Who's Calling? | Tom Garasha

Well, good morning. Happy Father's Day to you

guys. My son reminded me when he said, Happy

Father's Day, Dad, you've been a father for 55

years. And I said, whoa, that's a long time.

I still don't get it. But welcome to you, Pauldin,

and those of you that are in Baghdad this morning,

we're glad you're with us. And happy Father's

Day to you guys, too. You know, I was thinking

of Father's Day. I have a four -year -old great

-granddaughter. She's a sweetheart, and she calls

her dad. Daddy. She calls her grandfather Papa,

and she calls me Old Papa. And that's my little

granddaughter there. She's a sweetheart. And

so the message is coming to you from Old Papa

this morning. You know, John talks about family,

and I feel like I'm still a part of the Heights

family. And so thank you for having me come up

here from 115 degrees. to spend some time with

you this morning. So thank you for having me.

We've been in a study of the book of Galatians.

We've been in Galatians and Todd did a great

job of just opening things up last week. And

boy, you talk about Paul being confrontational.

He kind of whacked him upside the head, didn't

he? With the church of Galatia for buying into

some wrong teaching. And so Paul got pretty straight

up with them and pretty authentic to correct

them. But it seems like the passage that I'm

in this morning in Galatians chapter 1, verses

Galatians 1:11–24

11 through 24, it seems like he backs down a

little bit just to make sure that they understand

that he's a very creditable apostle. So he decides

that it'd probably be good for him to just go

through his calling and how God has processed

him so that his credibility would increase with

these folks because he had a bad reputation,

as you know. But God changed all that when he

was confronted on the road to Damascus, right?

And so Paul writes this, and he's talking about

his calling. And John wanted me to talk about

his calling, and so I dug into this a little

bit. And so I want to share with you a little

bit, but I wanted to give you, first of all,

the definition that I feel like defines what

God's calling is. It's God's defined purpose

for your life. It's God's defined purpose for

your life. You know, calling has been kind of

misconstrued, I think, in the church over the

years. It seems like the only people you hear

talking about calling are ministers and missionaries,

right? Well, that's crazy. Every one of you are

called for a purpose in your life. God created

each one of you in a special, unique way, and

every one of you have a calling in your life.

And your calling is just as important as my calling

or anybody else's calling because that's how

God called you, and that's special, and you need

to understand that. So Paul begins by giving

us some hints as to what a called person looks

like when we start in verses chapter 1, verses

11 and 12. And here's what he says. He says,

dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand

that the gospel message I preached received by

my message from no human reasoning. I received

my message from no human source and no one taught

me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation

from Jesus Christ. He makes it very clear that

every calling should start with Jesus. Every

calling should start with God. When we start

with other people, other issues, Let me explain

that a little bit. How many of you have ever

gone online and looked up comparisons of car

insurance? Anybody done that? Don't do that ever

again. One, two days, I had 47 robocalls. 47.

I still get 20 a day, people wanting to sell

me car insurance. And it's just driven me absolutely

bonkers. And so I decided I'm going to block

all these guys. And so I blocked everything not

in my contact list. And then I realized that

I may be missing a few phone calls. And so sure

enough, in the middle of all that, I had two

phone calls that I missed. And I regret that

because each of them were two wives who just

lost their husbands and wanted me to do their

funeral. And I thought, how? I felt so stupid.

But sometimes that's the way we are. You know,

I call them spam calls, robocalls, whatever you

want to call them. There's all kinds of things

in our world today that are trying to get us

and change the purpose of our life, to confuse

us. And we sometimes, in doing that, we end up

blocking out the most important call in our life,

and that's the call of God in our own lives.

And so we don't hear from God like we need to

hear because there's too many spam calls, if

you will, in our life. So Paul wanted to make

sure that where we start is always sitting down

face to face and trying to figure out with Jesus,

what is my calling and purpose in life? And so

that's where he started. Now he moves on and

he says something else because he realized that

part of our calling is defining our purpose.

That's a part of our definition. He talks about

it in verses 15 and 16. He says, but even before

I was born, God chose me and called me by his

marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal

his son to me so that I would proclaim the good

news about Jesus to the Gentiles. What was Paul's

calling in his life? God was very specific and

said, Paul, I want you to go to the Gentiles

and share the gospel. Now, if he didn't do that,

99 % of you wouldn't even be sitting here, right?

God gave him this great honor and privilege and

calling in his life. And so he followed through

on that very uniquely to who Paul was. And he

made a difference in many, many people's lives

and still here today. You have a unique purpose

as well. Have you ever thought about Psalm 139,

Psalms 139:16

verse 16? He said, you saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life is recorded in your book.

God had a plan for your life the minute you were

conceived. God had a purpose for your life just

as much as God had a purpose for Paul in his

life. And your calling is very unique to who

you are and how God's created you and how he's

gifted you. Every one of us have a calling in

our life. We need to take that calling seriously.

Because we've always seemed to relegate it to

the minister and the missionary. Your calling

is just as important as a minister or a missionary.

Whether you're a teacher or a student or a mom

or a dad, whatever it is, your calling is specific

to you, how God has created you. And so Paul

was so obviously gifted in his own life and God

called him and defined his purpose. Thirdly,

We see in this particular passage that basically

God defines our calling based upon my uniquenesses,

which is what I've just covered. But in Psalm

Psalms 139:13

139, verses 13 and 14, he said, you made all

the delicate inner parts of my body and knit

me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for

making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship

is marvelous. How well I know it. David writes

this psalm to remind us all that every one of

you are uniquely created by God. You're all special.

According to scripture in Ephesians, he says

you are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus.

You're a special, special person uniquely made

by God. And he's called you with a specific calling

and purpose in your life. And so if you're meandering

right now in who you are and where you're at,

hopefully this message will help solidify you

to understand that you have a purpose, a special

purpose, unique purpose in your life, and God's

using you, hopefully, to bear fruit because of

that. Well, fourth, we see here that sometimes

there's often a gap that is used to prepare for

our calling. Sometimes we get the message. about

something, about God wants us to do something,

but sometimes there's a gap in between. The reason

why I say that, because in Galatians chapter

Galatians 1:16–20

1, verses 16 through 20, Paul says this. He said,

when this happened, when he had this transformation

on the road to Damascus, he tells these people,

he said, when this happened, he said, I did not

rush out and consult with any human being, nor

did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those

who apostles before I was. Instead, I went away

into Arabia, and later I returned to Damascus,

and then three years later, I went to Jerusalem

to get to know Peter. He went into a sabbatical

for three years just to be reprogramming his

whole heart and life. After all, he was killing

Christians, and now he had changed so dramatically,

he needed time to really spend that time with

intimacy with God. Have you ever had that happen

in your life where sometimes somebody, you felt

like God was prompting you to do something, but

it just seemed like there was delays. There was

just a time gap. I remember when I was struggling

in my first church and there was so much negativity

and criticism and backbiting and gossip in the

church and I was wounded deeply by it. And so

I had to really sit down and think, do I really

want to stay a pastor? And so there was a time

where I resigned from the church and I decided,

do I want to really pursue going back into ministry

again? Or do I just need to go find a secular

job and do something different? And so I prayed

about that. But for six months to eight months,

I was looking and putting my name out to various

churches to see if they were looking for a pastor

and nobody wanted me. And so it was very, very

discouraging to me. But God was preparing me

and making sure that my call was so solid that

I was going to stick with it. And by the end

of that period of time, God spoke to me and said,

I want to make your highway in the desert, Tom.

So I ended up in Phoenix, Arizona, starting a

church. That was 42 years ago. And I'm grateful

for that. But there was a time lapse between

my calling and what God really wanted me to do.

And sometimes those are times where God's just

preparing you, just like he was preparing Paul.

And so if you've been feeling like God's been

prompting you to do something, but it just hasn't

come to fruition yet, it hasn't grown, hang in

there. Because if you heard from God, he's got

a plan for your life and he will follow through

on it. Here's the fifth thing that I noticed

about Paul. When we function in our calling,

there's fruit produced. If you're functioning

in your calling, you can't help but produce fruit.

You really can't. And so in Galatians chapter

one, verse 22, he finishes this little passage

and he says, after that visit, I went north into

the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. And still

the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn't

know me personally. All they know was that people

were saying, the one who used to persecute us

is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy.

And they praise God because of me. You see, Paul,

because of the change in his life and hearing

his calling, God was producing so much fruit

in his life. So when you're in your calling,

you're a fruit producer. I just read a book recently

called, Aging Faithfully. And it was a great,

great book. And in that book, she was talking

about when you're in your latter days as a retiree,

she said it's interesting because most of your

life you've been trying to be productive, right?

You're trying to produce something. It's all

about bottom lines. It's all about making things

happen. And she said you need to shift your focus

from productivity when you're a retiree to fruit.

And it's an interesting concept because what

she's saying is that when you start, when you

end your particular vocation, oftentimes you

go into cruise control and she's saying, no,

no, no, that's the time where you really go inward

and you really understand the fruit of the Spirit

and that becomes the manifestation of your life

and now you're productive again. So I'll stop

right there because I'll get going too much and

I might get off on a tangent here. But how do

you know if you're functioning in your calling?

How do you know that? Well, Paul gave us some

clues here, but I have a few other ideas here.

Number one is you have the privilege of functioning

in your giftedness. It's so much fun when you're

operating in your giftedness. Have you noticed

that? It's just a delight. It's exciting. It's

fun to be in your giftedness. I'm hoping I'm

a gifted communicator to some degree, and it

brings me delight just to spend time with you

this morning. It's fun. It's exciting. I love

operating in my giftedness. It's great to be

able to focus on the positive and not all the

negative stuff that goes on in my life. So it

gives you the privilege of functioning in your

giftedness. In Acts chapter 13, verse 12, it

Acts 13:12

says, when the governor saw what had happened,

and this is when Peter or Paul was preaching,

He said he became a believer for he was astonished

at the teaching about the Lord. See, Paul's giftedness

was shining all over Asia Minor. His giftedness

of church planting and being a pastor and missionary,

it was coming out in Paul and he was just enjoying

it immensely. But secondly, it was so compelling

for Paul. It says in Acts chapter 20, verses

Acts 20:22

22 and 24, he said, And now I am bound by the

Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what

awaits me except that the Holy Spirit tells me

in the city after city that jail and suffering

lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me

unless I use it for finishing the work assigned

me by the Lord Jesus, the work of telling others

the good news about the wonderful grace of God.

So what this point is, is that you can know you're

in your giftedness when you feel like you have

great determination and conviction to hang in

there no matter what the circumstances are. Paul

knew that everywhere he went, he was going to

find somebody pushing back. Not only by his reputation,

but by his new reputation of really changing

the world for Jesus. I remember Many times in

ministry over my lifetime, over 50 years of ministry

full -time, how many times I wanted to quit.

People were driving me crazy. There were situations

where the church had issues, and it just got

wearying after a while. And there were days where

I thought, you know what? God, I just don't want

to keep going. But something in my spirit was

binding me. I felt captured by this calling in

my life, and it kept me in the game. And when

you're operating in your calling, it's not like

the grass is always greener on the other side.

You're there for the duration. You're there until

God says you can quit. And Paul was so compelled

and so constrained and so convicted that it didn't

matter what obstacles were in his life, he was

going to fulfill that calling that God had in

his life. Thirdly, and I've already said this,

but you have sense of being bound by your calling.

And sometimes that being bound gets frustrating.

A little illustration about... a fish in a fishbowl,

if you can bear with me, but let's pretend Nemo's

there. And you found Nemo, but Nemo's been swimming

around in his fishbowl for quite a while, and

he's looking at this world out there, and he's

thinking, man, I got to get out of here. I can't

do this anymore. I just want to flip out of this

fishbowl, and I want to be free. So old Nemo

flips himself out of the fishbowl and he starts

flopping around on the floor and all of a sudden

he realizes, I can't breathe. And see, that's

what happens to us. Sometimes when we quit too

soon and we want to get out of the fishbowl and

we think that that's going to be a better place

for me, when God says, uh -uh, I got you right

where I want you. I got you right in that fishbowl,

right where you belong. And you can swim all

the way around in the fishbowl all you want to.

You have all the freedom to do that. But I'm

holding you captive because I've called you to

be a fish. So if you're feeling fishy this morning,

bear with me. Number four is this. You have a

sense of contentment. Remember what Paul said

in Philippians? Paul said, I have learned to

be content in whatever circumstances I am in.

And boy, he had some rough ones. When you're

in your calling, there's a contentment, there's

a satisfaction. There's a kind of a restful feeling

that's in your life and saying, yeah, it feels

good. And even though there's opposition, even

though there's struggles and so forth, I'm not

going to jump out of the fishbowl and try to

do something else before God tells me. So there's

this feeling of tentment. And then finally, you

see this fruitfulness. Philippians 1, verse 22

Philippians 1:22

was just a verse that came to my mind. It says,

if I live, I can be more fruitful for Christ.

And he was in that battle of saying, you know,

for me to live is Christ, but to die is to gain.

I'd rather die, but I know that as long as I'm

alive, I want to be fruitful. And what's really

fun is when you're operating in your calling,

God reveals to you various times in your life

of the fruit that's existing because you've been

living your calling out, living your purpose.

There's fruit there. It's been fun for me. The

older I get, then people come back into your

life that you maybe invested in 20, 30, 40 years

ago. And I've had phone calls or people just

falling into my life lately and just saying,

you know what? You've meant so much to me in

my life. I'm thinking, I didn't even know I touched

that person. But when you're in your calling,

you realize that there is fruit being manifested

out there. And it's just a great feeling to know

that that's happening. And sometimes God rewards

us with those kind of phone calls. And sometimes

we're going to have to wait till we get to glory.

And he says, well done, thou good and faithful

servant. So you have fruitfulness when you're

in your calling. So the next question that I

came up with as I was preparing this message,

well, how do you determine your calling? If you're

kind of in that place in your life right now

where you're saying, you know what, I'm not sure

what my calling is. I'm not sure what my next

step should be. Well, let me give you some ideas.

Number one is I would firstly ask God to reveal

it to you. Have some time out. Get away. Take

some time in your life to just get away and just

rethink and listen to what God has to say and

just... Ask God to reveal it to you. God, what

is it you want me to do? Where is it you want

me to go? What's next for me, God? And be a good

listener. Secondly, seek counsel with godly people.

There are people out there that sometimes know

you well and love you and have a godly heart.

They can look at you and say, you know what?

I believe that this is what God's calling you

to do. Now you put those together from the word

of God and God revealing it to you and now it

begins to percolate in your life and you begin

to say, well, maybe I need to consider that.

Maybe I should look at that. Obviously embracing

your giftedness. What are your giftedness? Might

be good for you to go through growth track and

figure out what maybe your gifts are if you're

not sure what your gifts are. But there's great

tools out there as well. Diagnostic tools like

strength finders and disc tests and personality

gifts and gifts to disc test. All those kind

of combine into ways that we can help understand

who we are and what God's called us to do and

to be. And I would challenge you to think about

that. And then obviously there's times where

there's actually direct revelation from God.

There are times in my life where God has actually

spoken in that still small voice, just like he

did with Elijah when he was on the mountaintop

trying to figure out what's next for his life.

But if we don't slow down long enough to hear

what God has to say, we're never going to know.

And so a lot of it is that life gets in the way.

There's too many spam calls if we go back to

our illustration. Everybody else has a wonderful

plan for our life, don't they? Culture does.

The TV does. Everybody has a wonderful plan for

our lives. But if we don't stop long enough,

God sometimes just wants to whisper and say,

look, this is what I've called you to do. I remember

when God spoke to me very clearly. I want you

to make your highway in the desert. I want you

to be a pastor. That was a scary day, believe

me. But God spoke to me so clearly, it was just

undeniable that God revealed that to me. I'll

never forget the day when that happened and I...

I never wanted to be a pastor to begin with.

And I said, God, why are you doing this to me?

And I made a U -turn. I was driving and I came

home and I told my wife, I said, honey, I guess

I know where we're at right now. She said, what?

I said, God wants me to be a pastor. She said,

are you kidding? I said, I don't want to be a

pastor's wife. Yeah, they're the unsung heroes,

by the way. But that was a direct revelation

from God. I couldn't deny it. That was God's

voice speaking to me. And it's fun, but I was

able to, when I was complaining to God, that's

when he spoke to me because when, you know, I

get into these arguments with God. I don't know

if you do, but I get into these things where

I get so upset with God some days. And I was

upset that day because, man, I'd gotten beat

up in the church and I was trying to survive

on being a carpenter, which I was lousy at. And

I said, God, what's the deal? And he said, you

know, if you just shut up for a minute, I'll

tell you. You know, and there's a lot of us are

like that. If we just shut up for a minute and

listen to what God has to say, we might find

some very compelling information in our lives.

He wants to speak to us through the word of God

and through other people and through a still

small voice. And I wrote this down because I

remember when Samuel was being called by God.

Do you remember that story? And he was going

to anoint Samuel to be a prophet. And he was

speaking and Samuel heard this voice. And what

was the first thing out of his mouth? It says,

speak, Lord, for what? I am listening. We are

lousy listeners in our culture. So listen to

what God is trying to say. Now, when I opened

this message up, I asked God if God was maybe

calling you to something, and you've had him

blocked, okay? And so I had these thoughts in

closing and I want to share these things with

you. Maybe you've been serving your calling and

that maybe God is calling you to something else.

Why do I say that? Here's the reason. When I

retired, quote retired, at 70 years old, I'm

going to be 77 in a couple weeks. And when I

first retired, I really struggle a little bit

with my identity. Anybody relate to that, using

our retirees? Because you've spent your entire

life in your vocation, which you have always

considered it to be your calling, right? And

now my calling's over. Now what do I do? Well,

unfortunately, a lot of retirees kind of put

their lives on cruise control, and you just kind

of go through life, the rest of your life, in

your fourth quarter, I would call it, of your

life. And you're just kind of enjoying life together,

but the fruit's not there. Maybe the satisfaction

isn't there. The joy isn't there. And I'm going

to get on a little soapbox here because I feel

like that I'm still in one of the most productive

and fruitful times in my life because I was able

to shift from essentially being, quote, a pastor

to now a disciple maker. And I've been disciple

-making all my life. And you know what's really

sad? There was a survey done by Back to the Bible

not too long ago by Arnie Cole. And he served

hundreds of people who they quoted were mature

Christian believers, many of them older, many

of them retired. They all had all of the earmarks

of being a mature Christian. They had a prayer

life. They were into the Word of God. They were

active in their church and so on and so forth.

But then he asked the question, how many of you

are investing right now in somebody's life? Disciple

making. 80 % said nothing, zero. And I feel like

if you're a retiree, you can be in the most fruitful

time of your life right now. I want to challenge

you. Reinvent yourself. No, you're not what you

were. But you have more wisdom, more maturity.

You're the very people that God needs to be using

to pour into people's lives, amen? Now, I'm challenging

you on that. I could go on another hour on that

whole topic itself. But here's the second thought

I had in closing. God never calls someone to

something without equipping him. If you're feeling

called right now and you say, not me, Lord, I

can't do that. Remember Moses? You know, he didn't

want to go back and leave the people to the promised

land. God, I can't even talk. How am I supposed

to? God, you know, don't you remember I killed

a couple Egyptians? I'm not a very popular guy

in Egypt right now. And God just basically said,

suck it up. I'll give you Aaron, right? I'll

give you a staff, right? What about Joshua? Can

you imagine the poor guy? He inherited that whole

mess. A couple million Jews trying to cross the

land and they were stiff -necked and a problem

all along the way for Moses. And that's why God

said to Joshua, he said, Joshua, listen, man,

be strong, be courageous. Go for it because every

step you take, you're gonna bear fruit. You're

gonna see victory in your life. God never calls

somebody that he doesn't equip. And if you're

feeling inadequate, God's the God of your inadequacy.

Third, don't confuse your calling by being driven.

You know, sometimes it bothers me when I see

people that are just go, go, go, and they are

type A personalities and they've got to get it

all, get her done, get her done, get her done.

And I'm thinking, what is your motivation? Is

it insecurity? Is it control? Or is it God compelling

you from the inside out that you are called to

do this? So don't confuse being driven with being

called. And finally, no matter what, We have

one calling we can't resist. We can't let go

of this. I've served several hundred churches

when I was consulting with churches all over

the West Coast. And every one of them had the

Great Commission in their bylaws and their constitution.

But I always ask you a question, but how many

people are really being discipled? How many people

are taking one step closer to the Lord? How is

this church really living out disciple making?

And I'm so thrilled when I hear what Heis is

doing right now. But the point is, I don't care

who you are. Your calling is not to be argued.

We are called to go and make disciples. And if

nothing else in your life today, You are called

to do that. Don't rationalize that, but accept

it because God made that one really clear for

us. And so I really challenge you to do that.

Well, old Papa is done this morning. I want to

challenge you this morning. Let me pray. God.

You are an amazing God and you want to speak

to us. You want that relationship with us. You

love us so much that you created us uniquely

in a way that each one can be living life with

purpose. God, if there's a person here right

now that's just struggling with that right now,

God, I pray that they would take some time to

just dive into it. Get it squared away so that

they have direction in their life for their future

and each day. God, I pray for that person that

maybe has been challenged today and you're trying

to block that call because you don't feel adequate

or you don't feel ready or prepared for that.

But God, I pray that you would break through

all the spam. I pray that they would take that

call. Because you never know how exciting the

fruit that will come from that in the days that

are ahead. So God, thank you for giving me the

opportunity to share this morning. And I just

love these folks so much. And so I pray all this

in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.