Calling Killers
Called • Sermon • Submitted
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· 7 viewsThere are weights and sins that can keep us from running our race and living our calling.
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We are in week 5 of our series, “Called”.
We’ve been talking about how every person has a specific call on their life.
Last week we talked about how we can discover our calling.
We said we need to first go to God in faith believing that He DOES have a call on your life.
That we need to diligently seek God.
And then we talked about how when we do these things God will give us a glimpse of our calling to help lead us in the right direction.
It would be nice if he gave us the whole picture but that where faith comes in.
Paul said we “walk by faith, not by sight.”
But if you’ve missed any of the messages please go onto our Facebook page, YouTube channel, app, or website.
Today the title of the message is, “Calling Killers”.
We are going to be discussing how we can abort or severely hinder our calling.
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
I shared this verse a couple weeks ago to show that God looks at our life like a race.
And that he set this race before us.
Before we were even born He made the course for the race.
But notice in this verse how it says, “let us run with endurance”.
Jesus even talks about he who endures to end will be saved.
Endurance is a big deal in our faith.
It’s not about how you start but how you finish!
It’s an endurance run.
You might be able to run a sprint with some weight on you.
But you are going to have a real hard time running a marathon with 40-50 pounds on you right?
And that’s what the writer of Hebrews is telling us.
There are two things that can slow us down in our calling.
Weight and sin that easily ensnares us.
So we’re going to talk about what those two things look like.
Let’s start by talking about what those “weights” look like.
We’ll start in Luke 9
Luke 9:57-58 NKJV “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Now Jesus is traveling probably with a large group of people and someone comes running up to him all enthusiastic!
And he says, “I’ll follow wherever you go.”
In other words, “I want to live for you, I want to live the life you’ve called me to live.”
Jesus has a way of seeing through enthusiasm.
He sees through someone’s initial excitement and realizes that they may not know the cost of following Jesus.
So Jesus being Jesus sees that this man has an “weight”.
So Jesus responds by saying, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Why would Jesus tell him this?
Because He knows that this man has an issue with security.
He’s probably been putting money into his 401K
He’s got money in stocks
No debt
House is almost paid off.
He’s comfortable and safe in his life.
He’s worked hard to be secure.
And Jesus comes back by saying, there’s not much material security with me.
I don’t even know where I’m going to sleep at night.
I’m just taking this one day at a time.
All of a sudden the man starts to creep away.
He’s thinking, “I love you Jesus, but I need my security. I can’t take a chance like that. I’ve worked too hard for what I have.”
Luke 9:59-60 “Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me FIRST go and bury my father.” 60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
That sounds pretty harsh.
Notice how this man didn’t tell Jesus he wouldn’t follow him.
All he said was let me FIRST go and bury my father.
Now this is one of those moments where it’s important to understand the customs of the day.
Different scholars have different interpretations of why this man had to bury his father first because there’s a couple reasons why he would want to.
First is that honoring your father and mother was a big deal.
It was a command by God and part of that means that you bury them properly.
So some scholars believe that he just wanted to do the honorable thing and Jesus was making the point that I need to be the top priority in your life, not your parents.
However, other scholars believe that it was because back then the first born son received a double portion of the inheritance when his father died.
And it’s custom for the firstborn son to bury the father otherwise he doesn’t receive any inheritance.
So some believe that this man had money on his mind.
I need to bury my father real quick so I can get my double portion!
And Jesus again is saying, if you want to follow me, then follow me and don’t worry about your money.
Luke 9:61-62 “And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me FIRST go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Again here’s someone that wants to follow Jesus but just wants to FIRST go and say goodbye to his family.
Maybe he wanted to go back and say goodbye and get their approval?
I mean Jesus was known as a fanatic back then and maybe he just wanted to try and get the approval of his parents or his girlfriend?
Maybe Jesus knew those people would convince him to stay and he would listen because he valued his relationships over Jesus.
We would probably all be amazed if God showed us how many people didn’t fulfill their calling or their calling was hindered because of relationships.
Whether it’s a dating relationship with someone we shouldn’t be with
Or it’s just we love our family so much we aren’t willing to go and leave to where God wants us to go.
I have been fortunate that God has called me in a place where I can be close to my family.
I’m a homebody.
I have no desire to move far away.
But if I felt like God called, I’d be gone in a second.
Because I love my family, but I love God more.
And that’s the point that Jesus is trying to make.
Notice again how these men never said they wouldn’t follow Jesus.
They’re not choosing to say, “Sorry Jesus I want nothing to do with you.”
All their saying is “LET ME FIRST”.
They are putting other things in their life as a priority over Jesus.
And Jesus is making the point that I need to be your number one priority!
That’s why we need to ask ourselves what am I putting first in my life?
What’s important to God or what’s important to ME?
So Jesus hits on three things that can hold us back from fulfilling our calling.
Security
Money
Relationships
Luke 14:25-27 “A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 26 “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. 27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus is stressing if you really want to be my disciples you have to love me so much that it seems like you hate your family.
Obviously, He’s not saying to hate our family.
But our love for Him should be so strong it seems like we do.
It’s that same thing when it comes to security or money.
Now look at the next verse from chapter 9 that we’ve been reading.
It’s actually the start of chapter 10 which chapters and verses were put into the bible in the 14th century.
This is one letter or thought.
Luke 10:1-2 “After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
So basically after he tells everyone what it looks like to truly follow him the crowd has gone from probably hundreds, if not thousands to 70.
And He sends them out.
But He said, “the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few.”
Why are the laborers few?
Why are few people willing to live in their calling?
Because they don’t want to pay the price to do so.
They’re letting things like, security, money, or relationships stop them.
I remember when I was unemployed for a year and a half, still believing that I was going to be in full-time ministry but things just weren’t going the way I thought it would.
I applied for more jobs than I can think of.
I even applied to be a bus driver!
I finally got to a point where I was frustrated and I felt like I needed to take anything that came my way because we needed that security.
One day Kate was talking to her former bosses at an ice cream shop in Florida where she lived for two summers.
Joe’s Eats and Sweets.
While Kate was talking to them they said that if we moved to Florida they would give us a position of managing the shop.
And surprisingly the pay would have been really good.
They also had a rental house that they said we could live in.
And I remember negotiating with God.
I said God if I don’t find a job in 2 weeks I’m taking that as a sign you want us to go to Florida.
So 2 weeks go by and I still have no job.
So I told my wife I guess we’re going to Florida.
Kate even called the owners and told them we are coming.
But after a couple days I just didn’t feel peace about it.
I felt like God was telling me, “this isn’t what I called you to do.”
“But God I need this. I need the security of a job and it pays well.”
But this feeling wouldn’t go away.
So I told Kate I don’t think we’re supposed to go.
So we stayed and I continued to look for a job.
Thankfully a couple months after that I got a great job and a year after that I got a full-time youth pastor job in Holland.
And that journey has led me to where I am today.
I can’t help but think about what my life would look like if we did go to Florida.
If I just said, “sorry God, I need a job and I don’t care if I’m supposed to go.”
I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t be here and I probably wouldn’t be living in my calling.
I’m not called to run an ice cream shop.
I’m called to preach the Word!
Thankfully I trusted God and made Him a priority instead of my security.
As we close I just want to mention the second thing Hebrews talks about.
Sin that so easily ensnares us.
Sin is one of the greatest things that will stop you from living your calling or at least hinder it.
I think of how many Pastors have stepped out of their call because of sin.
I could list multiple Pastors from over the years that have left their church or the ministry all together because they got caught in the trap of sin.
Notice how in Hebrews he says how sin SO EASILY ensnares us?
It’s easy to slip into sin.
It starts with something small and can grow quickly if not dealt with.
You don’t become a drug addict or an alcoholic overnight.
You don’t get addicted to pornography without first starting to look at things you shouldn’t.
And everyone has different sins that they may struggle with.
So it’s important that we recognize that and pray and seek God and ask him to help us.
If you know you struggle with something, tell someone and get accountability because you don’t want your sin to control you where it hinders your calling.
That’s why it says to throw off every weight and sin.
Because those things are calling killers.
Be open and honest with yourself and with God.
Recognize what’s holding you down and give it to God.
I heard 1500 Pastors a year are leaving vocational ministry.
And a big reason for most of them is because they have weights holding them down or sin has ensnared them.
Be free and run with endurance.
Make sure you finish what God has called you to do.
Next week we’re going to talk more about how we can do this by being led by the Holy Spirit.
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