up to me and she hands me one of those uh the watchtower pamphlets, the Jehovah's Witness pamphlet.

And uh I'm like, oh, no ma'am, that would be wasted on me.

No, no, no.

I I don't need that.

No, thank you, no, thank you.

And then the whole time in my mind, I'm like, okay, Holy Spirit, go ahead, kick in.

Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.

I'm listening, go ahead, go ahead.

And then I'm like, Well, what would Neil do?

Uh he'd save three people and pay for everybody's gas.

Uh I I don't know.

And so uh so so I'm like, uh, no ma'am, thank you, thank you, gotta go, gotta get in the car.

And I get in the car and I get about a half a block, and I'm thinking, Holy Spirit, how come you didn't kick in there?

What happened?

And the Holy Spirit said very clearly to me, he just said, Hey, Wade, why didn't you just ask her a question?

Why didn't you just simply say, uh, tell me what you believe?

Tell me about Jesus.

Tell me a little bit about sin and forgiveness.

How how tell me about the Jehovah's Witness belief in that?

Tell me about heaven and how do you get there?

Things like that.

Wade, you didn't even have to convince her of what you believe.

You're just asking her questions to begin the dialogue.

Then, if you'd have begun the dialogue, we'd have had something there.

But instead, you're like, uh, and and and again, I kind of felt that, ooh, I I think I missed it.

By the way, Peter also tells us, uh, he says, be ready to give an account for what you believe and why you believe it.

Now, I'll tell you, I like to be practiced, and so I kind of think, well, here's my script.

When somebody asks me, Wait, what do you believe?

Oh, I'll tell you what I believe.

Let me tell you.

And and I'm always, but nobody ever asks me the question I'm practiced for, right?

I don't know that it's so much a practiced script as it is to be ready for the response.

Here's what I mean.

I think a lot of us, and I do this, a lot of us figuratively go around with kind of our heads down, just okay, I'm at the store, I gotta get what I got to get.

I'm at work, I gotta do, hurry, go, go, go, and we kind of keep our head down.

And if we're wondering, God, how come I don't hear any callings?

How come I don't sense any of this?

I think it's because we don't have our head up.

We maybe we don't have our ears tuned to kind of what's going on around us and what's happening there.

Maybe I ought to be buying somebody groceries, maybe I ought to say something to someone.

Now, I have responded positively uh to some of that in terms of uh I I I my wife and I were at Banditos one day and we were getting some tacos one evening, and um, as we're walking out, this guy walks in and he sits down, and uh I just I sense that same compression, that same old familiar feeling.

And I just heard the Holy Spirit say, Hey, why don't you ask that guy how you can pray for him?

So I I told my wife, I said, Go head out to the car, I'll be out there in just a second.

And I went back in.

Now, let me tell you, my flesh wanted this to happen.

Sir, how can I pray for you?

Oh, brother, I've been drowning in sin and I was waiting on somebody.

Could you save me and tell me how to get right with God?

That's kind of what I'm looking for, right?

Oh man, I'm about to.

And so I feel the Holy Spirit kind of compressing on me.

And uh I said, sir, this is gonna sound odd, but I just get this sense that I'm supposed to ask you, how can I pray for you?

And he says, No, I'm good.

All right, sorry to bother you.

And I walk outside and I'm like, Holy Spirit, I thought that was you.

Was that the taco I just had?

What is that?

Is this um but here's here's the difference.

I believe I was obedient to that, and at the end of that, I didn't feel this, ooh, I think I missed it.

I felt this very light, just I did what you wanted me to.

And I don't know, obviously, if this guy, you know, two weeks later, a year later, somebody comes up to him and says, Hey, I uh I've been praying for you, and he goes, prayer.

Or maybe he just needed to hear, hey, God still got you on his radar.

I just didn't want you to forget that.

But a lot of times it's not our job to to close the deal, right?

Our job is to uh plant the seed, or maybe to water the seed, maybe give it a little extra fertile soil.

That's our job.

God says in the Bible, it's not your responsibility to to convert them, it's mine.

I'm just gonna use you to do all you need to do is be obedient to that.

So sometimes it's just being obedient.

So back back to to the story here of um saying yes to the executive pastor role.

Um I uh about two years ago, Neil and I think a couple of the elders came to me and they said, Hey Wade, we think you've got certain skill sets that would serve the church well.

We we think there's something there we'd like you to consider coming on staff here.

And I said, No, I I appreciate that.

Thank you, but but no.

And then about a year ago, uh Neil came back to me and said, Hey, Wade, I really think that uh you've got a certain skill set that would serve the church well, and I'd like you to consider coming on board here.

I said, nah, I I appreciate it.

Now let me tell you, um we've been coming to church here a long time, as I said earlier, and and and I love the church.

I like Neil, the elders.

If I had said yes out of obligation for any of that, a responsibility or the church needs it or there's an opening or whatever, that would not have been a calling.

Don't get confused between an obligation and a calling.

Okay, that's not what we're talking about here.

An obligation would have had me say yes, probably, and then oh, I'm not in the right spot.

This isn't the time or maybe the place or whatever.

Don't don't misunderstand obligation for calling.

And by the way, I think um uh that the less we listen to the Holy Spirit, the less we'll hear.

That's pretty deep, right?

The less we listen, the less we'll hear.

But I also believe, on the other hand, the more we listen, the more we learn.

For a while I was concerned, and and I don't know if this is sound theology, but when I don't respond to the prompting that I feel from the Holy Spirit, I worry I'm gonna grieve him to silence.

I'm worried he's just gonna say, Well, if you're not gonna listen, I'm not gonna talk, just go on, do what you want to do.

I don't want to do that.

And so um I I didn't really think much about it.

Two years ago, Neil says, about a year ago, Neil and a couple of elders said something.

Nope, didn't feel anything, nothing to that.

Then in July of last year, Neil uh comes to me and he says, Hey Wade, I'd like you to preach one Sunday here in July, if you don't mind.

And uh he said, you know, when you preach, they think better of me, so if you could go out there, that'd be awesome.

I thought, yeah, Neil, it's no problem, I'll take one for the team.

Uh later I found out after every time I preach, Neil asked for a raise.

So it works out for for him, I think.

Um and and so in July, uh I I preached, and and right after that, something got ignited in me.

Just something got set off, uh, got got got pinged in me.

And and I I'm like, what what is that?

Neil and the elders came to me not long after that and said, hey, wait, I think you've got a certain skill set that would serve the church well, and we'd like you to consider maybe coming on staff here.

And then the no wouldn't come.

I I I I couldn't I couldn't say no.

Now, I didn't say yes yet, but just it was kind of like for for those of you in my generation, the Fonz, when he was trying to say please, I couldn't say couldn't say no.

And um and so I go July and August kind of praying, just uh talking to God about what does this look like?

What what what is it that that you want?

What are you calling me to?

What does this look like?

Um and uh I kept uh I I just kind of kept sensing God saying, Yeah, I might I might have something for you.

Let's keep talking.

And uh as I typically do, I got you know, in a big decision, I'll make a list of pros and cons, right?

I'll kind of write them out.

I'll I'll do it.

This time I just kind of did it mentally, and I had this long list of the reasons I should say no to the executive pastor decision.

I'm like, well, God.

I've got good finances.

I've got a good job.

I've been there a long time.

I mean, 15 years at one place, 20 years in this career track.

I've been there a while.

Did I mention I make good money?

You've really blessed me in that.

And so are you sure this is what you want me to do?

At one point, I thought about developing a stutter, and maybe that'd talk him out of it.

And then I remember Moses.

And so that didn't work.

By the way, speaking of Moses, Hebrews 11, you know, talks about the men and women of faith.

It talks about Noah and Sarah and Abraham and Moses.

Every one of them said yes to a calling, a prompting.

And they didn't know how that was going to end up.

They didn't know where they were going.

In fact, it didn't make any sense at all.

You know, Noah, when he was building the Ark, it had never rained.

You're doing what, Noah?

For what?

Huh?

And Noah said, Yeah, I just believe this is what I'm prompting.

Every one of them, and obviously I'm not trying to compare myself to these great men and women of faith, but what I am saying is that sometimes the prompting doesn't make sense.

And it wasn't making sense to me, sort of, you know, logically, right?

It didn't make sense that, God, you're calling me to what?

Now listen, I got a son that's about to go to college in two years.

I'm going to need those bigger paychecks.

Uh, this isn't gonna.

And I just heard that that little quiet voice say, You don't think I got that figured out?

And I was like, Well, God, you know, uh, the more you bless me, the more I can bless others.

And so allow me to be a conduit of your blessing to I think you only said 10%, right?

Uh allow me to be a.

And uh just that little small voice said, Hey, you don't you don't think I got that figured out?

I also heard that voice say, My disciples didn't take much convincing.

I also heard, and God just just saying, Wade, you you've been saying for a long time, you believe in me, you've been reading my word a long time, you've been praying.

In fact, you've been praying, God have big plans for me, because that sounded like what I should be praying.

God have big plans for me, do something in me.

And he's like, uh, hello.

I'm ready.

And so uh about I guess it was about September, I mentioned to my wife and son, I said, Hey, I want you guys to join me in praying about something.

I um something's not settling right.

I I I they came back and asked me, and I can't, I can't get settled with a no.

So I want you all to pray with me about that.

And they said, okay, we we we'll do that, you bet.

Um and then I said to my wife, I said, Hey, um, you know what'd be great is if God would just, man, if he'd bring something big, just well, no, I don't want him to hurt anybody, but if he'd bring something big, like I don't want toads or fire, but if he'd bring something big, you know, something, I mean, just undeniable, something that's never happened before.

Oh man, just you know, something we've never seen.

Oh, if God would do that, that's when I know.

And she said, uh, didn't we just get finished with Harvey?

This record 500,000-year flooding thing and deal.

I'm like, well, that couldn't have been it.

That's not it.

And uh, and so my son's there, and I said, I said, you know what?

You know what, ooh, now this would be good.

If on my way to work on the Southwest Freeway, I'm driving to the galleria, if this blinding light would come, and I just I can't, ooh, that that'd be it.

Me and you, Paul, I didn't see, I couldn't see.

And my son said, Didn't we just have an eclipse like a week ago?

I'm like, boy, you got a smart mouth, I'll tell you that.

Um and and I'm like, well, that that couldn't be it.

And and uh throughout all that, I just kept hearing that that small voice, that compression and audible voice.

This is what it reminded me of.

Let me uh draw your attention.

You don't have to turn there, but let me draw your attention to 1 Kings.

Uh this is 1 Kings 19, and you can read the whole story.

Actually, I think it's a very good one.

I I even, in preparing for today, missed uh a couple of things that Elijah did.

But this is the story of Elijah.

Uh many of you know it, where he goes to Mount Carmel, and this is where he has the showdown with the prophets of Baal.

You know, he's talking a lot of smack to them, and he even says, Hey, speak a little louder, maybe your God's sleeping, and he's not responding, and they're doing whatever they're doing.

I mean, they're cutting themselves and everything they can think of.

And you remember that the land is under this severe drought, right?

And Elijah says, Hey, get some water.

And they're like, What?

You know, get some water, douse the altar down, build a moat, and circle it with water.

I mean, just drown that thing.

And Elijah prays, and God comes down, and he sends the fire and he laps up the water and he burns up the altar, and then he kills the prophets of Baal.

And Elijah's on a pretty good high at this point.

And then Jezebel, the wife of the king.

Now, by the way, Jezebel is the one that convinced the king to have the people stop worshiping God and start worshiping Baal.

She makes a vow that she is going to kill Elijah.

No matter what, she's going to kill him.

And the word gets back to him, and Elijah's like, God, didn't we just put on this awesome display?

And now all of a sudden somebody wants to kill me?

I thought they'd be bowing down to you.

I mean, that was the whole reason we were doing this, wasn't it?

Why why isn't she on board?

What in the world's going on?

And man, he is distraught.

I mean, this can you imagine the high he was on?

And now all of a sudden he's distraught, and he says, God, I need to see you.

I need to come visit with you.

And so he makes about a 40-day trek to Mount Sinai, the same mountain that uh Moses receives the Ten Commandments.

And so he goes on the mountain, and he's going to have in his mind this kind of face-to-face with God.

Let me read to you, starting in uh this is 19, verses 11 through about 14.

Isaiah 19:11

Let me read to you what happens.

Then he, talking about God, then he said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord's presence.

At that moment the Lord passed by.

A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.

And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped himself in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Here I am looking for big things, right?

I want God, God, you just come on and show me and be big and let me have no doubt and let me.

And then I remembered that.

That's the way I think he talks to us.

I think it's neat to understand that God revealed his power in that, in the earthquake and the fire and the wind, and things are happening.

God's revealing power at that point.

But he's communicating in just a soft voice.

And so that's what it feels like to me.

When I feel a prompting, I feel this compression, and then I hear this soft voice that just kind of gives me direction in what to do.

And as I move through September and October, kind of continue to wrestle with this confirmation, God, is that really you?

Is that what you want me to do?

Each time I just heard that small voice say, You can trust me.

About November, I uh I'm on the phone with a lady that I work with.

She happens to be a pastor's wife, and they had moved uh, I guess a couple of years ago from Missouri to Houston.

And I didn't tell her why I was asking.

I just said, Hey, tell me a little bit about your decision to move.

I mean, y'all have kind of bounced around, if you will, but all related to a call.

Um, tell me a little bit about that.

What does that look like?

And she she she went through what that looks like, how she herself missed it a couple of times and what that felt like, and how she was slow to come around some and all this.

And she goes through that story.

Um and toward the end of the call, she said, Hey, Wade, I I don't really know why you're asking.

I just I want to tell you this.

Sometimes I just think God wants our yes.

And man, I just, whoo, that got me.

And I hang up the phone, and I just felt that compression to get somewhere quiet.

And I got somewhere quiet at work, and I knew nobody would come in.

And I just said out loud, God, if this is you and this is what you want, you've got my yes.

Now at that point, angels didn't, oh, and the clouds didn't part, you know.

As a matter of fact, weight didn't even come off, right?

I didn't feel this, oh, I felt this light.

I was just, it's just okay.

Just I said, God, you've got my yes.

Sometimes people, here's what I think happens.

God wants our yes, not for us to prove to him, but to prove to us.

God knows what we're gonna say.

All God sometimes wants is us just to prove to ourselves we're willing.

Now, I did think, by the way, I might get off the hook with just that, right?

Hey, you want my yes, here you go.

And I'll go on back to my business.

We move through November and I continue to get that pressure, continue to get that compression in that.

And uh about the end of November, first of December, I called Neil and I said, Hey, Neil, I'll I want to say yes to that.

Um there's about, I don't know, 60 or so physicians at work that I have a relationship with that I felt like I needed to reach out to them and talk to them about this decision as I was making my announcement there with my current employer.

Uh every one of them, Jewish, Buddhist, not go to church, goes to church all the time.

Every one of them had confirmation, and they said something like this Wait, if it's a calling, you've got to say yes.

Wait, I'm with you.

I could see why you would say yes to that.

And so there was that confirmation.

I didn't get it beforehand as much as I just knew that was God calling me, and when I said yes, here comes this flood of confirmation.

Now, so we've defined this idea of what is a call, what is a prompting.

I've told you what it looked like to me.

Now, what I want us to do is I want us to say, well, what do I do with the call?

If you said as you did in the beginning, that every believer, every follower of Jesus Christ is called by God, then what do I do with that?

What does that look like for me?

How do I apply that?

Obviously, not all of us are called to ministry, not all of us are called to work at the church, but I truly believe all of us are called to something.

And by the way, it's not just one thing, it's not just this one big call, you're going to be a car salesman, go, and that's it, right?

I I believe that the calling builds with momentum.

You say yes to this and you say yes to that, and God just kind of continues to call you to different things.

He continues to call us to join him in what he's doing.

And by the way, your call is not any easier because of the size of it.

Wow, I mean, that call must have been pretty hard.

You're making a career move.

I mean, my call is a little thing over here.

Trust me, it's not any easier.

I get that.

Some of us probably have some compression maybe for uh maybe a guy at work in the office next to us, just to go over to him and say, hey, I just wanted to tell you, I've been praying for you, I haven't told you that, but but I believe in the power and prayer.

And I just wanted to tell you, I've been praying for you.

I know you've been struggling with such and such.

Just wanted to mention that to you.

That's not easy.

Or it might be for students, maybe you go to school tomorrow and you find the unpopular kid and you invite him to eat lunch at your table.

That is not easy to do.

I get that.

Maybe it's, I don't know, you go to Mother's Day out on Friday and you see one of your girlfriends and you say, hey, I've just been feeling this compression, this pull to tell you something.

When you die to self in your marriage, there is fulfillment in that.

As weird as that sounds, I just wanted you to know.

I have found that the more I die to self, the more fulfilled I am in my marriage.

That's hard to do.

I get it.

It's whether little or big, sometimes those callings are difficult.

But I think every one of them requires obedience.

Answering the call is connecting what you do, whether you're a bus driver, a stay-at-home mom, a regional vice president, whatever it is.

Answering the call is connecting what you do with what God has done and is doing.

That's answering the call.

It's as simple as that.

It can be a very small thing, it can be a big thing, whatever it is.

And by the way, calling is not always hard either.

It's not always sacrifice and suffering, and I'm called to a life of poverty or things like that.

Sometimes it's you're called to big things and good things, like the big new house.

Maybe you're called to say yes to the promotion at work.

Maybe you're called to do something that's full of blessing.

Calling is not always sacrifice and all of that.

It can be one or the other.

I don't want you to misunderstand.

It can be both.

It can be all kinds of things.

Um, but here's the thing: whether it's a blessing or a sacrifice, there's always reward in obedience.

Now, folks, here's what we've got to be careful about.

You know, we all do this, we blame it on society, but we are we are society in some extent.

We're always expecting the immediate gratification, right?

God, I said yes.

Now go ahead and start those rewards because I'm ready.

God, I've been serving you for a long time now.

Where's the reward at?

I well, and I've been.

Guys, sometimes the reward is an investment in eternity.

Robert Lewis, the uh founder of Men's Fraternity, said we should not be looking for the immediate reward, but expecting the greater reward.

Sometimes we've got to be comfortable enough to be obedient and know that the reward is not gonna be on this side of heaven.

Sometimes we've got to be comfortable enough to still say yes and say, God, I'm still trusting you.

You just do what you need to.

And in time, the reward will come because obedience carries with it reward.

Robin Davidson, she's an Australian author.

She wrote a book called Tracks.

It's about her 1700-mile journey through the Australian desert with camels.

And uh she talks about there, she said, the most difficult thing is the decision to act.

It wasn't finding funding for all the provisions.

It wasn't even figuring out how many provisions do you need for a trek like that.

It wasn't figuring out how to herd these camels or anything else.

She said, the most difficult decision that we had for this whole thing, beginning to end, the most difficult thing is the decision to act.

It's not the action so much as it is the decision to act that we've got to be obedient to and we've got to be ready for.

And I recognize it's difficult, believe you me, but it's necessary.

This is the final quote from Oz Guinness that I'll give you, and then we'll be done.

He says this.

He says, our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, for him.

Our secondary calling is that everyone, everywhere in and everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him.

That in a real nutshell is answering the call.

Let me pray for us.

Before I pray, I want you to think about maybe asking the Holy Spirit a couple of questions.

Question one, Holy Spirit, have I missed it somewhere?

But I don't want to stay too long on that as just if to learn from it.

I want us to then ask, Holy Spirit, what are you calling me to?

Is it a conversation at work?

Is it a conversation at home with my kids?

Is it quitting my job and going out on faith because you've always compressed me towards something?

Just spend a couple of minutes asking God, what are you calling me to?

And how do you want me to respond?

God, what you what you call us to is obedience.

The amazing thing about you is that you are a perfect God, telling a perfect story, and you're using imperfect people to do it.

That's how much you trust your story, that's how much you trust you, but also that's how much you trust us.

Because you know by our obedience we are bettered by it, and we're a blessing to others.

And so, God, what I pray for today is conviction.

I pray for courage.

I pray for your involvement in what we're doing and call us.

Don't let us miss that calling.

Let us say yes where we're supposed to and know where we're supposed to and know the difference.

For it's in your name, Jesus, that we pray these things.

Amen.

Thank you so much for your attention and attendance this morning.

I appreciate you letting me be in in front of you.

If you're a guest and uh if you'd do us a favor, there is a guest card in the seat back in front of you.

If you just take a minute and fill that out, just to give us a record of your attendance this morning, and then you can drop it off in one of these wooden boxes at any of the exits.

Grand Parkway, you know that if today's the day that you worship through giving, that's where you can do that as well.

Um when our service concludes, and it will in just a moment, we'll have some pastors and elders here.

If you want us to pray with you or answer any questions about anything you've heard or about the church, or if we can do anything to make a connection with you, it's our privilege to do so.

So thank you for allowing us to do that.

Well, stand to your feet and let me offer a blessing, and I'll let you get out of here.

Hold out your hands.

The God that reveals himself in power still speaks softly.

Our job is to listen, to hear, and obey.

Go forth and do so.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.