Stay the Course
Called • Sermon • Submitted
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· 7 viewsFollowing the call of God doesn't mean you won't go through trial. Those trials may be God's way of developing your character and bringing to light deeper issues that need to be address for what he has next for you.
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We are in week 7 of our series, “Called”.
We’re talking about finding and living in our specific call that God has for us.
Last week we talked about how if you want to fulfill the call of God on your life you need to be led by the Holy Spirit.
You will have many opportunities in your life where you have to make tough decisions.
It’s key that we make sure we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and not of our emotions or our own understanding.
If you’ve missed any weeks be sure to check them out on our app, website, facebook, or YouTube channel.
Today’s message is titled, “Stay the Course”.
We’ve talked a lot about how when you diligently seek God he will give you a glimpse of what your calling is.
He doesn’t give you the full picture.
I talked about how my glimpse when I was 20 years old was full-time youth ministry.
And it’s crazy to look back and see how God has fulfilled that call on my life and how because I followed that glimpse I’m now doing what I’m doing today.
But the hard part is that our journey to that glimpse doesn’t always go the way we think it’s going to go.
We’ve mentioned a few stories in the bible in past weeks of people who can attest to this.
Joseph was given a vision of himself in leadership.
He doesn’t realize that what was going to happen next was that his brothers were going to first throw him in a pit and then sell him as a slave.
He would then get thrown in prison for at least 2 years for being falsely accused of trying to sleep with Potiphar's wife.
It was 13 years from the time Joseph received that dream and actually became second in command in Egypt.
And those 13 years were spent as a slave or in prison.
David had a little different experience but yet the same.
David gets anointed to be the next King of Israel.
All of a sudden he gets summoned by King Saul for him to play his harp for him.
King Saul connects with David and makes him the King’s armor bearer.
King Saul then wants him to live permanently in the palace and David becomes best friends with Saul’s son Jonathon.
Then King Saul gives him his daughter in marriage.
So David is thinking, wow this is all coming together beautifully!
King Saul is going to hand me the throne.
But all of a sudden King Saul became jealous of David because the people started to love him.
So he tried to have David killed.
David had to then flee the palace and live on the run for many years.
Scholars believe it could have been anywhere from 6-14 years on the run.
Can you imagine what was going through David’s mind.
Everything was going perfectly according to plan and then in a blink of an eye everything changed.
What are you doing God?
But Joseph and David remained faithful.
David even had a chance to kill Saul and he didn’t take it because he said he wouldn’t kill the Lord’s anointed.
He had an opportunity to birth an Ishmael but knew it wasn’t what God would want him to do.
Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and it took 40 years to get to the Promised Land.
Why does God do this?
1 Peter 1:6 NLT “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.”
So Peter is saying that there is WONDERFUL joy ahead.
And if you are fulfilling the call of God in your life you will have joy.
You will have a sense of joy when you are in your calling.
But he says though you must endure MANY trials for a little while.
Now a little while can mean anything.
A little while to us is a day.
A little while to God could be 5 - 10 years.
But he says before you experience that joy you will face many trials.
WHY?
1 Peter 1:7 NLT “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
Once again Peter says that we will go through MANY trials.
This is so important for us to know when it comes to living in your calling.
We’ve talked a lot in the past about how following Jesus doesn’t mean that bad things will never happen in your life.
That being a Christian doesn’t mean it all butterflies and roses like I like to say.
You WILL go through difficult times in this life.
And guess what?
Your calling is no different.
It’s important that we understand this.
Because what happens is we think that God is calling us to do something.
And when things don’t go the way we want them to we take that as a sign that this isn’t God’s will.
Obviously things aren’t working out now because God is telling me that this was the wrong choice.
I know students who felt like God was calling them to a specific college and it would be a miracle if they went there because their parents didn’t want them to go to a Christian college.
And miraculously the parents said they could go and they got accepted and were sooo excited.
After ONE semester they said they were going to transfer.
The reason was because it wasn’t as fun or as enjoyable as they thought it would be.
They thought if this was God’s will I would go to this school and everything would be amazing and it would be non stop fun and it would be easy.
So after one semester they just gave up.
Sadly people do this all the time.
You feel strongly that God is calling you to take on this new position or new job and you hit some bumps in the road.
It’s not quite what you expected.
So the only reasonable explanation is I misheard God.
We have to understand that going through difficult times could be EXACTLY why God called you to do something.
Maybe He knows that the struggle you're going to face is going to strengthen your faith and prepare you for what’s coming later in life?
Maybe these struggles are going to bring to light some inner issues that you need to deal with before you take on the next thing God has for you.
Think about the example Peter uses.
He said, “It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold”.
How does fire test and purify gold?
I actually watched some YouTube videos on this.
If you have something that isn’t pure gold.
They put it in a little furnace where it will melt the jewelry or whatever they put in there.
And as it liquifies the impurities or imperfections will rise to the top and clump together.
So then you can easily chip that off the pure gold.
You see if you just look at a 14k gold piece of jewelry it will look like real gold.
It’s hard to tell if it’s pure gold or not.
So what do you do to get those impurities or imperfections out?
You put it in a fire and those imperfections reveal themselves.
Have you ever thought that’s what God does with us?
You see maybe you’re doing something and it’s not going the way you thought it would.
And you’re finding yourself snapping at people all time or you have a bad attitude, or you all of a sudden have an offense toward people.
Now your first reaction might be, “This JOB is causing me to be short with people and has given me a bad attitude and I have an offense toward people.”
So clearly I need to quit because this isn’t what God has for me.
I think most of us would think along those lines.
But what if those feelings and emotions were there the whole time?
What if you’ve always had a problem with your attitude when things don’t go your way?
What if you’ve always been easily offended by people or always had a temper when people don’t do what you want them to do?
Maybe these issues have always been there but you just haven’t dealt with them because you haven’t been put in a place or position to expose them?
Maybe God knows that for you to fulfill your calling you have to deal with these issues?
That if you don’t address these things and figure out how to deal with them it could keep you from doing what God wants you to do.
Maybe God put you where you are right now to EXPOSE some of those imperfections.
He’s bringing them to light so you can recognize them and learn how to handle and overcome them.
In other words He’s building your character to where it needs to be for what He has in store for you!
But so often we just think that if things aren’t going the way I thought they would I must’ve missed God.
That God would never put me in a position where I would have these feelings.
That’s why it’s so important that we are led by the Holy Spirit like we talked about last week.
Because it’s in those moments that we need to seek God and ask him what He’s doing.
Because the hard part is you could be experiencing those feelings because you AREN’T doing what you’re supposed to do.
If you’re not in the will of God I believe you will have feelings of frustration and a lack of peace.
That’s why we have to be pressing into God with everything we have and asking Him to lead us in those moments.
To reveal if this IS what you are supposed to be doing and if these are things you need to deal with before God moves you on to what He has next for you.
Or if you’re not doing what He’s called you to do and you then need to seek Him to find out what you are supposed to be doing.
But the point is every time you face adversity doesn’t mean you’re not in the will of God.
God may be bringing to light some imperfections that He’s wanting to chip away so you’re ready for what’s next.
It’s crazy to look back at my life so far and see how God had His hand in ever part of my life.
That the struggles I went through were not because I did anything wrong, but were to prepare me for what I’m doing now.
Sometimes we need to just STAY THE COURSE.
Don’t give up.
Know that the path God is going to call you to take is most likely going to look different from what you think it will.
You know if I’m going to talk about this topic I have to share my life verse.
Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
The hardest part about being in a trial or in the fire is that YOU don’t know when it’s going to end.
It goes back to when God gives you that glimpse of your calling.
But he doesn’t show you the full picture.
We probably would be more likely to stay the course if God just told how long our trials would last.
If God just told us that these next 6 months were going to be difficult but if you stay the course you’ll see the harvest it would be easy.
But when you don’t know how long you’re going to be in the fire you get to a point where you just say I’m done!
And I wonder how many people were in their calling but in the middle of a trial that God knew would last 6 months and they gave up after 5 months and 29 days?
How many people have been right on the brink of coming out of their trial and about to see their harvest or at least about to move on to the next chapter in their calling and they gave up.
If you feel like you’re in the middle of a fire right now but you feel strongly you’re doing what you’re supposed to do, STAY THE COURSE!
Ask God to show you what He’s teaching you.
What are some imperfections He’s trying to bring to the surface?
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