Find & fulfill your calling

Hi, this is Dave Olson. I'm the senior leader of

Heartland Church located in Ankeny, IA.

I hope the following message challenges, encourages, and

ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.

Hey, I'm not Pastor Dave, I'm Pastor Adam, I'm your executive

pastor. So glad to be here today to be

able to minister. The Lord's put a specific word

on my heart for the church in this season, you know, praying

and and thinking about where we're at in our season as a

church. And you know, given that Pastor

Dave even ministered, I believe it was last week on times and

seasons. There's just a specific word

that God wanted to bring out today.

He's been preparing me for about a month and Pastor knew it was

coming. I knew it was coming and here we

go. Are you all ready?

I love to open the word, love to get in, let God do what he wants

to do. So we're going to do that this

morning. Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you that you are faithful and

you're good. You're having a good day, Lord.

You're having a good day, Lord. Your word says that to those who

believe out of their bellies will flow rivers of living

water. And so right now I release your

Kingdom in this place. And to everyone who hears this

message, I release your Kingdom in Jesus name.

Have your way. Amen.

This morning, I want to minister to you a message that I call

called to ministry. And as I get started this

morning, I'm reminded of Moses in the Old Testament.

And Moses is a guy who had a, you know, a divine heritage, you

know, from God and, and at one point starts to step into that

and set people free. And then, and then he gets

afraid and he runs out into the desert and, and then he gets

married and he, he, he finds him himself out with the sheep in

the wilderness. And one day he's just doing the

do. He's doing what he did every

day. And all of a sudden he looks up

and he sees this Bush that's on fire.

And he, he decides that, you know, like any of us, what, what

is that? So he decides to draw near to

the fire, and as he draws near to the fire, the Lord speaks to

him out of the fire. In my heart for today's message

is that you would at this moment just decide to draw near to the

fire of God, that He could speak to you out of the fire.

You know, one day there's another story in the Old

Testament about Elijah. He was a prophet of God, a man

of God. And and there was another guy

named Elisha and Elisha's out in his field.

One day he's out there and he's got oxen and he's got a plow and

he's plowing along. He's doing his everyday calling

what he's called to do. And all of a sudden, what

appears to be in the Scriptures feeling out of nowhere, Elisha,

this prophet of God, this man of God, walks on to his land, walks

over him, takes the mantle which was like a cloak, takes that off

of himself and puts it on Elisha and then walks away.

And in that context, and in that day, that was a very special

thing known to the Hebrew people, known to that people

that I am being called to follow.

And he runs to Elijah and he says, Elijah, Elijah, let me go

back and tell my parents. Let me, let me tell my parents

what's happened and I will come and follow you.

And Elijah knowing the cost of what he just asked of this.

Man. Says go and do it.

For what have I done to you? What have I done to you?

It says. And so he goes, and he he takes

his plow and he breaks up his plow, slaughters the oxen,

lights the plow on fire, he burns the plow, and he

sacrifices the oxen. And his family celebrates

together this moment and this momentous, awesome, holy

occasion of him accepting the call to follow into ministry.

Today I'm going to open up the Scriptures and we're going to

enter into Ephesians chapter 4. Because perhaps God in his

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

divine nature, just like Elijah just came across Elisha on that

day, just like Jesus showed up in a fire in a Bush when Moses

was least expecting it, maybe God brought you here today and

under the sound of my voice to light a fire for your own

ministry call from God. Ephesians chapter 4 it got quiet

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

in here verse one it says this therefore IA prisoner for the

Lord beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling for you

have been called by God. Paul is writing to the church at

the the town of Ephesus and, you know, just like he could be

writing to us today. And he's saying to all the

believers that are there, those who have already believed on the

Lord Jesus Christ that that he came, he died for their sins.

And they've placed their faith in him and they're expecting

Jesus to come back one day to to judge the living and the dead.

They know that he's alive, he's in heaven and he's coming back.

And he's writing to this church, this group of people that meet

regularly together for worship and learning and mission.

He's writing to them and he's saying to.

To all the believers. Lead a life worthy of your

calling, for you have been called by God.

My first point for today is this.

Believer. You have been called to ministry

by God. Every believer in Jesus Christ

has a calling from God, a divine, unique, special purpose

for existing. Fact.

Every person ever created. God has known them.

I always say there's no accidental children.

There are accidental parents. Maybe some of you have been.

That. There's no accidental children,

though God knows them all by name.

He sets them in families, the Scripture tells us, and He's

given each one of you a unique and special calling, a ministry.

I'm going to read down in verse 11 and we'll read farther.

Now. These are the gifts Christ gave

to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and

the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip

God's people. How many of you would say I'm

God's people? That's me.

I'm God's people. Good to meet you.

Awesome. To equip God's people to do his

work and to build up the church, the body of Christ.

This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith

and the knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the

Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

What he's saying here is that every believer in Jesus, every

person has a unique purpose for existence.

So find and fulfill your ministry.

Find and fulfill your calling from God.

Back up to verse one. Lead a life worthy of your

calling. Your calling, your calling,

don't you think? How many of you guys work at a

job where every year you have something called an annual

performance review? Anybody.

Pretty common in a lot of businesses.

You know, you go in at the end of the year and the boss says,

well, you were supposed to do this, you're supposed to do

this. And on a scale of zero to 10,

you know, you knocked it out of the park.

I'm sure you all get that all the time.

You're you were an 11 out of 10. And so we're going to give you a

bonus this year, right? It's a performance review

because you did your job. Wouldn't it be?

Odd. If you, if you were, let's say

that your job is a barista, OK, And your, your job is to make

espresso drinks. And you, you know, that's what

you're hired to do. And you've worked making

espresso drinks for six months. And then one day you decide, you

know what? My friend makes pizzas at their

job and I want to make pizzas. And so you go into the coffee

shop where you work and you decide to pick up the stuff, the

all the all the different things for pizzas.

You pick up flour and yeast and all all the fixes for pizzas.

And you go in there to the coffee shop and you're making

pizzas. Your boss walks in.

How do you think your boss would react?

What are you doing? You're not called to work here

to make pizzas, you're called to.

Work here to make espresso. Drinks but my friend makes

pizzas and I want to be like. My friend I haven't hired.

You to be like your friend I've hired you to be.

You make espresso drinks. Jesus is saying lead a life

worthy of your calling. Don't look around the body of

Christ and all the other Saints and say well.

I wish. That I could do that or you

know, because they pray for people like that, I'm going to

pray for people like that or because they do that, I'm going

to do that. No, no, no, you have a unique

calling from God. Lead a life worthy of your

calling when you get to your final review in heaven and you

sit with the Lord. You want to hear well.

Done good. Well done.

Right, my servant. Well done.

You don't want to hear you made pizzas for 20 years.

You struggled to make pizzas for 20 years.

But I called you to be a barista.

Romans chapter 12 gives us some different gifts that God gives

Romans 12 · chapter mention

to different people in the church.

He gives the gifts of prophecy to certain people and not

others. He gives the gift of serving to

other to people. He gives a gift of leadership to

certain people. He.

He. Wires all of us different and

when we get. To heaven.

God's not going to say why couldn't you be more like so and

so? No.

He's going to. He's going to look.

At you and say. I gave you these gifts.

This was your calling. How'd you do being you?

We need to rejoice and being who God has called us to be.

Every believer has a ministry from God.

Find and fulfill yours. Talking to you about Call the

ministry. Point #2 Every.

Believer is called to be a disciple.

Matthew chapter 28 says to go and make disciples of all

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

nations, teaching them, teaching them well.

If the original. Apostles went and made disciples

down through the ranks of the. Generations.

We are those. Disciples.

And what are we called to do? Become disciples and make

disciples. Well, what is a disciple if I'm

called? To be a disciple.

What is a disciple? A disciple is a learner.

The Lord, literally. Said he literally said go and

make learners. Of all nations teaching them to.

Observe. And to do all that I've

commanded you to do, you're called to ministry.

You're called to a specific. Ministry from God and you are

called to be a learner in first. Timothy.

Timothy. Right.

Or Paul writes. To Timothy, he says to.

Go after training in godliness training in.

Righteousness. We.

As the people of God and living in our current culture, we have

a training culture. We have a training culture.

I mean, people spend a lot of time training their bodies.

They trained their bodies. You know, when they're, when

they're in their teens, they're training their bodies.

They need to get muscles for the first time.

And then when they're in their 20s, you know, they're like.

I have to look. Good.

And I have to have the right picture.

On social media so that. Hopefully I can find that

special someone even though I don't want them to be attracted

to my body. I'm going to.

Make my body the focus. Word.

In your 30s, maybe you can marry and you, you have some Ninos and

Ninas running around and, and these kids and you're like, I

don't have time to work out as much as I did.

And in your 40s, you're like starting to feel things in your

body a little bit. Different and so.

You're like, I remember what it was like when I was 20.

I could run miles and I could lift this.

And so you go try it and God reminds you that your body is 40

and you start to get little aches and little pains.

And at 50 you rebel. You're like, oh, I rebel against

it all. I will train my body and I will,

I will train my body to eat right.

And I will eat the healthy, the most natural, the best.

Or I will do the keto diets, or I will do the vegan diets, or I

will do the no diet, fasting and prayer and fasting and prayer.

And there's something that will work for me.

And we spend this environment training and training and we get

60s. Well, not me yet, but you get

60s and 70s and you're like, you're if if you're on Facebook,

you're like, you see this ad come to you.

And it's for the. Chair workout Anybody see the

chair workout? Yes, definitely.

And they saw that they saw the person.

You don't. You don't have.

To go to the gym. You don't have to run for miles,

you know, you don't have to eat all this stuff.

All you have to do is get a chair and you just get on the

chair and you just do these things and you'll look like this

and they show you this. Picture.

Of a old man face and a young man body.

It's like connected with AI. Anybody ever seen that?

And you're like, believe me, all you have to do is use this chair

and you'll become all brand new. And we spend millions of dollars

as people training our bodies. We do.

We're a training generation and then we, we right now our whole

culture is a therapeutic generation.

Culture we. We are.

Training. We're spending money on therapy

like no generation of the past. We're training our souls, and

not all of that's bad mind will and emotions and understanding

how that integrates and all that stuff.

But what I'm saying is we're a training generation.

We're giving ourselves the training.

But Paul writes to Timothy and he says train yourself in

godliness. So we invest in our workout, we

invest in time, we invest in our diet.

We invest in in chickens. That.

Roam around instead of chickens. That were in a a shed and you

know their eggs are different and you'll be investing all this

kind of stuff we'll pay I mean people pay 78910 eleven $12.00

per dollar per egg. You know we invest.

In these things, but how much do we invest in our training and

godliness? So you're called to.

Ministry, you have a unique calling from God.

He's got a wiring for you. That will light you up.

And bring you fulfilment like because that's.

What you were created for. And we'll train our bodies, and

we'll train our souls. But we also need to train our

spirits. So there's this calling to

ministry that all people have. All people are called to

ministry. Now when we come to church, we

come together as His Saints and we minister to one another out

of the grace of God. That's in that we have in our

hearts and our lives. Ministry is ministry for most

people. You, you, you come into the

church, you minister to one another as one big divine,

godly, multi generational, multi ethnic family and it's the most

beautiful thing. We come together and.

And we don't say yeah. That's not that's not my.

Gift to change a diaper or that's not my gift to smile or

that's not my gift to to work with.

Teenagers or kids or. That's not my gift to stand

behind a camera. Why?

Because everybody in the family does the dishes.

Everybody in the family gets up and helps.

The only people who don't do the dishes are children that are too

small to do the dishes. Guess don't do the dishes.

And that weird uncle that never grew up, he doesn't do the

dishes and everybody knows he's everybody knows something's off

with that uncle. No, we're a.

We're a. Family and we minister to one

another with our grace gifts, OK?

But the majority of your. Ministry.

The majority of your calling is actually worked out outside the

walls of the church. Building you come in here.

To develop in your ministry, you serve within the.

Church, you rub shoulders. With the people in the church,

those that make you mad and those that don't so that you.

Grow to become. Mature like Christ so that you

can go out into your true mission field, so that you can

lead your family, lead, lead your marriage, lead your

children. Show up like Christ in the

workplace, affect culture for good, Reflect his glory in the

earth. That's your ministry.

That's your ministry. Every believer has a ministry.

Every believer is called to ministry.

Every believer is called to learn.

But there are some. The Bible says there are some.

It says Ephesians 411. Now these are the gifts Christ

gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the

evangelists, and the pastors and the teachers.

The new King James Version of the Scriptures and possibly the

English standard version of the Scripture say some.

There are some given. There are some given as gifts,

apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors and teachers to the

church. So everyone in the church has a

ministry. And yet from the church there

are those who are called out among the church with a unique

calling back to the church itself.

And what do they do? The Bible says here their

responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and to

build up the church, the body of Christ.

What's the goal? Maturity, Maturing the Saints so

that their lives look like Christ, that Christ is shaped in

them not to look like me, to look like Christ in you.

So there are some everybody's called to a ministry,

everybody's called to learn. There are some that God calls

out from the body and he calls them as apostles, prophets,

evangelists, pastors, or teachers.

Your version may say shepherds and teachers, Apostles, they're

like the thumb on the hand. You may have heard this, these 5

gifts that Christ gave the church as A5 fold ministry.

It's like a hand. The apostles like the thumb.

The apostle touches all the other gifts that minister to the

church. The apostle brings strength and

foundation. The pointer finger is like the

prophet. The prophet hears the word of

the Lord in due season and points the way for the body, the

evangelist. Reaches farther.

Than any other gift into the darkness.

The evangelist becomes very uncomfortable if all of their

time is spent inside the church walls.

They want to go out there and get right in front of the enemy

in his territory and call people out.

And they want to train people to do that as well.

The apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the

pastor, the shepherd, he's married to the church.

She's married to the local church, walks with the church

members, talks with the church members, smells like the church

members, marries the church members right and and buries the

church members and is there to weep with them and to to walk

with them through all the hard times of life.

They're not there to put on a show.

They're there to be authentic and with you.

And then there's the teacher who you might say is the smallest of

the gifts and yet they're not at all.

They're all equal. They're just unique and

different. The teacher is gets into the

nooks and crannies of what holds things together and connects the

dots of all the ideas of doctrine and philosophy and how

they connect to our daily life and they make sense out of it

all. And this apostle, prophet,

evangelist, pastor and teacher are gifts that Christ Jesus gave

you because he loves you. He loves you so much that he

didn't just go to heaven and say good luck.

He gave you these gifts to help you find your ministry, get

equipped for your ministry, get built up for your ministry, and

then grow in your ministry to maturity.

How do you? Come to.

Be one of these gifts. You ever asked that How do you

be a pastor? Is everybody that?

Preaches a pastor. I can tell you no.

How, how, how? Why does some people call

themselves prophets and others not?

And does everybody that call themselves a prophet, are they a

prophet? I can tell you no.

All believers can prophecy, but it doesn't mean you're a

prophet. This afternoon you could go

home. You could pull up to your house.

You can get in your garage, shut the garage door, and sit in your

garage all day long, but it won't make you a car.

Why? That's not your wiring from God.

You can sit in the garage, but it won't make you a car.

You can prophecy, but it doesn't necessarily make you a prophet.

You can shepherd people, but it doesn't with good good advice,

but it doesn't necessarily make you a pastor.

How does all this happen? He says here that he gave these

5 gifts to help the body fulfill the work of ministry.

The New King James Version, the English Standard Version, says

the work of ministry. In other words, every believer

has ministry to do. My job is to equip you and build

you up so that you fulfill it yet.

We run. Into this issue in America with

our English language because we use.

The word. Called to ministry to talk about

people that are pastors and apostles and prophets and

teachers, and we say they're called to ministry.

Well, that gets confusing because.

Every believer is called to ministry.

And your ministry is wonderful and the world can't happen

without it. If your ministry context that

God's called you to make a difference in is a hospital and

you have a mercy gift and you go over there and you serve with

that mercy gift from God. One day you will probably be

ministering to my body so I can stand up here and preach.

We need we need everybody, don't we?

So we have this. Thing in the English language

where all people are called to ministry yet?

Yet we have these. Some that are called out to

ministry as well, but the word. In the in the original.

Languages for that gifts right there where it says.

And Christ. Gave these gifts to the body.

That word is Domata. It separates these people out as

unique. Unique not, as they're another

level of human being. But unique in their grace.

Gifting from God, you have grace to fulfill your ministry.

I have grace to fulfill. My ministry, it's a unique

grace. You know what I did this

morning? I got.

Up and I took a shower. I hope you.

Guys did too. You know what else I did this

morning? I put on my pants one leg at a

time. You know what?

That's how every minister puts on their pants.

We're not a different level of human being just because God's

provided a. Platform for us to equip Saints

to fulfill. Their ministry doesn't mean that

we are a better. Version of.

Humanity and I, I think there's been some instance over.

Time and culture. Where there's been a separation.

Between oh, those are the. Ministers.

And we are the laity. Those are the special.

People and we are the non special people but we are all.

Given ministries and we are all. Special in God's eyes.

We simply have unique and different callings from God, but

what does it look like if someone is called?

To. Delmada Ministry.

You can. You can.

Be in a Church, 20. Years and nobody.

Explained this to you and then you won't know how to function

with these. People that come alongside you

or or you. Could be in a church for 20

years and. Never know how to become who God

has graced you to be. And I'll, I'll just break it

down really simply and we'll put this up on the screen for you

today. If you're called to Delmada

ministry, we often see these four things happen.

There's a time of calling where God comes across your life in

some way, whether it's through a divine encounter with Jesus

himself, or it's through God speaking through another person,

through a worship experience, or something.

Where God calls you with a desire to serve Him in one of

these ways, you may not know. Oh, I'm an.

Apostle right away or I'm a pastor or whatever.

You just know I am called as something different.

I'm called out from the. Maybe you've been a businessman

or business woman for, for years and all of a sudden there's this

desire growing in you and, and God speaks to you in a moment.

Like I need to separate myself to this calling.

God's doing something in me. I need to, I need to go after

this. This is different.

This is unique. So there's a calling moment,

then there's a preparation time, a preparation season, which will

include education. And oftentimes you see Bible

schools prop up for this reason that they're educating people to

fulfill their function. Just like you would go, if

you're a call to be a nurse, you would go to go to college and

learn how to nurse and how to care for people and put the

stuff. In their veins.

And you know all that kind of stuff and learn how to deal with

the smells of the human body and all those kind of.

Things you need training. And sometimes we get especially

in Karas maniac circles, which I grew up in and I love.

I'm all for the Spirit of God, but sometimes we get so lit up

with the. Spirit of God.

That we're like God will figure out and we forget like man, it'd

be good to get some skills. Like get some education along

the way, you know? Like I I didn't even know that

I'm teaching the whole counsel of the word of God, not just my

own ideas, because you know. Sometimes, you know, you get.

Praying. And then you eat something and

you eat something that's off, and then you get some unique

ideas coming. Not everything.

That comes out your mouth is from God.

So we have to know. We have to be able to know,

right? So there's a preparation season,

which will include education in a mentorship environment.

You come under people who speak into your life and call out

things in your life and, and help you grow in those things

and help you understand your wiring from God.

And then there's a separation season.

The separation season is kind of, you may have heard this

before, like someone being licensed in ministry or

provisionally ordained in ministry.

This is a time of testing where they, they step out and who they

know themselves to be, but they, they start to, to function in

it. And you know, if I was a

counselor and I'm giving counsel and everybody I give counsel to

is worse off when I'm done with them than I was when I started.

I need somebody, a mentor. To come alongside my life and

go, hey man, I love you too much to let you continue in this

vein. Like that's not your wiring from

God. Like here try this right?

At the same time if. You know, I'm called pastorally

and, and I feel pastoral and, and I get put in a counseling

environment and, and all of a sudden fruit shows up in

people's lives. Like marriages are getting

fixed. People are getting

understanding, anointing is showing up in the room and all

this kind of stuff's happening. Then.

Then we bless that and we say yes, that's what.

God's doing. You are a pastor and then what?

And. Then we Commission them, we send

them. This is when, like the elders of

the church, we'll get get together there be an assignment

from God. I'm called to go here, do this.

Yes, you are. We agree and we come up and we

lay hands on you and we send you in the anointing and in the

relationship necessary to maintain longevity.

That's why we need mentorship. That's why we need relationship.

So God calls. People to ministry he.

Lights a fire in them, and God is lighting a fire.

And some of you this morning for ministry, what is minister?

'S responsibility. Their responsibility.

Is to God to please God, not you.

If they want to please you, they won't say the things to you that

you need to hear when you need to hear them.

They will always try to make life comfortable for you.

And you won't grow because we don't grow to maturity without

going through testing. So your pastors love we.

We do like it when we please you, but our goal is to please

God by serving you with spiritual equipment and

spiritual edification, building you up to become mature.

All believers are called to ministry.

All believers are called to learn.

Some of those believers are called out as Domata Ministry

gifts to become the equipers and the Edifiers.

In the body of Christ. And if you're called that way

and you're not functioning in that way, you are very

uncomfortable inside right now. God is lighting you up.

I want to make this announcement this morning.

Heartland Church. This fall, starting in

September, we are launching Heartland Bible College.

Heartland Bible College is an Academy for cultural

transformation. It's an Academy to train those

who want to go deeper in their faith to understand their

ministry. Call from God.

The first year is going to be foundations.

It's going to be heart. It's going to be Kingdom

foundations. Kingdom Heart.

We're going to have classes like the Kingdom, the love of God,

getting into the Father's love and our identity.

We're going to have a class called Harmatology, which is

about the nature of sin and temptation, how to overcome it.

We're going to have all these classes lined out, one Class A

month. It's going to meet on Thursday

mornings from 8:30 to 11:30 and then it's going to meet once a

month, usually the last Sunday of the month for a mentorship

environment. And that mentorship environment

is going to kind of be rabbinical in nature.

It's going to be like sitting with your rabbi and he's going

to say, what did you learn? What stuck out to you?

What are you struggling with? What are you having a hard time

with? And you're going to go back and

forth with that, going to teach you how to get into the presence

of God, how to pray, learn how to pray and walk through these

things. That's first year.

Second year is going to be on Kingdom Minded.

What is your ministry now that you have this foundation from

God? What is your ministry from God?

Are you called to be an apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd or

teacher? Or what context are you called

into? Where is your ministry?

And you're going to start to see yourself as the minister God has

called you to be. You're going to learn about

faith. You're going to learn about the

history of revival and how to walk in that.

And then third year, it's going to move from the basics of

foundations to a year of internship and growth into a

year of apprenticeship where you live in the context that you're

called to ministering, helping people, walking in that so that

by the time you're done with your three years, you will have

built the relationships in this house necessary for

credentialing with the Heartland Alliance Ministry Network and

where we can send you where God is calling you to be in

relationship. So we're going to end up having

an orientation. It's going to be like August

24th is the orientation. But right now where things are

at is the website is just being developed.

Final things are being put into put into space for the budget

and things like that. But if you'd like more

information about it, if you'd like more information, you can

scan this QR code and that'll take you to our website where

there's a page on our website now, right at the top it says

Bible college. You can click on that.

You can put in your e-mail. You get placed on a list to be

able to get updates and information.

Who is this for? This is for anybody out of high

school that wants to step into knowing their ministry.

Call this is this is you don't have to be called and know that

I'm a pastor. You don't have to know that

coming in. God calls everyone with a

ministry and he calls you to learn.

He calls you to be a disciple. And you may be hearing God this

morning like, hey, my season, I can I can see this and I want

you to pray about it coming into the fall.

Are you to enter a season of learning, of discipleship, of

mentorship? Do you want, do you want to

experience that? That student life experience

with the whole cohort of people gathering every Thursday

morning, growing in God with spirit filled, qualified

lifelong ministers who want to pour into you and develop you in

the meeting once a month on Sunday nights.

Working that stuff out in relationship and in Holy Spirit

activation, praying together and seeing what God does in your

life. If that's what God's calling you

to do, I just ask you to fill out the stuff and get the

information. There is no pressure here from

me, no pressure from Pastor Dave.

God calls those He wants to with a unique calling.

Elijah came to Elijah because God showed it to him.

Jesus. One day, he's walking along the

seashore. And he calls out to these

brothers on the boat, Hey, hey, you up there?

Come follow me and I'll make you a Fisher of men.

Their ministry up to that point had been to serve their Father,

their natural father, as fishermen.

He was calling them to serve the Heavenly Father.

And you know what they did? They dropped their Nets and

they. Followed him Paul one day.

He was. He's known as Saul at that time.

He's just he's. Persecuting the church, killing

Christians. He's avid for the things of God,

but he. Doesn't have the right

direction. And God meets him.

On the road to Damascus, Jesus shows up.

He drops to his face. Lord, Lord, who are you?

I am Jesus that you're persecuting.

Now get up I'm. Sending you to the Gentiles and

I'll show you how much you much. Suffer for my name's sake.

I'm calling you to minister. This way he encountered him in

1997 I'm. Riding home from high school.

In my mom's. Car and we're.

Just talking and just. On a random day, I'm a senior in

high school. I'm I'm second semester senior

and I'm struggling. She doesn't know how much I'm

struggling, but inside I was struggling.

I was looking around me at the environment.

I'm I'm thinking all these people appear to know what they

want to do with their life. Look like this.

One's going to college. Here, this one's going to do

that. This one's going to be a nurse,

This one's going to be. A doctor.

This one's going to be a. Lawyer.

This one's going to be the I don't see any of that for me.

I don't know what's going on and I'm in the car just quiet like

all teenagers. How was your day?

Good. Very descriptive for my mother.

But that day, she said, hey, have you given any thought?

To what you want to do after high school.

I blew up. I blew up at my nice and sweet

mom. I just blew up.

It just something is the. Pressure on the inside, the

tension on the inside between. What public school was?

Leading me toward and what apparently God was shaping me

toward. Was.

Very tense in there and I didn't even know it, but one day I

came. Across this nice.

Question And I just erupted, you know, I'm just like, I have no

idea what I'm going to do. I'm like loud in the car.

In the passenger seat and she's just driving.

Sweet driving home. I have no idea what I'm going to

do. Everybody knows what they're

going to do and I'm just tearing up.

I'm shouting in the car and I'm like, I don't know what I'm

going to do. All I know is that I really love

people. That's all I knew, no idea.

And she kindly nicely. We'll just keep walking it out.

God will show you, and he did two years later, after a season

of fraternity life that I some of which I regret, some of which

I don't, I found myself in an. Altar I found myself in.

ACY Stevens Auditorium up in Ames and I on my knees in the

presence of God and His presence.

Came on me like warm honey all over my back, and I'd felt that

several. Times.

Before growing up, I just. Didn't know what God was.

Saying and finally, I, I just, I understood I love people.

I I love people way more than other people seem to love

people. Like I'm around people and

they're all thinking about how they're going to make money.

I'm thinking about are they OK? And I'm on my knees consecrating

my heart to God and hear him just this knowing in me comes

not like an audible voice. There's no audible voice that

said, Adam, I have called you to the nations.

That would have been nice. Honestly.

But it was just knowing that was.

So big. On the inside of me that I could

no longer deny the need to be wholly consecrated to whatever

he had. For me to do.

And it did not align. With the.

With the trajectory of regular. I just said regular I'm.

On I'm not an engineer, I'm not a lawyer, I'm not it just did

not align. I I just, I'm like God.

I'll go any, I'll go anywhere you want me to go.

I'll do anything you want me to do.

I just don't want some boring version of Christianity.

I want the real deal. Give me an adventure.

And he's never let me down. Never let me down.

Less than six weeks later, the girl I was dating and myself

checked out of Iowa State University and went to Bible

school. Did I go back eventually and get

different things? Yes, I did.

I finished that journey. But in God's trajectory for my

life, it's never been just a point A, point B, Point C, point

D. It's been like, do this here,

now do this and just trust me. Jehovah, sneaky God.

Almighty and so, so good to know that you're doing what you're

wired from God to do. So God is speaking among us this

morning. You are called of God with a

ministry. All of you are called from God

to learn to be disciples, some under the sound of my voice.

God is calling into the fivefold ministry.

You may not know which digit you are, but you know you're part of

this hand. You're part of Christ's hand to

help His church become who they're called to be.

Let's bow our heads and give God a chance to speak.

Thanks for listening to our podcast.

If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you

can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on

social media. If you'd like to support the

ministries of Heartland Church, you can do so at Heartland

Church online.com/give.