Treasures of the Journey - Part 4: Can God Call on You? | Pastor René Dekker

Welcome to ECB's Weekly Sermon Podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. We're in week four of our sermon series, Treasures of the Journey, and over

the past week since the beginning of this year we've heard from Pastor Pablo, from Zach Wiley,

and from Pastor Phil about the journeys that they have discovered in their walk of faith,

and I hope this has been encouraging for your own walk with God. And to me today it's my turn to

share this treasure of the journey that I am in the process of discovering, okay? It's still going

on and I want to present my treasure or introduce my treasure to you in the form of a question,

can God call on you? Can God call on me? For some reason God has decided to build his kingdom on

earth through people like you and me. If I were God I would have chosen a different strategy that

relied less on people that can easily say no to any involvement in this huge rescue plan that God

has launched to win the world back to him. But hey, God is God and he chose us to build his kingdom

on earth. But the question is, can he call on us? As we dig into this question today I want to look

with you at the story of Moses. His story of calling was quite a unique one as we will learn

today. But at the same time it gives us beautiful insights into how God mobilizes people for his

work. And as a matter of fact it provides an opportunity for you and me to assess our readiness,

our willingness to engage in the work that God is calling us to do to build his kingdom on earth.

And although I'm not a hero of the faith like Moses, I do recognize parts of my story of calling

in Moses' story of calling. And I want to intertwine that story today in this preaching as well as

sharing of my treasure of the journey. If you're not familiar with the story of Moses, let me briefly

introduce him to you. Moses was born into a Jewish family that lived in Egypt at around the year

1300 before Christ. Why did the people of Israel live in Egypt in those days? Well, they were

oppressed. They were held in slavery for hundreds of years. But although Moses was born in a Jewish

family, he was not raised in a Jewish family. As a matter of fact he was raised at the royal court of

Egypt as an adopted son of the daughter of the Pharaoh who was the mightiest man on earth in those

days. And that raising at the royal courts came with good education, came with stature, came with

a rich life. But all of that changed around the time when Moses was 40 years old. Then that's

began when things began to go south. There was one day when Moses was walking around in Egypt and he

saw that one of his fellow Jewish people was beaten up by an Egyptian guard and he could not control

himself, upset as he was, and he killed the Egyptian guard. And in one day Moses turned from a prince

of Egypt into a refugee. He had to flee. He had to run for his life because the Pharaoh, as you can

understand, wanted to kill him and he ended up in a country called Midian. It was in the wilderness.

In the desert. And in the 40 years that followed, you know what Moses did? Well from a prince of

Egypt he turned into a shepherd of sheep. One of the most despised jobs in those days. 40 years of

that. Stinky animals, most despised job of all. What a humiliating experience. And it was this guy,

Moses, a murderer, a refugee, someone who had for 40 years been tending sheep and who was now 80

years old, that God would call to lead his people, the people of Israel, out of the slavery of Egypt

into the promised land. Go figure. How unlikely. But God seems to be in the business of calling

unlikely people to assignments that are well beyond their capabilities. I mean look at the

story of Scripture. You remember Jesus' 12 disciples, these men, uneducated, unpolished,

and yet Jesus called them to play an essential role in his ministry. Remember that the story

of Saul who turned into Paul, he was the greatest enemy to the church of Jesus and yet God had his

eyes on him and he called him to be a powerful witness and worker for the kingdom of God to

advance, to break through, and we owe it to Paul and his team that we today have come to an

understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God is in the business of calling unlikely people to

assignments that are well beyond their capabilities and I consider myself one of those unlikely people.

As many of you know, it was never on my radar to become a pastor. I was trained, educated,

in business and for more than 20 years I worked for international companies and it was my executive

job that brought me and my family to Bangkok in 2016. And although John and my wife and I had

been praying for years, Lord if you want to redirect our lives, we're open to that. We didn't

think he would actually do that. Lesson learned, dear friends, be careful what you pray for because

God may actually answer your prayer. So it was in 2017 when God began to make me aware that he was

calling me out of business into pastoral ministry that I thought, huh? That is unlikely. A pastor,

really? I've never done that. I'm not trained to be a pastor and yet the calling was so clear. God

made it so clear that there was no way for me to say no to that calling. And four years later, now

four years ago, God did it again and he asked me to be the lead pastor of this church. So what could

I say? Well, God, it's unlikely but you're calling me so I'm just gonna trust you. I'm gonna go for

it. You will have to do it through me. That's what God does. He calls unlikely people to assignments

that are well beyond their capabilities. When we look at Moses story in Exodus 3 and 4, we get a

good picture of how God calls people to his work. It's a picture that in part I recognize in my story

but it's also a picture that I think may unfold the things that God is up to in your life, in your

current season. There's five stages to Moses calling that I want to look at together with you

today. Preparation, attention, specification, excuses, and obedient faith. Let's have a look

at each of these stages. The first stage of Moses calling was preparation. This is what we read at

the start of Exodus 3. Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of

Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of

God. Horeb also often referred to as Sinai, Mount Sinai. It's been 40 years of this in Moses life,

okay? We meet him at a time when he is 80 years old and he has done 40 years of this, taking care

of the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, spending every day in the wilderness to find some fresh

grass and water for these animals, for these sheep. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what Moses' state

of mind was but I think it's fair to assume that there were days on which Moses thought, really?

This stinky job? Every day the same animals, the same routine, the same wilderness, the same looking

for water and for grass? Really? 80 years old? What is the point of my life? But little did Moses know

that God used these 40 years of shepherding sheep to prepare him for the assignment that he had from

Moses next. 40 years of tending sheep on the Sinai Peninsula is a very handy experience, geographically,

topography, knowing the area, knowing the people, knowing the region, if God is calling you a little

while later to lead about 2 million people through exactly the same geographical area. Preparation

for his time. Also, 40 years Moses had been leading sheep and as sheep behave a little bit like people,

often a lot like people, that comes in handy as a preparation time for the assignment that God had

for him. Also, after being a prince of Egypt with all that had came for 40 years, Moses had to learn

a very important trait of leadership. Humility. 40 years of this, 40 years of being with sheep in a

very modest environment, modest job, not fancy at all, was needed for God to teach Moses humility,

because that is what he would need to lead the people of Israel out of the slavery of Egypt into

the promised land. Here's what we need to learn from this, dear friends. God uses our past and

our current experiences to prepare us for future assignments. In the first month of being a pastor

here at ECB, I wrestled with a couple of things, but one question was more the prominent question.

The question I asked God is, God, tell me what I need to unlearn now I am a pastor. Here's how I

reasoned. I've been in business for more than 20 years. I really understand how to lead business,

how to do strategy, how to do finance, but hey, this is a church, God. It has to look different

here, doesn't it? But we were six or seven months down the road when God made me aware that he did

not want me to unlearn anything. He made me aware that those 20 years of international business was

preparatory ground for the new season he was calling me into. He wanted me to lead the way I

was. The René leader that I was is, I can tell, the René leader I am today. God can use our past and

our current experiences to prepare us for the future assignment, whether it's your vocation,

whether it's your skill, whether it's your job, whether these are your successes or your failures,

even when it involves your hardships. God never wastes an opportunity to get you ready for the

next assignment like he did with Moses. The second stage of Moses' calling involves drawing his

attention. Look at how God did that. There, this was Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, the angel of the

Lord appeared to Moses in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush

was on fire, it didn't burn up. So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sight, why the

bush does not burn up. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within

the bush, Moses, Moses. And Moses said, here I am. God had used different ways to draw people's

attention before, but not this very unusual way, a burning bush that didn't burn up. God speaks in

different ways to us, you know. I know we're very familiar with God speaking to us through his word,

which is what he does, he truly does. But we need to be open also to the unusual and unpredictable

ways that God uses to draw our attention. As God was calling me to be a pastor here at ECB, I had a

number of burning bush experiences. And one of those burning bushes was my wife. Before you

misinterpret this, let me explain what I mean. Early 2017, I wrote an email to the then lead

pastor, Pastor David King, to offer my help because ECB was going through a leadership transition.

But what I meant by offering my help was a couple of hours here and there because I had a very

demanding job that took most of my time. So Pastor David came to our home and we had a wonderful

conversation. We didn't even know each other, so there was introduction involved, nice conversation,

nice evening. And after he had left, Honecker came to me, she looked at me, she said, God is not

calling you to help out a little bit, he is calling you for much more than that. And although my answer

was nope, I don't think so, it did draw my attention. Husbands, listen. Listen to your wives. Also when

it involves the things of God, here's the thing, and I'm serious about this, when you're married

to a godly woman, often they are faster to hear from the Holy Spirit than us guys. So I'm serious,

listen to your godly wives. That was a burning bush experience, it drew my attention, and in the

months that followed after in 2017, God used a number of other burning bush experiences, dreams,

and visions, and strangers coming up to me actually saying, hey, did you know that God is calling you

for pastoral ministry? Go figure. God speaks, dear friends, even in unusual ways, be open to that.

When God calls you, he will be drawing your attention, whether that is through a word,

whether that is through an impression, whether that is through another burning bush experience.

And whenever he speaks, he does that to draw our attention. But like with Moses, when God draws

your attention, it is on us to respond. You know what Moses did when he saw this burning bush that

didn't burn up? He said, this is weird. I need to go and check it out. What is up? And he went,

and it was there at the burning bush that God specified the assignment for Moses. When God

draws your attention, it's up to you to respond. Go, check it out. Find the clarity that God wants

you to have. Could it be that God has been drawing your attention lately for new things that he is

up in your life? Maybe it was a Bible verse. Maybe it was a dream or a vision. Maybe it was

an impression that one of your friends or brothers or sisters shared with you. Don't run away. Go.

Check it out. Seek what God wants to say to you. Third stage of Moses' calling is this,

specification. Now, God has Moses' attention. He specifies the assignment he has for him.

The Lord said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out

because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to

rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and

spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me,

and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So, Moses, now go. Go, Moses.

I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. God has had enough

of the suffering of his people in Egypt. It has to stop now. Fond as he is of his people,

he no longer wants them to be oppressed. He no longer wants them to be in slavery,

but instead he wants to lead them of a land, a country that is filled with abundant blessings.

The thing is, he needs someone to lead that people from here to there, and it is Moses he has set his

eye on. It is Moses he is calling for a new assignment to save his people and lead them to

the promised land. After 40 years as a prince of Egypt, followed by 40 years as a shepherd in the

wilderness, God now calls Moses to lead his people, to serve his people. What you can tell

from Moses' calling and from any other calling for that matter in Scripture is that whenever

God calls you, it is always, always to serve the interests of other people. When you track the

storyline of Scripture, whether you read about Joseph or Abraham or Moses or David or the disciples

or Paul or Jesus himself, God always called them for the benefit of others, to serve others. As I

was preparing and thinking about this, I thought, could it be, maybe, could it be that this is the

reason why some of us are so reluctant to say yes to the call that God places on your life? Reluctant

because it's not for self, it's for other people. It's not to benefit and serve yourself, it's to

benefit and serve the interests of others. If what I just said makes you feel uncomfortable, please

don't go feel guilty or ashamed. That's not my intention for saying this, but see it as an

invitation to spend some good time with Jesus on this and just share this with him. Lord, if I'm

being honest with you, I am selfish. As a matter of fact, I'm looking into benefiting self more

than in benefiting others. Spend the time with Jesus. Ask him to break your heart for what his

heart breaks for. You know what it is? People. So that you will be ready, so that you will be

willing to take up whatever assignment God calls you to. The next stage of Moses' calling is one

that I recognize a lot, maybe you as well. It's excuses. Moses was not at all on board with the

plan. God had not even finished his specification of his assignment and Moses begins, oh Lord,

who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Lord, have you forgotten

80 years old? Shepherd of sheep. What are you thinking? I'm not capable, I'm unsuitable for

going there. Oh, and by the way, Lord, suppose I go to the Israelites and I say to them, the God of

your fathers has sent me to you and they ask me, what is his name? Now what shall I tell them? God,

what do I really know about you? And when people ask me about you, what do I even say? Oh, another

thing, Lord, that I think you should reconsider your plan. What if they do not believe me or

listen to me and say, the Lord did not appear to you? I don't want to make a fool out of myself,

Lord, showing up and saying, well, God sent me and then they laughing at me and mocking me, Lord.

Think again. Oh, and Lord, another thing, as you know, I've never been eloquent,

neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and tongue.

By the way, this is even a false excuse because Moses did learn how to speak and communicate in

Egypt, but probably 40 years of sheep communication didn't help a lot. Lord, for this big thing that

you're calling me to, you need a good communicator who is eloquent and can speak well. That's not me,

Lord. So, God, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a bad idea. You know what? I'm out.

Just call somebody else who's more suitable, more capable, more willing. I find this very

inconvenient, Lord, so thank you, but no, thank you. Wow. Moses spends a lot of energy

for throwing up, putting out reasons to say no to God's calling on his life. He's afraid he finds

himself unsuitable and unqualified, and his answer is no, thank you, Lord. Have you been there?

Have you been there? You kind of know that God is calling you to this assignment, whether it's

something totally new or maybe he calls you deeper into something you're already doing

and afraid as you are, insecure as you are, inconvenient as it is.

You're putting forward your best arguments, putting forward reasons to say, God,

no, thank you. I'd rather say no to what you're calling me to.

Here's the thing. The more we look to ourselves, the more reasons we find for saying no to God's

call. The more we make it about us, the less we will look to God and be in awe of the things that

he is capable of through us. My excuses that I made to God when I was a child, I made to God

my excuses that I made to God when he called me into pastoral ministry in 2017, I did different

than Moses, maybe a little bit more polished. I asked God a few questions, hesitant as I was

to take this big leave of faith. There were four questions that I asked God. Question number one,

God, is this as you? Would you please make this a job that involves end worship and the executive

leadership side of things? Because I know how to do that. I don't know what it is to be a pastor,

but at least I know how to do that. Question number two, Lord, I get it that the salary of a

pastor is much lower than what I make in business. Could you please just make it enough? Question

number three, Lord, we just put our girls, our three daughters through this huge transition from

the Netherlands to Bangkok, and they just settled in in their school. Could we please continue

them to have them there at that school, not to take them through another transition? Question

number four, Lord, if you are calling me to do this, this was a daring one. Would you send three

people that I have never met who literally tell me God wants you to be a pastor at ECB? There you go.

And I thought with these questions, things were clear and settled, not realizing that God would

answer all those questions in a very specific way. By the way, these are the kind of questions

that you ask when you look too much to yourself, your situation, your needs, your capabilities,

and you forget to look at who God is and what he is able to do for you and through you. The more

we make it about ourselves, the less we see God. We need to stop making it about ourselves, dear

friends, and instead we need to look to God. God will never ask you for any kingdom assignment

that you will be able to pull off on your own. Let me repeat that. God will never call us to kingdom

assignments that we are able of pulling off on our own, whether it's the call to love your neighbor,

or the call to be holy like God is holy, or the call to leave your country and go minister and

serve people who you have never met in a country far away. You will always need God. So we need to

stop looking at ourselves and we need to begin, stop looking to ourselves and begin to look at

God and his ability. And you know, when we do that, God will always come through. God will always

come through. And he wanted Moses to be aware of that as Moses was making his excuses. While Moses

was doing that, you know what God did? He superseded those excuses by promises. Moses, you're wondering

about who you are, about your identity, and about your ability. Can I tell you? I am with you, and I

will be with you every step of the way. You can count on my presence, Moses. Moses, you were

wondering about what to say when the people ask you, hey, who is it who sent you? You can tell them

this. I am who I am, and it's I who has sent you to them. And Moses, if you have more questions about

who I am and what I'm capable of, you just ask because my wisdom I give you. Oh, and Moses, you

didn't ask for this, but I want you to know that I will take care of you and my people really well.

I will make sure that you will not leave the country of Egypt empty-handed. I'm going to take

care of you and give you everything you need for those 40 years of journeying to the promised land.

Oh, Moses, about your question, what to say when the people tell you, well, God didn't show up to

you. Here is what's going to happen. Pharaoh will need some convincing, you know. He will not go easy

on letting my people go, so I will give you power. I will give you power to do signs and miracles, and

probably he will not answer or listen to you after a first sign. It may take two or three or 10, but

in any case, Moses, I'm going to show up in power for you to be able what I called you for.

Oh, Moses, you were doubting your abilities as a communicator. Can I remind you who invented

communication in the first place? Moses, that's me, and I gave you the mouth and the capacity to

speak and to communicate. So would you just trust me? Would you just follow me? And I will tell you

what to speak, and I will enable you to do that well. You see what God does to counter our excuses?

He supersedes our excuses by His promises. Whenever God asks you something, for something,

calls you to something, He promises His presence. He promises His wisdom. He promises to take care

of you, to provide for everything that you need, and He promises His power to go with you. Why?

To enable you and me for kingdom impact, to enable us to build His kingdom on earth.

That's our God. The God of Moses has not changed. The God of Moses is the same God today, and I can

testify to you, like many others here. All the hesitations that I had, all my insecurities that

I had eight years ago and four years ago, all of the questions that I asked God, not only did He

answer them in an amazing way, He also has consistently come through in all those years,

in all of these ways, to enable me to do things that I am not capable of doing myself, to enable me

to be a pastor, to be a shepherd, to represent Him well, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom

of God, but also to demonstrate the power of the kingdom of God. So be encouraged, dear loved ones.

Whatever God is calling you for, He promises to give His presence, His wisdom, His power,

and He promises to take care of you, because He wants you to succeed in advancing the kingdom of God

here on earth.

The last stage of Moses' calling is obedient faith. While Moses is still in his excuses mode,

God asks him this, Moses, what is that in your hand? Well, it's a staff, Moses replied,

and the Lord said, Jesus, you are a servant of God, and you are a servant of God.

Moses replied, and the Lord said, Moses, I want you to throw it on the ground.

You need to know that a shepherd's staff, the staff that Moses held in his hand,

was super important to Moses. It was an essential tool to do his work well, his job well, and to be

safe. It was this staff that Moses used for 40 years, that he had relied on for 40 years,

to direct his sheep, to course correct them, so that they would make sure that they would go where

he wanted them to go. It was this staff that Moses would use to fight off wild animals that tried to

kill the sheep and even tried to kill himself. It was this staff that Moses used to lean on,

to find some moments of rest after some tiring hours in the desert with his sheep.

This staff is what Moses held onto, what he relied on for life. And now God is asking him, Moses,

I want you to let go of that. I want you to throw it on the ground. That's a big ask

that requires obedient faith. So Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake and he ran from it.

Then the Lord said to him, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out and

took hold of the snake and it turned back into his staff in his hand. What Moses didn't know yet

is that God had amazing plans for this staff. It would be this staff that Moses would use

to do all those miracles in front of Pharaoh, to let the people out of Egypt. It was this staff

that Moses would use to split the Red Sea so that two million people could walk through it

and be saved from the army of the Egyptians. It was this staff that Moses used to split the Red Sea

so that Moses would use to hit on a rock so that water would come out of it so that those same

two million people could have a drink of water. That's the plans that God had for Moses and his staff.

But it required Moses to let go of what he had in his hand and to pick up what God had for him.

And Moses did it, but it required deep, deep faith because the staff had turned into a snake.

And Animal Kingdom 101 teaches us never pick up a snake, especially not by its tail.

But Moses did it. He obeyed God, exercised deep faith, took the snake, which turned immediately

into a staff. Moses needed to let go of what he was holding onto so God could transform him and it

into a powerful instrument for kingdom breakthrough.

This is true for you and for me, very much so. When we surrender to God what we're holding onto,

he can use us in ways that greatly surpass our own capabilities, whether it's your education,

whether it's your skill, whether it's your vocation, whether it's your dream,

whether it's your career, whether it's the stuff that you own, God is asking you to hold all of that

loosely in your hands. Can we be people of God who do that? Hold these things loosely in your hands,

ready to offer them up to God whenever he would be asking that of us, ready to offer ourselves so

that God could equip us, transform us, empower us to do things that are well, well, well beyond our

own capabilities. You're looking at a guy this morning who had never preached a sermon before he

came to ECB. God enables this. A guy who had never been a pastor before, God enables this. A God who

had no clue about shepherding a flock and about all those things, God enabled this. That's the

story. That's it. When we surrender to God what we're holding onto, whatever that looks like,

he can use it in ways that greatly surpass our own capabilities. He can use it in ways that greatly

surpass our own capabilities. This is what happened to Moses, dear friends. He did it.

God had prepared him for 40 years and another 40 years. God drew his attention to the burning bush.

That's where God began specifying the assignment that he had for Moses. And then God countered

all of Moses' excuses by giving us his promises. And lastly, he called Moses to obedient faith so

that God could enable him in ways well beyond his own capabilities to lead the people of Israel out

of the slavery of Egypt into the promised land. If you know the story of Moses and if you know how

the story of Moses ends, you also know that Moses never got to see the promised land.

And in his particular case, it was because of a sin. It was because of an act of disobedience

that Moses had done while he was undertaking this assignment for God. But it does speak into a larger

reality and that reality is this. God determines our seasons of calling.

God is the one building his kingdom on earth and therefore he is the one calling us to specific

assignments at specific times. And that is what brings me to the most recent assignment that God

has given me. And that is what brings me to the most recent part of my own story.

Over the past year, the Lord has made me and my family aware that a change is coming.

It's about a year ago that I was reflecting with the Lord on ECB's ministry and my role

in the ministry. And as I was doing that, I could so see why God did what he did. Why he brought us

as a family to Bangkok in 2016. Why he called an unlikely guy like me to be a pastor first and later

on to be your lead pastor. Full clarity about why God did what he did. And as I was looking back,

it was such a confirmation and it stirred so much gratitude in me.

But as I was looking ahead to the future, I realized that God had not given me a vision

for the years to come. And that surprised me. And that awareness began a journey of prayerfully

seeking God in the months that followed for clarity. Lord, what does this mean? Lord,

what are you trying to tell me? And the journey was first one between God and myself, intimate

conversations with the Lord. And a little while later, my wife, Honeke, and our daughters joined

in that journey. And a couple of months later, the ECB pastors and elders became part of that

journey as well. And it was after seven months of that earnestly seeking God for clarity

that God led us to a place of clarity in August last year. Clarity that he is

releasing me from my ministry at ECB, which will be happening in June of this year.

That was a surprise. But at the same time, there was so much peace in that knowing,

which often is an indication that God is in it. God had us here for the past eight and a half years

for some very clear reasons, reasons that we did not understand yet when we arrived to Bangkok in

2016. But now we can look back over those years. I can tell you we wholeheartedly agree with the

reasons that God had. And now he is leading us to a new place, a new destination, a new assignment.

That's still work in progress, by the way. But we are confident. We trust God. We know that he has

good things for us. Sharing this with you today is hard. But I want to say that I am very happy

that I am here. This is the part of the sermon I did not look forward to this morning.

And it comes with all kinds of emotions. The reason why it's hard is because our transition

in June involves saying goodbye to you. You are ECB. You are the people that we deeply love.

And the prospect of no longer being here comes with sadness, comes with a lot of grieving.

And as a family, we embrace those emotions. We want to do this well. We want to grieve in a healthy

way, also together with you. So we embrace these emotions. The sadness and the grieving is real.

But also the expectation and the excitement for the new is very real. And we're holding

those two sets of emotions together and dearly. Can I close with the question that I begin with,

the beginning of this sermon? Can God call on you?

Each of our callings is different. Not all of us are called by God to leave a place you know

and to move and to do a new thing somewhere else. Some of you, God is calling deeper

into something that you're already engaging with. Some of you, God is calling for a next assignment

next to what you're already doing. And yes, some of you, God may be calling to let go of what you

have, leave the place you know, to go a place you don't know and go do something that you have never

done before. Each of our callings is different, but one thing is sure. God calls all of us. God needs

each of us. Plan A that he has is to build his kingdom on earth through you and through me,

and there is no plan B. So can God call on you when he opens opportunities in places where you

are to represent him, whether that place is a friend group or a place where you study or your

workplace? Can God call on you when ECB needs people to serve as a volunteer in one of the

ministries or even to join in as a staff member? Can he call on you? And yes, can God call on you

when he asks you to do crazy things? Crazy that is in your own understanding, looking to yourself,

to let go of things and to pick up the new of what God has for you.

Love ones, may your answer be, yes Lord, call me, send me, use me, change what needs to be changed,

give me the power I need, but Lord I am ready to go wherever you will lead me.

Let that be your answer, dear love ones.

Asia. If God is calling you to support our ministries, you will find giving options on

our website. And remember to join us next week. God bless you.