There are more slaves today then at any other point in time in human history. When I heard that I could not believe it. How could this still be happening in this day and age? Where was this happening? How do we stop it? What can i do?
Check out this video taken at our Freedom Night from a couple weeks ago and then check back throughout the week to learn more about human trafficking and ways you can get involved.
I hope that you have been tracking with us the last 5 days as we’ve been looking at the life of Jeremiah and trying to figure our calling in life. I would love to hear from you if you have any thoughts on your call or feel like God may be calling you to something specific. I leave you with this…
You have been set apart, chosen and called.
You are equipped to do what God calls you to do.
You are called by God to reach or minister to His children
You already know the message—John 3:16
You are successful when you are faithfully obedient.
You will be discouraged, and that’s okay because…
You are a child of God and a heavenly inheritance awaits you.
Listen to God.
Figure out your calling.
Then be bold!!
Don’t let discouragement stop you.
Don’t let loneliness stop you.
Don’t let persecution stop you.
Don’t make excuses.
You can do it.
You can do it because God set you apart and equipped you for the very thing He is calling you to do right now.
He is just waiting for you to do it.
Go do it.
Unfortunately deciding to follow your call does not mean life will be easy. But remember…
You will be able to do what God calls you to do.
You won’t necessarily be able to do anything and everything that is good or that you see other people doing.
God is not concerned about your results.
God is only calling you to do things that He will equip you to do.
It is better to be obedient and seen as a failure to the world then to be seen as a success and ignore your calling.
God is on your side
1:17–19
17 But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. 18 And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. 19 They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”
There will be times you feel like quitting, you feel like giving up, you feel angry or overwhelmed. Remember…
God does not rebuke you for feelings—there are going to be days where you feel defeated, tired, unloved, disrespected etc…
20:7
O Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
God does not rebuke Jeremiah, God understands when we feel beat up. But He does want us to continue to push on.
When all else fails, remember you are loved by God not because of what you do but because of who you are. His child, who loves you in spite of your sin and failures and does not judge you based on success like the world does. He calls us only to do what we have been set apart and equipped for and He takes responsibility for the results.
Some questions to ask yourself:
Do I really believe that God is on my side?
Do I believe that God is in control?
Do I think that God is disappointed in me when I perceive that I am failing at my calling?
Do I feel bad for being discouraged, tired, or beat up emotionally from trying to pursue my call?
Pray and ask God to encourage you. Pray that He gives you rest, hope and peace. Pray that you would yearn after God’s approval and not after the approval of man.
Read II Corinthians 4: 16-18
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Jeremiah
15 O Lord, you know;
remember me and visit me,
and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In your forbearance take me not away;
know that for your sake I bear reproach.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the company of revelers,
nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,
for you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unceasing,
my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?
Will you be to me like a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail?
It is a good thing that God does not measure success like we do. Jeremiah would be considered a total failure by human standards. He was ignored, persecuted, mocked, and disowned by his family. But he never stopped.
Jeremiah knew the equation of success.
Success = faithful obedience to the call.
We make it so much more complicated then it is. But when you look at Jeremiah’s calling there is no mention of results. There is simply the call to go and to say what God tells him to say.
The same is true of us. We are called to go where God calls us and to say what He tells us to say. We are not called to save people from sin, we are not called to rescue the lost, we are not called to be these super Christians that we picture in our minds. We just need to faithfully obey God’s call on our lives.
When you do that you are as success as you can be on this earth.
There are going to be roadblocks, that is okay. We are called to faithful obedience.
There is going to be persecution, that is okay. We are called to faithful obedience.
There are going to be days you feel like giving up, that is okay. We are called to faithful obedience.
There are going to be days that you see God working in amazing ways and you will feel like you are making a difference, finally. We are called to faithful obedience.
This is what Francis Schaeffer said about Jeremiah
“Jeremiah, we recall, was the weeping prophet. This has psychological depth as well as historic meaning. He is really the man weeping. But what does God expect of Jeremiah? What does God expect of every man who preaches into a lost age like ours? I’ll tell you what God expects. He simply expects a man to go right on. He doesn’t scold a man for being tired, but neither does He expect him to stop his message because people are against him. Jeremiah proclaimed the message to the very end…”
Faithful obedience, not looking to the right or the left to see what is happening as a result of your actions. Just steadily looking forward, following the call that God has placed on your life.
Some questions to ask yourself:
What are some roadblocks you could see getting in the way?
What are some things you could see happening that would discourage you from pursing your call?
What about your calling is going to make it hard to measure success by faithfulness and not by men’s standards?
One of the biggest problems with following our call is that we don’t know what to say. Too often this becomes our excuse for getting out of talking to people about Christ or following our calling in life.
Jeremiah
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Thank the Lord that is not our message, but what is our message? I know a lot of young people who have an idea of who they are supposed to talk to, but they don’t know what to say. Are we each given a specific message, are we supposed to wait until God gives us the words to say?
What message is He asking you to tell them?
While your message will be radically different then Jeremiah’s the goal is the same. Jeremiah was trying to get God’s chosen people to turn from sin and to God. To turn from death to life, to choose holiness over fleeting happiness.
Our message is the same, only maybe a little bit easier. Our message is that people need Jesus. Our message is that because God loves them so much Jesus died for their sin, so that we can have a relationship with Him. That if they will have faith that they will be saved by grace. They can’t be good enough, they can’t earn it, but they can accept it.
How you say that may need to change depending on who God is calling you to minister to. For some of you it might be through the action of befriending someone who is lonely. For others it might be through feeding or clothing or giving. For some of you it may be as simple as telling people about Jesus and the gift of salvation. For some of you it might look more like being Jesus’ hands and feet to someone.
Jeremiah had to preach judgment and we get to preach the cross. We are blessed to be called to carry that message. Let’s make sure we carry it to who God calls us to.
Some questions to ask yourself:
Do I hesitate talking to people about God?
Would I be comfortable sharing the gospel with someone?
Am I afraid that I don’t know enough about the Bible to start talking about spiritual things with people?
Are you waiting to fulfill your call because you don’t know what to say?
Am I making the message more complicated then I need to?
Pray and ask for wisdom in how to approach those who you are called to.
Pray that God will give you great courage and boldness to be able to fulfill your call.
Read Acts 4. The apostles are praying for boldness, not safety, not results, just that they would have the boldness to follow through on the call that God has placed on their life.
Jeremiah—
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”
There are lots of problems with believing in a specific calling. Unless you audibly hear directly from God it is hard to determine what is God’s call on your life and what you just think would be a good thing to do. There are so many things out there to do, so many people out there to minister to. How do we know what our calling is?
How big is your calling? Is it big enough God has to be involved? If not, it’s probably not your calling, it’s probably what you want to do. You don’t find a lot of examples in the Bible of times when God showed up and called people to live a comfortable life where they are called to reach their one friend in math class. If you think that is your calling, what you were set apart for, then your view of God is too small. That might be part of it, that might be the start of it even, but that is not the whole thing.
Are you scared of your calling? Jeremiah was. There are lots of examples of people who resisted their calling because of the magnitude. That might be a clue that it is indeed God calling you. If it makes you uncomfortable when you think about it, that is usually a good clue.
But look out!
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
There have been a lot more people who somehow feel like God is calling them to minister to rich people then poor people. There are more people that feel called to lead and be on stage then who want to follow and serve.
The heart has a way of tricking us and talking us into all sorts of things. It’s even more challenging to decipher between our sinful hearts and God’s calling when the options all seem like things that are good.
There is usually a difference between Godly calling and doing good things. Godly calling is fueled by God’s ambition to glorify Himself and it born in the heart of God. Our goals and ambitions are often cluttered with our own ambition and are born in our own heart.
It is hard to tell the difference sometimes, go with the one that gives God glory and keeps you out of the picture, that is the one that is God’s calling.
Be careful to make sure that you are following a calling, not just being driven to accomplish something good. A driven man is consumed with his own needs and desires. A called man is committed to God more then anything else. A driven man is ambitious and driven not only to succeed but to be considered successful.. A called man is only worried about obedience.
Driven men measure their success based on the outcome, called men measure their success based on their obedience and nothing else.
We are not tempted to do bad things as much as we are tempted to try things God has not called us to do.
—Richard Exley
One of the hard things to manage when you are trying to figure out God’s calling is just that. Do we end up taking a compilation of things that God has called other people to do and mash them together into something we like or are passionate about?
One of the dangers of following a call is pursuing a calling that is good, just not God’s. The other danger of following a call is pursuing a calling that is good, just not yours.
God set YOU apart for HIS plan.
Some questions to ask yourself:
Is there a certain person or group you feel God is calling you to reach?
Are certain people or groups drawn to you?
Do you know what God is calling you to do but are making excuses as to why you can’t do it?
Is your calling God sized, or you sized?
Is your calling specific to you, or are you stealing someone else’s calling?
Pray that God will show you HIS call for YOUR life.
Jeremiah—was the son of a priest (1:1) and was in line to become a priest himself. He was already following God and following the call that he felt on his life when God came and gave him a new call.
1:4-5
4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
God chose Jeremiah before he was born to be not only a prophet, but also His son. The word “knew” is referring to salvation. Jeremiah was elected by God to receive the gift of salvation. He was also consecrated, which means set apart. God had a specific job for him and made him capable of accomplishing that goal. He was set apart and equipped for a specific task. He was chosen to be a prophet to the nations. You might not be a prophet to the nations or an apostle who starts the church but…
You were chosen by God to receive the gift of salvation by grace through faith. God knew you before you were born and picked you to be His child.
You were consecrated, set apart, and equipped to do something special for God. While it may not be as dramatic as Jeremiah, it is important, otherwise God would not have made you the specific way that He did.
God has a plan, a call on your life. It may not be to a specific country or person but it is specific to you. God has made you and placed you in a specific time and place and wants you to minister to those He is calling you to.
God calls those that are already following Him. God is answering people who are asking, “God what are you calling me to do?” He may take people in a different direction then they were planning, but they are usually at least headed in a Godly direction when they are called.
Are you asking God to show you what He wants you to do? So many people are clueless about what they should do but aren’t praying and asking God to show them. You need to be asking God to show you what He wants you to do.
Could you hear God if He called you? Most people don’t pause long enough or ever become quiet enough throughout the day to hear God if He was talking to them.
Some questions to ask yourself:
Take a couple minutes and ask God to speak to you. Ask Him to show you what He made you for.
Read Psalm 139:13-16
Be quiet for a couple minutes and listen.
I just concluded a four week series looking at the life of Jeremiah with our youth group. I was challenged by how Jeremiah followed his calling despite not seeing any success. It got me thinking about how many of us even understand our calling in life. Then it got me thinking about how we determine if we are successful at that calling. So, I created a little study that I gave out to our students last night. It’s five days long and it will hopefully guide them towards figuring out the call that Jesus has for them.
I thought it might be good for some of you guys out there as well. I will just post one a day for the next five days. Let me know what you think or if you are feeling a call from God to do something specific. I’d love to hear about it!
Facebook is everywhere! You cannot turn on the news and not hear about how many new users they have, how much their IPO is going to make or what the founder, Mark Zuckerburg, is up to. Every day it seems like there is something new happening with Facebook.
A recent event that really got my attention was their purchase of Instagram. Instagram is a free photo sharing program that allows people to take pictures and post them to different social media websites. Facebook bought Instagram for 1 billion dollars. Not a million dollars…. a BILLION!
There are tons of programs that take pictures and tons of ways to post those pictures to any number of different social media outlets. In fact most phones come with a camera program built in when you purchase the phone. So what makes Instagram stand out above the rest? How did they command a billion dollars?
The statistics about instagram are pretty impressive.
-Each day on Facebook 300 million photos are uploaded
-Instagram gains one new user every second
-One billion photos have been taken with the app
-There are roughly 58 photos uploaded each second
With such staggering figures the question begs us to repeat…what makes Instagram standout above the rest?
You get to use filters.
Instagram doesn’t just take pictures it also gives you the ability to apply a digital filter on the photo. This unique feature has made it wildly popular. It takes your average photo and turns it into an eye catching piece of art. It takes an average person, snapping the photos, and transforms them into a creative genius.
A simple reason that Instagram has gained such popularity is that there is something in all of us that wants to create, to make beautiful things. We were not put on this earth to just go to work, watch TV, sleep and repeat. Genesis 1 paints for us this beautiful picture of the ultimate creativity, as God designed and wove creation together for His glory. And then we come to verse 27 which declares that He didn’t just create us but He created, formed, fashioned us…in His own image. Our God is a creative God, therefore, we are creative people.
What you are creating doesn’t have to be artistic in the traditional sense, but it should be yours. God has created you uniquely and in His image. There is no one else like you.
Our creative God has made you exactly as you are for His purpose and His plan. Let me encourage you this week to follow His lead….create something. Take a picture and use a filter!
I have been teaching about Grace the past couple weeks at church. So, I have been studying and reading up on Grace as much as possible. But, I have been experiencing and wrestling with it in my life the last couple weeks as well. It was interesting timing to say the least, I am teaching on the ideas of Biblical grace and then get a call that requires what feels like more grace then I can give.
I am immediately put the test, do I really believe what the Bible says about Grace? What about sin having consequences? What about trust, and friendship, are they part of Grace?
Grace is misunderstood, misused, confused for other things, and generally abused by a lot of Christians. But, even when I am intentionally learning all I can about Grace, reading books on it, studying it in every way I can, it’s different when you get that phone call requiring buckets of grace.
But that’s Grace right, it’s not Grace if it’s cheap. It’s not grace if it’s easy.
This week I am going to write a couple posts about Grace, some of the things that I am learning about Grace and some of the questions that I am still working on answering. I hope you will join in the conversation and let me know your feelings and thoughts on the subject.
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