A Better Way: To Work | Called Before Assigned

Glad that you're here.

We we started this series last week.

We called A Better Way to Work.

A Better Way to Work.

You know, this is one of the areas of our life, truthfully, that gets probably the majority of our attention.

In fact, I would say it's sort of anecdotal, just asking people what your weeks typically look like.

You know, uh for for many of you, you're working more than 50% of your waking hours in a week.

It's a massive part of your life, is what you do, what you do to make money, what do you do for work to be productive?

And and and honestly, I've honestly I've never heard a series on work.

I've never heard anybody do a series all on work.

We're doing four weeks, uh possibly five, all on this topic of a better way to work.

And I and I don't think that that's that's not because the Bible doesn't have anything to say about it.

It's it's because um, well, I I don't I don't I don't know.

I won't I won't venture to say why we haven't heard a lot on this, but I will say this the Bible does have some things to say about the the area of your life that gets quite honestly the the majority of your attention.

And and honestly, it's it's a part of our life that we've made radical decisions for our life and for our families based on this topic of work.

What I want to talk to you about this morning is this idea of calling.

You know, that's kind of a that's kind of a churchy word, right?

You you've you've heard the like the pro the pro-Christians, the people that have been around church for a while, they they say things like, I've been called, or God is calling me.

And so you you generally know what people mean when they say that.

We're not less, we're not lost when people use that kind of language, but it's not necessarily something we all think of for our own life.

Like you make sense to you when your pastor goes, God has called me to this right here.

Like, that makes that makes sense, you know.

But you're like, but I'm uh, you know, you're you're you're like, but I'm I'm I'm in the real world, you know.

It's just like you don't really think of it in those terms.

Some of us, the word calling has this like mystery to it.

It's like, I what happens when you get called?

Does the sky open up?

Does a voice from heaven start speaking?

It's like, do I gotta like pull the secret levers of my life and then hopefully, you know, oh, there it is.

He was behind door number four, and God has spoken, has called me.

You know, it's very mysterious.

Or often, this is the cultural pull.

We we think of calling as like a self-expression, right?

You need to you need to dig deep, discover yourself, and let the world know who you are, right?

We love culturally, we love that stuff, right?

Find out who who you are.

By the way, there's some truth to that.

There is some truth to that.

Like God has made you differently than he's made everybody else.

Like there is some things that God's put in you that he needs to like mine out of you, right?

So do you see that?

But it's a it's different, it's got a totally different tone than what we read in the Bible.

Like in the Bible, Jesus is actually like the cross, the center point of our faith is actually a symbol of like total self-denial.

Like it's complete, like lay your life down.

I mean, that's part of what it means to be a Christian.

It's like he says, Hey, come and follow me.

How do I follow you, Jesus?

Well, you pick up your cross because like that's heavy, right?

It's a little different than self-expression, right?

Or how about this one?

Uh, career.

A lot of us, we over-identify our sense of like our core idea, identity to what we do.

In fact, I would venture to say that some of you are like, I don't even need to listen to this message.

Calling, vocation, I know what I'm doing with my life.

I this one's not even for me.

It's like, well, hold on a second.

It's not that your career doesn't have anything to say about you, but it certainly doesn't say everything about you.

And we over-identify what we do vocationally for a living with our sense of our identity in Christ and honestly, our our calling, what it means to be called.

The other one is uh like a religious hierarchy.

Again, you're you you're you're comfortable with the idea of your pastor says, I was called, but we have this like we have this like hierarchy of of God's grace and how we are, how we operate in in the world.

And you, you know, we just like you're like, I don't really know.

You're talking about calling.

It's like I fixed cars.

I don't know what you want me to do right now.

Calling.

You know, we just like we just we don't really think of those things in terms of like maybe God's actually in it with us.

We're like, we're we're not even sure God even hears our prayers.

We're like, well, we know he hears the pastor's prayers.

We need you to pray.

I don't even know if mine get to heaven.

Can you pray for me on my behalf?

We have this like religious higher, it's a misconception.

This religious hierarchy idea around what it means to be called or what it means to partner with God in your in your work.

You know, you there's even, you know, decades ago, there was even a lot of argument in the you know, church world, the theology world, about whether or not this idea of calling was even relevant still.

You know, people we're gonna read some scripture here in just a moment of how Paul uses this word calling.

There was even people that were just trying to make the case that the idea that God still calls people is antiquated and not relevant to the church today.

And so people sort of just like, hey, God will use anything, you just do it what seems right to you, and then God will God will find a way to make all those things work out.

And and I would just say this there's no indication that God has stopped calling people.

There's nothing in Scripture that, I mean, we have to read in some tradition and some ideas to come to that conclusion, but there's nothing in Scripture that says that God has somehow stopped calling you and me to things in our lives.

And I so here's what I want to do this morning with you for for the remainder of our time is I want I want to elevate your idea of what it is that you do on a week-to-week basis.

I want you to, I want to raise the bar a little bit.

At the same time, I want to I want to put work with you in the right place.

Because some of us, we we think way too highly of our work, but when we make it our core identity, what we actually do is we actually make it less than what it's actually supposed to be.

Our attempt to over-identify it actually decreases work, work's value in our in our lives.

And I'm gonna tell you, I'm and I'll probably say this at the end.

What you do is actually way more important than you realize, but it's way less important to you into informing your sense, your core identity of who of who you are.

And so we're we're gonna see if we can, we can't kind of get a hold of this day and make this a practical for you.

And and um let's read this.

This is Romans chapter one.

This is Paul.

He says, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called, there's a there's there's the word, called to be an apostle.

That's a vocation, by the way.

Called to be an apostle.

Not everybody, not everybody has a calling all the time to a specific vocation like this.

In fact, some of you will no doubt have many vocations through through your life.

I mean, here's Paul, he's called to be an apostle.

There's no there's no reason to believe, reading scripture, that God has stopped calling people the way he's called Paul here.

Paul to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God.

Go down to verse 5.

It says, Through him we received grace and apostleship to call the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake.

And you also, this is for all of us, are among those Gentiles who are called, called to belong to Jesus, to Jesus Christ.

Like we're called to belong to Jesus.

Look at the next verse.

It says, To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people.

Called, I I hope you're picking up on this.

This is a repeated word here.

You're called to Jesus, called.

There's he Paul here is called to a vocation, called to be his holy people.

First Corinthians 1 says the same thing, called to be his holy people.

1 Thessalonians 2, called into his kingdom.

There is this like idea that you and I aren't actually just meant to drift along in our life.

There's actually some weight behind our lives and what we're called to do and be with our lives.

So here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna lay, I'm gonna give you like some a big, big picture.

The the calling in our life that applies to everyone.

If you're in Christ, the fact that you're here and maybe you're on the fence about Christ tells me that Jesus is calling you in the process, whether you've answered him yet or not.

And so, what I want to give you is I want to give you a bigger picture of one, there's a person calling you, two, he's calling you to direct your creative energy that he's giving you in a certain direction.

And three, the question is who gets to participate with Jesus in his redemptive work in the world?

And we're gonna answer that question as well.

So here's the first one you're called to follow Jesus.

Shocker, right?

Sure, you usually we say that to the end of the service.

We all kind of like build up to it.

We go, oh, and by the way, receive Jesus.

We decided to do it the other way.

We're just gonna start today.

You need Jesus.

There you go.

And not only do you need Jesus, like he's the medicine for your life, but you're actually called to follow him.

He's a he's a person.

You're called to follow Jesus.

John 12, Jesus says it this way, and I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

There's that language, that drawing, that calling.

Look what he says in John 16.

He says, He's part of part of the ministry of Jesus.

What he said is he he died for you, he rose again.

Then he ascended to the right hand of the Father, and then he sends his Holy Spirit.

And he says, The Holy Spirit is gonna work on my behalf for you, like for me, for to you.

And this is what he says in John 16.

When he, the Holy Spirit, has come, he will convict the world.

There's that language, convict, draw, call by pulling you in.

Like we're called to follow Jesus.

Now, this isn't normally the first question we ask ourselves when we think about something like calling.

We usually, the first question we normally ask ourselves when we start talking about this whole idea of being called is we we start with, what am I supposed to do?

Right?

Well, that's probably most of us.

We start with that question.

What ought I do with my life?

Even when you're on the fence about following Jesus, and maybe you haven't even crossed a line of faith and you're not even all in yet, you end up starting with this question What should I do?

What ought I do with my life?

And I think there's a better question.

And the better question to start with is who am I answering to?

Because to be called means there's a caller, and the caller is Jesus, is a person that's drawing you to himself.

He actually thinks way more highly of you than just what you can do for him.

He's calling you to himself.

So your first calling for all of us in our life is to first of all follow Jesus.

We're called to follow Jesus.

Here's the second calling in our life.

And we read this, we read this already in in Romans.

Well, it was this you're called to serve others.

You're called to serve others.

You know, we we have that question, it's like, what ought I do?

Normally, let's be honest, that is the first question we typically ask.

What ought I do?

What am I supposed to do?

That's what we're a lot of us want to know.

Like, what am I supposed to do with my life?

Here's the problem.

When you start with that question, you inevitably create a very individualistic, self-oriented vision for your life.

That's usually how it goes.

I mean, come on, when you're you remember back when you were a teenager, or your early 20s at least, you were thinking, like, what am I gonna do with my life?

And it was like, you know what I'm gonna do?

And if you were a Jesus follower, you had a way of like spiritualizing it.

And so you'd be like, you know what I'm gonna do with my life?

I'm gonna, I just I need to find a way to use my gifts so that I can, I'm gonna bless everybody.

And it's gonna be so I'm gonna be fulfilled.

I'm gonna be fulfilled.

And oh, I gotta make lots of money because I'm called to fund the kingdom.

That's what I'm gonna do.

I don't know what it is.

When you're like a teenager, your early 20s, you're just like, I'm gonna be a millionaire by the time I'm 30.

No one ever says 25, 24.

It's like that's a little too close.

I need a little more time.

30.

I think I can do it by 30.

You know, I don't, I don't, I'm gonna, so I gotta make lots of money, and then oh, what I'm gonna do, I'm never gonna be inconvenienced, I'll never be emotionally taxed, and people won't annoy me.

That's my calling for my life.

I don't know what that's gonna look like, but I know it's somewhere in that ballpark.

Individualistic.

You see that self-oriented.

See, that's what happens when we start with.

So what am I supposed to do?

And I and I would say this like, there's a there's a much more like others-oriented calling around your life and and your calling.

I know some of you are like, I don't even like people.

We know we know that you don't like people, but there is like you cannot live into your purpose apart from other people.

No, no, listen to me, you can't.

You you you cannot live into your purpose alone in the woods in your cabin by yourself where you interact with nobody.

I mean, that was like a thing.

I've heard so many men tell me, like, no, I don't even need a house, I could just live in a tent in the woods.

I'm like, whatever.

No, you couldn't.

No, I've done the woods for a few days.

I don't know.

No, you need other people.

There's in fact, there's no such thing as a self-centered calling in Jesus.

It doesn't exist.

You're you're you not only do you belong to Jesus, you're called to follow him, but you're also called to direct the creative energy that he's put inside of you to serve other people.

Okay, who gets to participate?

If God is in the business of doing redemptive work in the world, then who gets to participate in that with him?

And the answer is we all do.

And so here's your here's your third calling.

You're called to be different.

You're called to be different.

We said this last week.

We talked about how last week that the idea of that that when it comes to your work, that it's not just God didn't just make you, and you're just sort of like sitting back and you're just kind of like, well, let's see, let's see what you do with what I gave you, you know, and just waiting for you to to like, you know, dance and you know, perform and and be productive.

No, no, no, no.

It's it's it's partnership.

He's actually with you.

And the idea is that you and I are actually intended to be sort of walking icons of the living God.

Like when people see you, like you're modeling what God is like.

None of us are batting a thousand, right?

We we we've all had some moments, right?

Some of us more moments than others, but we've all had some moments where we're like, yeah, that that just forget that part.

That's not what God is like, right?

But that what we are called to to live our lives in a way where people go, oh, there's something different.

This is 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14 through 15.

2 Corinthians 2:14–15

It says this, but thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession.

You know what that means?

It's like he he died for your sins, and the enemy thought he won, but he actually didn't because he went there voluntarily and he died for everybody's sins, and then he came back to life.

And the triumphal procession is God's going, I got I'm I've actually got the victory.

I actually won.

You thought it was over when I died.

And that it's actually in my death and resurrection that I actually win, and I actually win everybody over to me.

So this triumphal procession, and look what he does.

He uses us, you and me, to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

You know, you ever notice when somebody walks into the room, and this is sometimes it doesn't always happen, but sometimes it happens like you don't even need to tell us where you've been.

We can smell it on you.

We know where you've been.

We can smell it all over you.

This is what he's saying.

He's saying, when you go to work, when you when you are at home, when you're with your kids, when you're with your spouse, when you're with coworkers, when you're leading employees, when you're leading, when you're with customers and clients.

The idea is that there's something about you that's different.

Like there's there's some there's a scent about you.

Like somebody comes along and they go, I don't know Jesus, I don't know anything about him.

I know he's like that churchy character, but I don't know anything about him.

But I know when I get around you, I notice you actually care about the people.

I notice that that you're not just moving the bottom line.

You actually just you actually care about your employees, you actually care about your coworkers, you actually prioritize your integrity.

You're actually willing to just you're you're you're willing to disadvantage yourself in order to advantage some other people.

That's not normal.

That's what the Bible calls.

There's like there's a scent to you that's different.

You're called to be different.

See, and that's different because for a lot of us, when we start thinking about calling, we're like, I gotta find the perfect job.

That's what we think.

We think it's all about what I'm doing.

I gotta, I'm, I gotta find the perfect job.

No, no, no, it's less about finding the the perfect job, and it's more about answering Jesus with your whole life.

I don't answer him with my whole life.

I mean, the the the whole idea behind this is that everywhere you and I go, part of our calling, when we follow him, we orient our creative energy toward other people and we serve others, and we go, I'm I'm gonna be different because I'm gonna become like Jesus.

This is how we make the invisible God visible.

This is how we spread the aroma of Christ, which is the knowledge of him, to people who are saved and to people who are perishing.

This is how we do it.

Follow Jesus, serve others, and we're different.

Okay, here's here's a little bit of the tension with this because that sounds good.

Because there's some of you in the room, you're going, I like my career, the the the the direction of my life, the course for my life, I feel like it's pretty sad.

I feel like I know what I'm doing.

I feel like I feel like I know what I'm good at.

I feel like I'm, you know, I'm I'm in my I'm in my zone, I'm in my lane, I I'm I'm good to go.

Moving forward.

Okay.

So so we got to answer the question, what does that look like then for tomorrow?

Because it's easy to say, follow Jesus, serve others and be different.

But what does that really, what's that really mean when it comes down to it?

Others of you, you're in a different season.

You're in a season where you're either in transition, you're trying to figure out what to do next with your life, you're trying to, you know, it's like, okay, I'm called, but what about my assignment?

I'm called to follow Jesus, serve others, and be different.

But what about my vocation and my actual assignment for my life?

So you may be graduating high school, you may be graduating college, you're trying to figure out do I go to do a trade?

Do I go to college?

What do I do?

Where do I move?

How do I do this?

And I would say this: you what you need to do is you need to discover what you're made for.

And so that's what I want to spend the rest of our time doing.

Is how do I actually discover then, if this is my calling, when it comes to identifying my assignment in my life, how do I actually discover what I'm made for?

Again, this is different because what's the first question we usually try to ask?

What do I do now?

It's it's just it's just not the right first question.

Eventually you can ask the question, but that's not where we start.

Better questions are things like, Who am I and what am I made for?

Who am I and what am I made for?

And we have this idea.

You start talking like this, it's like we have all this pressure to like find our calling, right?

Go inward, look inside yourself, look deep inside yourself and determine and try to figure out who you are.

That's but listen, you have a creator.

You have a creator, and there's a caller, and the calling and the creator are outside of you, which means this.

It means that your calling is outside of you.

But we have this thing we we we tell people all the time, we're like, you can do and be anybody you want to be.

I I listen, I'm I'm a little biased because I'm a parent, but my kids are pretty talented.

I got some pretty gifted kids.

They're smart, they're articulate, they've you know, they got some athletic ability.

There's some good, I got some good kids, man, you know.

And every now and then they'll I come home and like my my teacher, my coach, they said I can be and I can do whatever I want to do with my life.

And I'm like, no, you can't.

Let's crush that right now.

I'm like, no, you cannot.

Listen, you can you can have whatever, you can be whatever.

If you want to grow up and be the president of the United States, you can go and do.

I'm like, I don't even want you to do that.

I don't want the heat, you know.

Like, my goodness.

Like, no.

It's like driving up.

You know how overwhelming that is?

It's like, it's like, listen, I'm overwhelmed going to McDonald's with my kids in the backseat.

It's like, let's Let's go through the drive-thru in order.

It's like, boom, the whole menu.

I got all the kids in the back.

I'm like, uh, I'm like, I'm pretty good under pressure, but not drive-thru pressure.

You know what I do?

I get the little button on the side of the seat and I go like this.

Bethany, order.

There we go.

That's what I do.

I just forfeit all responsibility in the drive-thru.

I'm like, my blood's boiling.

I can't handle this.

You know, I'm sweating.

You know, it's just we tell it's that's what happens.

It's overwhelming.

It's like you can do so much.

You can do anything, you can be anybody, you can have anything, you can accomplish everything.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

No, no, no.

You want to know what I tell my kids?

And I'm going to tell you, you can do exactly what God's calling you to do.

You can do that.

You can you can say yes to what God is calling you to do in your life.

One of the first steps to actually discovering what you're made for is actually learning your spiritual gifts.

Learning what God has actually put inside of you.

And maybe you didn't know this because I've run into people a lot of times who are just like, oh, I the spiritual gifts, that's for the pro-Christian people.

That's the professional Christians.

I'm sure God gave you some gifts, Pastor.

Maybe even the staff.

But that's, you know, that's for you guys over there.

And so you just sort of, maybe it's because I've got maybe we've gone far enough in our life, we just feel like maybe we missed it.

Maybe we feel like it's not for us.

We don't see, we don't see how God partners with us in our everyday works.

We don't really think of like spiritual gifts as something that's relevant to us.

I don't know what it is, but I will say this you do.

You have gifts.

There are things God has placed in in you.

Like He wants to, He wants to partner with you.

He doesn't want to just use you like you're a pawn in some grand scheme.

He actually wants to partner with you and like He made you, He made you a certain way.

And it's important that you discover that.

Look at 1 Peter 4.

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.

That sounds familiar.

To serve others.

And now listen, you might be in the boat where you're like, oh, that's not really me.

Oh, it is.

But you can you can ignore it.

You can neglect the gift that God has put on you.

And that's what actually that's what Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.

He says, do not neglect your gift.

Don't neglect it.

Which means that you can.

Which means that just because God's put a gift in you, doesn't mean that you're using it.

It means this.

God can give you gifts and He can gift you to do things, and it doesn't happen automatically.

So what do you do?

You need to discover your gifts and then you need to develop your gifts.

You can only you can only possess what you're willing to pursue.

Meaning you can learn what God's put on the inside of you, but just drifting through life and expecting that somehow God's just gonna like spring up out of your life is unrealistic.

You have to pursue these things.

You know, I I think about Bethany, my wife, she's up here leading worship.

You know, she does such a she does such a great job with that.

And some of you think that like she came out of the womb, just singing, and like I just she's just singing worship songs and just singing everywhere she goes, and and then she's just been counting down the days and the years.

I can't wait till I get my platform and I can show the world my gift.

No, I remember when we were preparing to launch the church, we're like, we need a worship leader.

That's what we need.

We need a worship leader, and then we had some things fall through.

And I was like, we don't have a worship leader.

It's like, oh no, what are we gonna do?

We need to pray.

And Bethany and I, it's like the room was dark.

We're in our living room.

It was just her and I were like, God, we need a worship leader.

I don't know how we're gonna do church without some worship.

We need somebody who can sing, and we're like sitting there and we're just praying.

And I went like this, oh, the Lord has spoken.

Who is it?

It's you.

She was like, What?

I don't think so.

She literally sang for me.

It was the second time in our whole marriage she was willing to sing in front of me.

It was right there in that moment.

Her knees were literally shaking as she sang to me.

And then she had to pursue it, and she did pursue it, and she she invited voices and coaches, and she she high, and she did all kinds of stuff, and she has been doing it, and she's continued to do that for years, and now you wouldn't even know it because you can't possess what you're not willing to pursue.

You need to know this too.

Some of you need to know this because this is a church full of doers.

No one has God hasn't called anybody to do everything, He hasn't called anybody to do everything.

How liberating is that when you learn your spiritual gifts and you learn what you're not gifted to do.

That's pretty liberating.

That's not what I'm called to do.

I'm not that that's not me.

That's a pretty liberating experience when you realize you don't have to be everybody, you need to learn your spiritual gifts.

Here, how about this one?

You need here's a question to ask.

It's a helpful question.

What am I passionate about?

What am I passionate about?

I want to get I want to say two sides to this question because you know it's it's a relevant question because when you're in Christ, the Bible is really clear, you are a new creation in Christ.

Like he regenerates your spirit on the inside of you, he rewires your deepest desires.

And and and so when you're passionate about something that gives you a clue into the way that God has made you, it's it's it's worth taking note.

You shouldn't ignore those things.

Let me let me tell you the other side of that though.

The other side of this is what John says, John 15.

He taught Jesus says this, and there he says that you and I are called to abide in the vine.

That's Jesus.

We're called to abide in the vine.

And here's what that means: it means abide in Jesus.

You think about Jesus, you're following Jesus, you're faithful to Jesus, even when it's hard, even when it costs you something, even when it doesn't make sense, you're faithful, faithfully following Jesus.

And here's why.

That's called abiding in the vine.

And when you abide in the vine, here's why this is important because apart from the vine, apart from Jesus, you and I's desires and passions are disordered.

They're disordered.

So I'm asking this question what am I passionate about?

But if you're not abiding in the vine, your answer will likely be inaccurate.

It won't, you you'll think that you're passionate about that, but deep down you're actually not.

Let me give you an example.

And this is an unfortunate one that I've had to had to listen to and watch play out in a lot of people's lives.

You a married couple are together and they and they love each other until one of them decides that their strongest desire is to be with somebody who's no longer their spouse, and then they get caught and they find out that their deepest desire was to actually have stayed with their spouse and been faithful all along.

Because their deepest desires and their strongest desires weren't the same.

Why is that?

Because when we abide in the vine, we go through this process, this transformation process through our life where our deepest desires that are transformed and changed at salvation, then work out of us and over the course of our life become our strongest desires.

What am I passionate about?

Well, first of all, stay in the vine because the question does matter.

It's not everything about your calling and your assignment and your life, but it is a factor.

Does that make sense?

Here's the next one: trusted voices, trusted voices, trusted voices.

You know, here's a here's what a trusted voice is in your life.

A trusted voice is a person who loves you, but loves Jesus more.

That's a trusted voice.

A person who because that's different.

Because I talk to people a lot, and they tell me they've been talking to their trusted voices, and I'll go describe that.

And what I hear between the lines is I'm trying to make a decision, and so I went around and I talked to as many people as I could until I found the person who agreed with me, and now that's my trusted voice.

You know, we all know when we've when we've done that.

Like I need somebody who will actually affirm me right now.

A trusted voice is somebody who does love you, but it's somebody who loves Jesus more, and they're willing to, they're willing to be that kind of a voice.

Here's the other thing about trusted voices: trusted voices are not automatic.

And sometimes we think that somehow being in a space, in a place is what sets us up for trusted voices.

Listen, advice given when not asked for is an insult.

And so part of having a trusted voice in your life starts with you and I having the humility to go in and inviting a voice to speak into our life.

Are you seeing that?

That's a trusted voice.

I love this verse.

This is Proverbs 20.

It says, The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water.

But a man of understanding will draw it out.

A man of understanding will draw it out.

You and I we're complex.

Some of you don't think you were complex, but you're a human being, so you're way more complex than you've given yourself credit for.

There's a lot going on on the inside of us.

You know, one of the things about having trusted voices in our life and trying to understand how God wants to use you, calling, assignment, vocation, somebody saying, is that for a lot of us, we all have blind spots.

And I and listen, we usually talk about blind spots in terms of things that are bad.

Like we don't know, right?

We don't know we have an egg on our face until somebody tells us kind of thing.

And so we always think of it in those terms.

But it's not just the bad things, it's the good things too.

There are things in us we don't see.

And when you make a habit of surrounding yourself with trusted voices, especially somebody who's farther along, they're not may not always be older than you, but they're at least somebody who've got some spiritual maturity about them, and they've been down the road a little bit in their relationship with Jesus, they will have likely seen some things produce in other people's life, maybe even their own.

And so you come along and you go, I'm trying to figure some things out.

I don't, I don't know what to do.

You you got some, you need you need some trusted voices, and a trusted voice will recognize some seeds in your life.

And so you don't know because you ain't been there yet.

You haven't you haven't lived that late yet.

You haven't allowed these seeds, haven't grown into anything.

But see, somebody else comes on and they go, I know what that seed grows into.

I know what that is, I know what that looks like, and I really believe.

And they go, I'm calling this out of you, like you got this in you.

You didn't know.

I love doing this with young people because young people, they don't know, they don't know.

And it's in you know when you get a little farther along in in life and you begin to see gifts like come out of it.

You see the seeds, you begin to recognize what the seeds of those things look like.

Boy, trusted voices now become those voices in your life that go, I see this in you.

You don't see it because you got blind spots, because you haven't even lived long enough to know what this can become.

But I do, I have, and I'm telling you, you got greatness in you.

Like you need trusted voices in your life.

It takes somebody oftentimes farther along than you are to mine some of this stuff out of you.

You need some trusted voices.

Here's another one.

You need wisdom.

Wisdom.

So we talk about calling.

Calling says who my life belongs to.

Wisdom is how is what helps you like determine what to do next.

I need to, okay, that's great.

I'm called to follow Jesus, called to serve others, called to be different.

I'm trying to find a new pathway here.

Like I need it, I need a new assignment.

Wisdom is gonna help us make those decisions.

I want to challenge you with this thought.

I want to challenge you this morning to think of decisions differently.

Like I call them formational decisions.

I came up with that this week.

There you go.

Formational decisions.

A formational decision, it's different than most of us have been taught to make decisions.

Like, listen, you know, God can use anything.

You know, I don't get whatever you know.

Like God can use anything, God can do, but not everything in every place, in every job, is gonna form me the way God wants to form me in my seasonal life.

Do you see this?

See, the way you and I make decisions reveals something about our allegiance.

You know, when you you you have you have an opportunity to make a decision about whatever, new job, moving, I don't know, whatever it could be, the big, big stuff, especially.

And it's like, where do I go?

Because some of you you've you've been faithfully following Jesus, and your first response is I'm gonna go to Jesus.

You go to God and you just go, God, is this the step for me?

Is this what I'm supposed to do?

Is this the best thing for my kids?

Is this the best thing for my wife?

Is this the best thing for for me?

Whatever for me, is this the best thing?

Is this where I'm supposed to go?

Supposed to do?

Is this I'm in the middle of I've been changing and growing?

Is this what you want me to do?

Is this a step you want me to take?

See, that reveals an allegiance, right?

That's an allegiance to Jesus.

Do you see that?

But that's not that's not always how we make decisions, right?

Because some of us we go, we go, well, that just pays a lot more.

That just that that just is gonna that moves me, that moves me up the ladder of my of my career.

This is gonna be great for my future.

And so, do you see this though?

See, it reveals our allegiance.

And by what Jesus was really clear, there's only one other God that's competing for you and I's allegiance.

Only one.

Money.

It's the only other God.

Think about that.

Of all the gods that people have worshipped, especially since Jesus till now, he says there's only one that's really competing for your allegiance.

Money.

See, it reveals something.

How we how we make how we make decisions.

I I think it's it's really important for you to understand.

Here's here's a verse.

This is Proverbs 14.

It says, There's a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.

There's a way that seems right.

And I really want you to get a hold of this because the the likelihood that every major decision in your life is gonna result in you making just a little bit more money, being a little bit more comfortable, and moving along and progressing in your career.

Oh, and being formational and the decisions that God's leading me to make, that's highly unlikely.

It's highly unlikely that that's the pathway for your life.

I'm encouraging you to use some wisdom to begin to make formational decisions and realign your allegiance with the one who made you.

The caller who's calling you.

One of the things that we say at Freedom Church a lot is we, it's one of our core values is purpose.

We say that a lot.

You know, this idea that you were not made on an accident.

This idea that you weren't just, not only were you not made on accident, you weren't just sent out into the world aimlessly either.

Like you have purpose in your life.

But here's the thing about purpose.

Even what we're talking about this morning, we were on this.

I mean, this is what we're talking about.

When we start talking about calling and vocation, there's purpose in you.

Listen, it does not happen automatically.

It will it won't happen automatically.

There are habits that we that we make part of our life that allow us to live into our purpose.

This is this is true for everything.

You have to live into those things, they don't just happen by themselves.

So here's what here's what I'm gonna encourage you to do.

And this is the last part of trying to identify and discover what I'm made for.

And I'm gonna encourage you to do this: to make a habit of serving.

To make a habit of serving.

This is part of our, if you stay at Freedom Church long enough, you'll hear this a lot.

This is part of our way of life.

We say purpose is our value, but if you want to live into your purpose, you have to make a habit of serving in order to live into your purpose.

And here's why.

Don't zone out on me.

Some of you are just like, I'm done.

This is the part I don't need to pay.

No, stop.

You need to listen to me.

I'm being serious, you need to listen.

Stop zoning out on this part.

Serving.

Here's what it does when you make a habit of serving in your life, it guards against the cultural pull to make your giftings that God's given you all about you.

Because make no mistake, we are all, myself included, we are all tempted to make the gifts that God's given us all about us.

And when you make a habit of serving, it guards against that.

At the same time, it guides you into being others oriented.

If you were here last week, doesn't that sound familiar?

Others oriented.

That's who God is.

He is by his own nature, others oriented.

And when we make a habit of serving, we are like him.

God is the one that has gifted you.

I think we forget, we like lose sight of this.

I I was talking to a friend of mine last week and he and he made this comment to me after service.

He says, You know, people always talk about how the truth will set you free.

And he says, Yeah, that's not even what the Bible says.

He says, It's no, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

I was like, Wow, that's really good.

I might even share that next week.

So here I am, I'm sharing this with you.

Knowing the truth.

Let me help you because I need you to get this in you.

You serve because God's the one that gave you the gifts.

This is why, as a church, we talk about tithing.

So we're like, oh, don't talk about tithing.

That's offensive.

It's like, give me a break.

The Bible is clear, He gives you and I the ability to gain wealth.

We tithe because I go, He gave it to me, and this is how I make this not all about me.

I serve because he gave me these gifts, and this is how I make my life not all about me.

Do you see this?

This is a this is a habit, this is a way of life, this is a way you live differently.

Living differently.

Make a habit of serving.

Live in to your purpose.

What you do matters.

It honestly matters way more than you think it does.

The way you're living your life, the way you work, the way you interact with the people around you.

It says, what you do, though, is actually far less important than you realize to the core identity of who you are.

You're called to Jesus, you're called to serve others, you're called to be different.

And your assignment does matter.

But whatever your assignment is, you can do those.

How do you do it?

Well, you need to learn how God made you.

He gave you gifts, he's put passions inside of you, he's put things that you care about that other people don't seem to care about.

There's a reason for that.

He wants you to have trusted voices, he wants you to use wisdom.

And I'm just telling you, take a step toward living into your purpose and begin to create a regular habit of serving other people.

Let's pray.

Jesus, we need your help.

I'm so grateful.

I'm so grateful that you, even just for me personally, I just say this.

I'm so grateful that you haven't just called me to do something and then sit back and waiting for me to perform it, do all the right things, but that you want to do this with me.

Thank you.

That I get to do this with you, and that goes for all of us.

Would you help us to get greater, deeper revelation around your partnership with us?

I pray that for all of us here that we would begin to like hear the voice of the one calling us to follow you, to serve others, to be different, and that we would respond appropriately to your voice.

I also pray too that you would help us, help us to identify and discover the gifts you've put inside of us, this, the proper assignments for the season that we're in.

Give us the wisdom, give us the courage, honestly, the courage to follow you to make formational decisions for our life, even when they might not make sense, even when they might cost us something, whatever it might be.

Give us the courage to follow you wherever you may be leading us.

I also want to pray for those of you in the room, you've never fully committed your life to Jesus.

And again, you know, it's just out of order if we begin with what we're called to do, and the the first answer is who is actually calling me, and his name's Jesus.

And it's not an accident that you have this pull and this draw, this conviction to begin to change the allegiance of your life, and his name is Jesus, to give your allegiance to him.

And if you've never done that, this is your opportunity to do that.

And part of the way that it can begin is just praying a simple prayer.

And so I'd encourage you to just make this your own.

Just tell them in your own way.

Jesus, I give you my life.

I commit to follow you.

I believe you died for my sins, that you rose again on the third day, you ascended to the right hand of the Father, and that you saved me.

And I'm committed to following you for the rest of my life.

Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.

Thank you for changing me from the inside out.

I'm all in, I'm all yours.

I want your ideas and I want your will for my life.

I want to do what you've called me to do.

I want to do the things that you're leading me to do.

I want your assignment for my life.

I want your ideas to be my ideas.

I want your allegiance to be my allegiance.

I want all of that.

I'm all in with you, Jesus.

Thank you for saving me.

It's in your name we pray.

Everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Come on, let's put our hands together.

Let's tell Jesus thank you.