"The Unveiling" Pt.2

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

We started a brand new series that we're calling the unveiling, um, how how we're meant to discover our sense of purpose and calling as followers of Jesus.

And uh the real premise of last week, if I can come if I can sum up, you know, a lot of times as people of faith, we approach purpose and calling uh by asking the kinds of questions that sound like God, like, what is it you want me to do?

What is the gift uh that that I have that I can use?

So we ask what questions, or we might be like, God, when?

When is my time?

When is my season?

When is my moment?

When are you gonna use me?

When am I gonna find uh you know deep rhythms of fulfillment and and peace and rest when it comes to calling and purpose?

When?

Or we might ask where questions, God, like um I grew up in Edmonton, it's the only city I know.

I've got a little bit of wanderlust.

Maybe, you know, um, or where?

Where do you want me to move to?

Is my calling somewhere else?

Is my calling about geography or a new continent or a new city or a new nation?

And so we ask like what or when or where questions.

And the whole purpose of setting up this series last week was when it comes to calling and purpose and lifting the veil on what God wants to do through us as his people, I think we're asking the wrong questions.

I think we're asking the wrong what, when, where questions.

Because it's clear from scripture as we go back into 1 Corinthians today that God's saying, actually, no, what really matters to me is who and how.

Who are you becoming as my daughter?

Who are you continuing to become as my son?

How are you being formed bit by bit through the authority of Jesus and the authority of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you?

Um, so I gave away all of those uh Stanley Cup, cowboy hat, straw, lids.

Uh I got no more of them.

Um if you weren't in the room and you're wondering why I just made that reference?

You missed out.

Yeah, you can always go back on YouTube or our audio podcast, have a listen.

But uh, do we have any children in the room?

It's a trick question, people.

You're all somebody's child.

Do we have any children in the room?

Let's try that again.

I'm just gonna wait till every hand.

Come on, Levi, add a boy.

Let's go.

Yeah, let's go.

Come on, don't make me call you out by name, Sherwin.

There we go, thank you.

Um, yes, we're we're all somebody's son or somebody's daughter.

Have you ever, in the in the parenting phrase, maybe you grew up in a home like this, or maybe now with a parenting hat on, maybe you lose use language like this.

Have you ever heard the phrase that delayed obedience is disobedience?

Have you I'll say it again.

Let me say that one more time, because my wife told me to.

Um have you ever heard the phrase that delayed obedience is disobedience?

And this shows up in my world.

I'm not gonna name any of my children specifically by name, but we have a child or two, yeah.

No, no names because it's gonna cost me money.

Uh, if you're new to Evolve, anytime I tell a specific story about one of my children by name, I have to pay them five dollars.

You know, because preachers' kids they get thrown under the bus a lot, right?

And so that's a deal I have with my kids.

If I I get their permission to use a story and then they financially benefit from it.

Um, and uh and so I'm you know choosing my battles.

But um, I just find you know, sometimes you might you might ask your kids to do something and it doesn't get done.

And then they come along and they make a request of you.

And they're like, Can I do this fun thing, or can I go to this place, or can we go have this experience?

And I'm always like, have you done the thing that I asked you to do nine times over the last two hours?

Not yet.

You have the audacity to come ask your dad to go do something else, and you have yet to do the thing.

I just, it's a basket of towels.

Towels are the oh, easiest thing to fold on planet earth.

You just ka chunk, kachunk, ka chunk.

They're so easy.

Just fold the basket of towels.

You have the nerve to come ask your daddy, can we do this other thing?

And you have yet to do, well, I was gonna do it.

I don't care what you were gonna do, I'm I care whether or not you did it.

Delayed, delayed obedience is still disobedience.

Can I get an amen?

Yes, thank you.

Dad, can I please?

Dot, dot, dot.

And I'm all like, but have you done the last thing I asked you to do?

Luke 16, 10 says, one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much.

And one who's dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

So I want to start with this question.

If you were really honest with yourself, what's the last thing that God asked you to do?

And are you doing it well?

Are you doing it with consistency as a faithful steward, in obedience?

Are you doing it with sacrifice and love for your King Jesus?

This verse in Luke 16, now you're all like, he tricked us.

That's not fair.

He got us laughing and then he punched us in the gut.

That's not fair.

I love I love that Jesus in Luke 16 specifically teaches about honesty connected to obedience.

Like one who is faithful in a little is faithful in much.

It doesn't say one who's not faithful, it says who's one who's dishonest.

You're deceived when you're not faithful with a little.

You believe a lie that uh somehow I can't, or somehow something else is more important.

What's the last thing that God asked us to do as his people?

And are we doing it?

Because we get so caught up with what's the next thing, God.

What's my what's my next big moment?

What's my calling?

What's my purpose?

I know you asked me to fulfill the Great Commission, but you asked everybody to do that.

Can I get a pass on like the thing that you asked us all to do really, really well?

Can I get a pass on the Great Commission or the Great Commandment?

Like go out, make disciples, walk in love.

Like, I know that's like church lingo.

That's that's just like big picture vision.

But can I get a pass on that?

Because I want a microphone and I want to preach and I want to go preach to the nations, and I wanna lead worship and I want to prophesy and I want to make a difference.

Have you done the last revealed thing?

Are you accomplishing the will of the Father?

And that was the question last week.

We're like, I want to discover God's will.

I need to discover God's will.

How do I find, how do I discover God's will?

What's my calling?

What's my purpose?

God's will connected to your calling and purpose has very little to do with discovery and far more to do with accomplishing.

We accomplish his will.

We don't need to discover it.

He's already written down his will.

It's clear, it's on paper, it's called scripture.

We just have to study it, digest it, marinate in it, meditate on it, daily receive it as our highest authority in life, infallible.

I trust every word.

Let God be true and every man a liar.

I trust him, I take him at his word.

We accomplish his will, we don't have to discover it.

So as we continue to lift the veil on calling and purpose today, I would love to nudge our hearts together towards deeper honesty about our obedience.

What are the roadblocks that keep us from accomplishing the purposes and callings that God's already revealed to us?

What are the excuses that we've developed that are keeping us from accomplishing the revealed will of God that we already know?

What are the lies of the enemy that we've believed and given power to handcuff us from accomplishing the purposes and callings that God's already revealed to us?

The Stephen Covey quote, we judge others by their actions, but ourselves by our intentions is adequately applied to this conversation.

Well, I intended to obey God.

I have I'm I in my prayer life I knew that I wanted to.

Yeah, but did you?

Are you accomplishing what he's already asked you to do?

Or are you like, what's the next big fun thing that I get to do for God?

Are you doing the did you fold the basket of towels?

Because I asked you to do that.

I've asked you nine times in the last two hours.

How are how are you doing with that?

What's what's the big picture?

How are we meant to follow Jesus' purpose and calling that God's already laid out for us?

And if we're honest, are we obediently accomplishing it right now?

God's purpose and calling is often compared to like a digital GPS system in our car.

Have you ever heard that analogy from a preacher or in a book?

You know, God's voice and his direction is like the GPS in your car, the navigation from here to there, wherever here to there is.

And again, this I feel like this analogy falls short because it's like, where am I going?

It's the wrong question.

And that's where, like, even if I miss it, God will reroute me, you know.

Turn left in 400 meters.

I'm gonna turn right instead just to mess with the GPS.

And then it reroutes you, you know, turn left.

And and and so we've often used the analogy of a digital GPS when it comes to like God's voice.

But the analogy I would like to contrast that with and actually hopefully demolish the digital GPS one is there's this amazing couple that live in our province, and we've known them for years.

Um, they live up north.

Uh John and Jen Rivet, I'm gonna shout them out by name, and and they're they're hunting guides.

They guide people.

And and the invitation to guide somebody is they're like, well, you you need to come to me, and then I'm gonna take you, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come with you, and I'm gonna show you how I do what I do.

I'm gonna show you who we're who we need to become in order to be effective in the thing that I'm guiding you in.

And and the practice of guiding somebody is is the heartbeat of Jesus when it comes to our purpose and our calling.

God's purpose and calling is more like a guide.

Let me show you, let me explain best practice, let me walk with you.

What's your heart posture when it comes to calling and purpose?

Come here, God, come in close to me, God, tell me where to go and what I'm gonna do.

Or Matthew 11, Jesus, come to me, get away with me, and you'll recover your life.

I'll show you how to take rest.

Walk with me, work with me, watch how I do it, learn the unforced rhythms of grace.

I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting.

Keep company with me, and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Emphasis on me is mine entirely in Eugene Peterson's paraphrase.

God, God, I need you to show up right where I am and then tell me where to go, is the wrong heart posture when it comes to calling and purpose.

We, as his people, running to his presence, running to the feet of Jesus, receiving his invitation to come to him and find ourselves in him and learn from him and follow him and be guided by him is a much holistic, healthier picture of calling and purpose.

Last week, as I quoted St.

John of the Cross, what good will it do if you give God one thing when He asks something else?

I'm doing this thing for God.

Yeah, but I asked you to fold the towels.

Right?

Consider what God wills and do it.

Or I'm gonna insert a different word, accomplish it.

For so will you satisfy your heart better than by doing that to which you are inclined yourself.

This begs the observation that calling and purpose have far more to do with accomplishing God's will rather than discovering it.

And so I would say, let us as his people, let us as his holy set apart, we talked about that last week, let us as his people accomplish God's will, his purposes and his callings for his church, versus let me discover God's will, his purposes and calling for my life.

If we know who we are connected to the body, we'll find rhythms of like life and joy and satisfaction and wholeness in walking out our purpose.

And so for today, I want to invite you back into 1 Corinthians.

Uh, we're gonna go back into chapter one and read uh verses 26 through 31.

Here's what it says for consider your calling, brothers, and adequately when you study original context, don't worry, girls, you're not excluded from this.

All right, so I'm gonna say, brothers and sisters, for consider your calling.

Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

Do you look back on your life before Christ and go, like, really, what do I bring to the table?

I do this.

I'm like, really?

Like, I'm I'm not that intelligent.

And these are these are connected to like my my growing up experiences, the lives of the enemy.

I look back on like the family I grew up in and the place where I was born, and we can all do this and look back and go, really, like, who am who am I, anyways, that God would want to use me?

Like, you can talk about calling and purpose all day if you want, Pastor, but I I know who I am.

And I know that there's probably other people that God wants to use before he uses me.

Can you just reject that?

Can you just like I I don't know if you have the ability to compartmentalize that thought, even if you can't reject it, can you just like slide that to the side for a few minutes today and hear the word of the word of the Lord?

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring nothing the things that are.

So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

That is three gigantic church words in a row.

So that as it is written, let no one boast but boast in the Lord.

And so this is kind of I've got two ideas that I want to share.

And the first is this it's actually a specific kind of life that God calls us to live.

It's a very specific kind of life that God calls us to live.

Consider your calling.

This passage begins with in verse 26.

And the Greek word that shows up here is klasis, to call, or a calling, or an invitation.

And it and at its simplest, it's like um, hey you, uh, let's let's go with um, I'm I'm gonna look at the back here.

Um hey Sean, can you can you come over here?

It's like an invitation, it's a calling, and it's real simple.

And and the scriptures in 1 Corinthians, in verse 26, chapter 1, it begins with, would you consider your calling?

That somewhere along the way, God was like, hey daughter, hey son, come on.

Okay, so that's that's actually the simplest, but this this Greek word shows up in a lot of other places in the Bible.

And I want to cite some examples because it it paints a bit of a picture for this idea of the specific kind of life that God's called us to.

Romans 11, 29, for the gifts and the calling, same word, of God, are irrevocable.

Ephesians 4, Paul saying, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Same word, okay?

Would you please walk in a manner worthy of the, hey, come on, follow me.

Ephesians 4, there's one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.

Same language, 2 Thessalonians 1.

To this end, we will always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.

Calling.

2 Timothy 1 9, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.

2 Peter 1:10.

2 Peter 1:10

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling, same word, and election.

For if you practice these qualities, you will never fail.

Want some good homework?

Write this down.

I would love for you to just go back, go into 2 Peter chapter 1, uh, verse 10 sits in the middle of practice these qualities.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Some of you are like, what are the qualities?

You can you can read about it.

2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 through 11.

2 Peter 1:3–11

Great chunk for you to do some homework on to sort of like, well, what are the how am I meant to live?

What are the qualities?

And we're gonna talk more about it, but for today I just want you to consider your calling.

Verse 1, chapter 1, 26, 1 Corinthians.

Just consider it.

Or as Eugene puts it, take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life.

You've been called into a life, it's a specific kind of life that God has called us into as his people.

Gordon Fee, in uh in a commentary on 1 Corinthians, he writes this perhaps the Pauline nuance could be captured by paraphrasing: look at what was involved in the fact of your being called by God, who you were when he called you.

His point in getting them and us so to consider themselves is that in calling out a people for his name, God showed no regard for their present value.

God called us a people for his name, and in doing that, I don't care about your backstory.

I don't care about where you were born, I don't care about what you're good at or not, I don't care about the present value when I called you, worldly wisdom or merit.

Indeed, in calling them, God chiefly chose those who are living contradiction to those values.

That's good news for me.

I hope it's good news for you.

The specific kind of life that God calls us to live is a life rooted and established in Christ Jesus, a life devoted to the cause of Christ and his ongoing work and his ongoing mission in the world around us.

A life that's in stark contrast to the wisdom and the standards of this world.

We're meant to be different.

This is just one more dynamic example of the upside-down kingdom that we're invited to be citizens of when we say, I want to follow Jesus.

Not the world's standards, not the world's wisdom, not the world's merit, but life in Christ.

It's a specific kind of life that you've been called into.

And the second idea is this the specific life that you're called to is marked by very specific qualities.

And you can you can study first Peter, like I've already encouraged you to, but verse 30 says, Because of him, you are in Christ.

Because of God the Father, you and I are in Christ Jesus, who became to us.

Because we're in Christ, Jesus became for you and for me, he became wisdom.

Jesus became wisdom from God.

Not worldly wisdom, not worldly standards, not worldly merit, but wisdom from God.

And Jesus also became, here they are, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

Those are all very significant Christian words.

But Leon Morris says, they are in Christ Jesus.

And for the sake of just like letting this settle into our hearts, repeat after me, I am in Jesus.

I am in Jesus.

I am in Jesus.

You are in Christ Jesus.

You know, whole books, Leon says, have been written about this enigmatic phrase, which Paul habitually uses to indicate the relationship between believers, that's you, and Christ.

Paul, it shows up a lot in his language that we're in Christ Jesus.

Briefly, it shows that the believer is connected to his Lord in the closest possible fashion.

Christ is the very atmosphere in which the believer lives.

But we must not interpret this mechanically.

Christ is a person, it's not an out there idea or mass or concept.

Uniquely God seated on the throne of the universe and right here up close.

Christ is a person.

The phrase in Christ describes personal attachment to a personal Savior.

And if you can wrap your brain around that, God called us, his holy people, to be in Christ personally, to find ourselves in it.

Because we are in Christ, because we are connected to our Lord in the closest possible fashion.

Because Jesus is the atmosphere in which we live, because we push back against the wisdom of the world and the standards of the world, because of that, Jesus is our wisdom from God.

He is our righteousness, he is our sanctification, he is our redemption.

And to help you, I'm going to turn to Eugene's paraphrase one more time because I love this line.

It's a little bit helpful in unpacking those three big words.

Everything that we have right thinking, right living, a clean slate, and a fresh start.

All of that comes from God by way of Christ Jesus.

There's a lot, I could preach a whole message just on how we've been made righteous or how we've been sanctified or how we've been redeemed.

But at the heart of it, the very specific life that you've called into, that you've been called into has very specific qualities that we're meant to walk into.

And here's the thing: it's already revealed.

Right thinking.

That's already been revealed.

We don't need to discover that.

We just need to accomplish that.

Right living.

There is a deep-seated way of doing life that God, the creator, do you remember last week when we talked about if I want to know the purpose of something, I have to go to the manufacturer?

God's revealed how we're meant to live.

That's why we teach what we do about human sexuality and marriage.

That's why we teach what we do about how we're meant to love neighbor and what that requires of us.

That's why we teach what we do about how we steward money and our resources.

That's very different than the world that we live in.

Like there's there the scripture is clear on what it means to live right as a follower of Jesus.

That's not something we have to like, oh, I wonder, I wonder how God wants me to treat my kids.

No, it's he's there's really clear language about discipling our kids well in a way that honors Jesus that we can find in scripture.

We don't have to wonder about these things.

They've already been written down.

We just have to accomplish them.

Right thinking, right living, a clean slate.

Beautiful.

I love that one of the qualities of being called by God to live as a people of God is that I have a clean slate.

Not that I used to have a clean slate.

I get to wake up, I did it.

I woke up this morning.

That's the first thing I thank you, God, that your mercies are new today.

Thank you that yesterday's done.

I have a clean slate today.

Today I get to walk in the fullness of what it means to be, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

And today is a new day for me.

And and the and I dealt with yesterday.

Right?

It's not that I'm in denial to where I failed yesterday.

I've just already dealt with that.

I apologized, I said sorry, I repented, I made it right.

And so today I have a clean slate.

This is who we are.

One of the qualities of being a follower of Jesus, a fresh start.

That means there's freshness and vitality in my lungs and in my breath and in my spiritual being for who I get to be as a follower of Jesus in the world today.

Everything we have, right thinking, right living, clean slate, fresh start, all comes from God by way of Christ Jesus.

This is good news.

When it comes to purpose and calling, it's it's clear, it's written down the specific life that you've been called into is marked by very specific qualities.

But why?

Why does this matter?

How does this all connect to the bigger mission of Jesus and the and the kingdom purpose of Jesus' church?

So before I invite my wife up, I just want to flip the page.

And we move from the last verse of chapter 1 in 1 Corinthians to the first couple of verses in chapter 2.

Why does this matter?

Paul writes, and I, when I came to you, brothers and sisters, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom.

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

So why does it matter that we discover our purpose?

We discover why do why do we invite the Holy Spirit to help us set aside the wrong questions and put on the right questions?

Who are we becoming?

The specific life that we've been called into, marked with specific qualities, because we can become the people of God and still miss out on, I know nothing except Jesus crucified.

Because this is this is the this is the goal.

This is Great Commission.

This is like you can you can understand who you are in Christ and still be handcuffed to boldly proclaiming Christ crucified in your own life.

You can be handcuffed to the freedom and the life and the calling and the purpose of you being an active participant in the mission of Jesus.

Right?

Are you tracking with me?

And and that's usually because of fear or a lie from the enemy that somebody else is better at proclaiming Christ crucified than I am.

Have you ever shared your testimony with a neighbor?

Have you ever had anybody just be like, I I just have to ask.

It is peculiar to me how you show up at work like early every day.

And you just always have this like life about you.

There's just like there's a glint in your eye, you don't you don't back talk at lunch, you don't complain.

You just like you stand out in the workplace.

Can I ask you about that?

And then you're like, yeah, I've decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Can I tell you about how Jesus has changed my life?

Like at some point, we have to use our voice and engage the world around us.

At some point, at some point, we have to choose to be obedient to the last thing that God asked us to do.

Fold the towels.

Yeah, but it's that's like that's elementary.

I want the deep things of God.

I want to go into the deep water.

The Great Commission is as deep as it gets, people.

Seriously.

You being obedient to accomplishing the revealed, already written down, already just you being obedient to accomplishing the will of God when it comes to calling and purpose is as deep as it gets.

Because delayed obedience, oh, I'll share my testimony one day.

Delayed obedience is still disobedience.

God's revealed purpose, God's revealed calling for us, his people, to accomplish.

Proclaiming Christ crucified is perhaps the most significant, fundamental, primary, last thing that God has asked us to accomplish as his set apart holy people.

What's the big picture?

How we're meant to follow Jesus, purpose and calling that God's already laid out for us?

Would you be a people committed to going out?

Go out on mission, go out and proclaim Christ to a hurting and dying world.

Go out and make disciples in his name.

Go out and love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as you learn to find yourself transformed by the Father's love.

We get to be really honest with ourselves today.

Honest about our obedience.

If proclaiming Christ crucified is the last thing that God asked us to accomplish, are we doing it well?

Not perfect, but are we doing it well?

Doing it with consistency as faithful stewards in obedience with sacrifice and love for our King.

First Corinthians 1, 26 to 31.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveCurch dot com.

We hope to see you soon.