Bobby Schuller - How To Discover Your Next Calling
Well, no matter who you are, we're so glad you're here. Would you stand with us? We're gonna say this creed together as we do every week? Hold your hands out like this as a way of receiving from the Lord. Let's say this together. I'm not what I do. I'm not what I have. I'm not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God. It's who I am. No one can take it from me. I don't have to worry. I don't have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share his love with my neighbor. Thanks, you can be seated. Today I want to answer the question that so many people ask and it's a good question. It's actually it's a bad question, but it's a question we all ask and the question is what is my calling?
It's a question I ask all the time, especially when you feel like you're in a rut or you're kind of in a middle place or maybe you just lost a job or something happened and it feels like you've been stuck in this weird gray middle place. Maybe you've been at your job for a long time and you used to love it and maybe it pays well, but you just hate it or you don't like it or maybe you're just kinda like hey, I want to do something else. You're like God I am thankful for my job, but was I born to do this? What is my calling? And what I want to say today is that in life the heart of this question is a good one. The heart of this question says something like I believe I was born for a destiny and you are. I believe I was born to do great things for God and you are. I believe that I was born to fulfill and born to have big dreams and you are but asking the question, what is my calling ironically will not get you to your calling.
This question reminds me a lot of a conversation that the disciples were having. You see when the disciples were following Jesus and he was talking about the kingdom of God, they literally thought it was gonna be an actual kingdom with a king. They thought it was gonna be like a government. Like though the ones they'd had in the past. They thought Jesus, who is a descendant of David, was somehow going to ascend to a real throne, where he was going to be like the president of Israel. And all of them were going to have governmental positions like Secretary of State, or whatever, Secretary of the Treasury, Vice President. So in their mind is he's talking about the kingdom. They don't understand and finally at one time, they're arguing with each other about who's gonna get the best positions in this new literal government of Israel.
And Jesus interrupts, indignant, which is the idea of being a mixture of angry and offended over unfairness all at the same time. And he says, "You don't understand. The leaders of the Gentiles lord over the people that follow them and exercise authority over them, but in the kingdom of God whoever wants to be the greatest has to be the least. And those who are the least will be the greatest". So he says to them, "If you want to be great in the kingdom you have to serve. For the Son of Man did not come into this world to be served but to serve and to lay his life down as a ransom for many". When we ask the question, Lord, what's my calling? We're asking, Lord, it's a question about me. It's a question about me, but in the kingdom of God, when we fall into what God's calling is for us, it's about others. It's about others.
So the first thing I wanna say is two points. I want to make before I get into this. Number one with your great calling and you do have a great calling. Number one is you have many callings. We are not born to have one grand final calling. All of us are called to do many things and all of those things are meaningful and have value. If they're from God, they're going to fold into the thing after that. So it's like cinnamon rolls. I think all of us know cinnamon rolls are the best dessert item. You can have it for breakfast. You can have it for dessert after dinner. You can have it for dinner. It's a great thing. It's my favorite dessert. I've gotten many double stuffed oreos are grand and lemon cake with lemon icing is great.
Anyway, finding your calling is a bit like eating a cinnamon roll. The best part of the cinnamon roll everybody knows is the...anybody? The middle, the core, there's so many names for it. The Golden Jewel. It's right there. It's soaked in butter and cinnamon and sugar. It's the best part. Anyone who gives you the core of the cinnamon roll, even if you don't want it, just take it, okay? They're giving you their best. And so like eating a cinnamon roll, you start on the outside which is the worst part, the crunchy part with the least amount of frosting on it, and the further you get into the middle the better it gets.
And believe me, this is what callings are like in the kingdom of God. You don't start with the core, that's weird. You start with the outside. In the kingdom of God, if you wanna find your calling, very often your path is gonna begin in the most unexpected way. You're gonna see someone who's hurting. You're gonna see a need and you're gonna fill it. And that will be your first calling and after that each calling that you fulfill will go into the calling after that. Will you trust me with this? This is how God helps you find your calling. You start and be faithful in the little things and he'll trust you with the big things. Be faithful in the little things. He'll trust you with the big things.
Number two we often have two or more callings at the same time. That's a totally normal thing for God to do. Does your boss ever give you two jobs at the same time at your job? Sometimes God will give you two or more things to do at the same time and it is important that we understand which of those two things are most important. Right now I have at least two callings. I'm called to be the pastor of this ministry. I'm also called to be a husband and a dad. Which one is more important? Being a husband and a dad or being a minister? This is a no brainer guys. If you don't know the answer to this there's a giant picture behind me, giving you the answer, alright?
See, this is confusing for a lot of pastors because it's easy to say my family is more important than my career. But it's a little bit gray for pastor, because what they're like well, the ministry is also like a child to me. No, no, no, it's not. It's important but it's not a child. There's ministry and then there's family. Alright, and I pray, I write down every morning. God, today, I want to be the best husband I can be. I want to be the best dad I can be. Every day. And so those are two callings. God knows if I'm faithful with my children and my wife, I'll be faithful with my ministry. It's not always the other way around, isn't that true?
So if you're faithful in the little things. He'll be faithful in the big things. And make sure you do it in the order not what society says. Money, power, fame, glory, but in what God says. Help hurting people, take responsibility, love others, love your near dweller. Okay, so if you want to find your calling, understand that in God's kingdom it begins by the little things that don't have a lot of glory. The little things. It's be faithful in the little things and God will trust you with bigger and bigger things as you stay faithful to him. This reminds me of the Scripture we got to today. Jeremiah, the calling of Jeremiah helps us understand our callings and that very often we are afraid sometimes even to serve in the little ways.
In Jeremiah chapter 1 it says, "The word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'" Can everybody do me a favor right now and just take a deep breath? I feel good. It feels nice. It's like a massage for your lungs. God knew before you were born that you would do great things in your life. You might say, Bobby, I'm too old, too young. I'm divorced, I messed up. I have addiction issues. I have this, I have that. Guys, just take one more deep breath. Ooh that's good. It feels nice. The Lord knew before you were born what your calling and callings would be. Let's relax. Let's relax and trust that he will get us where we need to go.
When Jeremiah hears this from the Lord, he said, you know, Lord says you're gonna be a great prophet to the nations. "He says, 'Alas, Sovereign Lord, I said, I do not even know how to speak. I'm too young.' But the Lord said to me, 'Don't say I'm too young.' That's exactly how he said it too. 'You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them for I am with you and I will rescue you,' declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand, and he touched my mouth". The hand, when it says the Lord reached out his hand that means his power. "So he filled me with his power and said to me, I have put my words in your mouth. 'See today I appoint you over the nations and the kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy to overthrow, and then to build and to plant.'" As a new creation.
Now notice how the first thing that Jeremiah feels is probably fear and the first thing he does is disqualify himself when God calls him. I'm too young. I can't do that. I'm too young. And if he'd just wait a few more years. He would have been too what? Old, all right. It's always something. Moses does this when he's called by God. In the burning bush, Moses has this exchange with God, where he says I need you to go and speak to Pharaoh and set my people free. And Moses says who am I to do that? And then God says he can do it and then he says, but who will I say will send me? And then he says, but what if they don't believe me? And then he says, O, that I stutter. And he just goes on and on like this.
And finally God goes... and it was just like I'm just getting so frustrated, you know, Moses and then finally Moses just says please send someone else. Please send someone else, why? Because he's afraid. Let me teach you something about how we respond to God's calling especially if we just start disqualifying ourself. Disqualifying yourself almost always comes from a place of fear or dread. You just dread the thing and that fear feeling of fear or dread always manifests itself as tired. I'm tired. I just can't. I just, I just, I can't, I just, I can't. This is what fear does when we're called to do something. We're called to confront someone at work or in our family over an issue and you're kind of feeling afraid of that and you dwell on it.
Well how do you start to feel? I'm just tired. When God calls us to take a risk and it's something we've never done before and we begin to spin our wheels very often we just go I just, someone else Lord, I feel tired. Anybody feel this way sometimes? Or when you gotta confess the sin to or some mistake to someone or you lied about something. And it's gonna be super embarrassing. You gotta talk to your spouse or your best friend or somebody you work with or your boss or or your employees. And I just feel tired. When I was writing my book I hit writer's block and I just didn't want to write and I was actually afraid of writing. I took what writers called a discouragement nap. You just crawl into bed and you just think this is a lot easier than writing. See, fear manifests itself in our life as tired, tired.
So and the reason we know this is because if you actually step out and confront the person or write the chapter or take the risk or build the thing or do the thing when you're done, you don't feel tired anymore. Why did that happen if you were tired and you should feel more tired now than you did but you don't. You feel enlivened. You feel more awake. You feel more alert. You feel more excited. This is why we cannot allow fear to overcome us even when it's the little things like what if I reach out to that person and pray for them or what if I do this thing God's calling me to do. So my friend when you sense that God is asking you to do something in the way he did with Jeremiah or Moses just do it. Don't make excuses. Just try.
What's the worst thing that will happen? Just try. And see what God will do. Just obey. Be faithful in little things. Faithful in the little things and God will trust you more and more with big things in life. God sees what you do. You know, the big things to you are still little things to God. The biggest like the President of United States, that's still a little thing in God's mind. Do you know? If you're not faithful with the little things he's not going to trust you with the big things. This is true in finances. Imagine you wanted to hire a financial planner and you know you went to hear you wanted to go to them and it just didn't have it altogether.
Would you, would you trust them with your money? You say maybe someday. You know and if I earn more money then all of my financial, financial woes will go away. No, no, that's not true. You look at your bank statement at the end of the month and you think, where did it all go? Where did it... you don't know? You don't know where it went? You know when we talk about our money, God calls us stewards. When you become a believer you don't own anything. It's all God's money. And so you don't know where it went? You just don't know. What you think God wants to trust you with more money when you don't know where the little bit he gave you went? You went to your financial planner. You said how is the money going with your other clients and he said, I don't know. I just don't know where it goes.
Let me write you know here's more here's more. You gotta be faithful with your little money before God allows you to steward more money. People who don't make very much sometimes never give and they just say I'll give when I make more money. You won't, I promise you will not give when you make more. It's a fact. I raise money for living. All of you who've gotten probably letters for me asking for money. This is expensive. You know, it comes in, it goes out. People that give a little, when they have a little. Give a lot when they have a lot. People that don't give when they have a little usually never get a lot, but if they do get a lot, they still don't give. Giving is a part of being a good steward. And this is not just giving of your money. I mean, giving of your time. You know, helping.
There's so many people that say oh, if I was a CEO, they're a manager, if I was a CEO I would run this company better but you ask the people under that manager, how's he running this department? Well, if I was a CEO, I could run the big thing. No, you've gotta run your department well before you can run the business well. Many people that are entry level job say, Oh, I'd be such a great manager but nope. The floor still dirty or the car isn't, you know, unkempt or you were late for work or you're not kind to the people you work with. You're short tempered, alright? So, you see if you're faithful in little things in life, God will trust you with big things.
So many people say oh, I wanna be a senior pastor. I want to have a big missionary thing or I want to do this. But in your free time, you don't serve people. You don't pray with people. You don't share your faith. You don't study the Scripture. You got to be faithful in the little things if you want God to trust you with the big things because for God, even the big things are little things. This is what we learn from Jesus, Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 25. He tells a story about a great, there's a great businessman who gives some money to some of these different servants, while he's going to go away and he wants them to build this you know this investment. So the first guy he gives five talents.
Now a talent is about 20 years worth of work. So can we round up and say, it's about a million bucks. So he gives the first guy $5 million. He gives the second guy $2 million and he gives the third guy a chance, right, $1 million. He says I'm going to leave. Take care of this money. When I get back, give it back to me. And the guy who had $5 million bucks, what did he do with it, do you remember? Turned it into $10 million bucks, 100% return that's pretty good. The second guy he gave $2 million bucks, what he do? Turned it into $4 million bucks. What happened to the one guy who got $1 million bucks. He got that money and he goes oh a million dollars? What do I do with a million dollars? If I lose this, what if I lose this? I can't, it's a million dollars. So he digs a hole in the ground and buries it and in guards it.
Alright, that's the guy who gets in trouble. So the master comes back and he says well done good and faithful servant, right? You took my five and turned it into ten. Well done my good faithful servant, you took my two and turn it to four. And then the Guy that had one he said I know that you reap where you haven't sown. I was so worried about this I buried it. And he gives it back. Here's your money back. I protected it. And he says you wicked servant. And then he says his famous line. "For those who have much will be given even more," this is called a Matthew effect in sociology and at first glance, it seems unfair but it is a principle of the universe, my friends. This goes beyond Christianity. This is true of everything and everyone.
"For those who have much will be given more and those who have a little even that will be taken away". Why? I often wonder in this parable, what would've happened, I wish I could have said I would have asked this question sitting under the olives trees with Jesus. What would've happened if the man with the 1 million bucks invested it and lost it all? Instead of burying and he gave you zero or he gave you like $1000 bucks. This is what I think, okay, it's not in the Bible. It's just what Bobby thinks. I think he would have said, well done good and faithful servant. And I think he would've given another million and said try again. I think, maybe would've sat down and said the problem what God is pointing out in this parable and remember that word "talent" is where we get the phrase talented from is not that the man didn't make any money.
It's that he didn't try. It's that the other two guys responded out of faith, right? They tried, they did something. They got creative. They but this guy, he just, everything he did was out of fear and when we get afraid we get what? Tired. We get tired. We just bury it, protected, just survive, just get through another day with my Master gets back. Who would trust money someone with money like that? And this isn't about money by the way. This is not about money. It's about how you spend your time. It's about how you use this precious gift called life. Do you live by faith or live out of fear? And this parable, by the way it goes right into the next super famous parable about the sheep and the goats. And he says for the Son of Man will come back and he'll sit on his glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered around and he'll separate them into two groups, sheeps and goats.
You know this passage. And he'll say to those on his right, the sheep, he will say you are blessed by my Father in Heaven, enter into the kingdom that was prepared for you before the creation of the earth and receive your inheritance. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me. And they will look at them and go when did we do any of that? We never did that for a king. And he will say when you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. When you did it to the invisible people out there or the annoying people or the whatever, when you did it for these ones you did it for me.
And when we read that passage, we're supposed to put our Jesus glasses on and recognize that what the world calls a big deal is not always a big deal to God and what we think is not a big deal is a huge deal to God. You see. And when we are faithful in the little things, God says, okay, I can trust them with more. When we turn those that 2 million bucks in a 4 million bucks in kingdom terms. When we serve the least of these, you know, as Peter, our interview guest earlier, you know just, just fostering kids, what God called him to do. Foster kids who are like him.
You know we do that he's got 26 kids now. Maybe you don't want 26 kids. Maybe do something else, but you know, God is basically saying to do something. Do something. Don't wait until the big thing comes. Do the little thing. Do the little thing. If you have those Jesus glasses and it was like he saw something somebody that was in need and you were able to see it through the lens of okay, if I help this person in God's eyes is the same as helping Jesus. Would that have an impact on you? Hope it would. Sheep and goats don't look that different, you know, if you grew up on a farm. Which I didn't. I grew up. I'm a city boy, but so. This is a sheep and a goat. They're pretty similar. Doesn't go with his horns cut off which happens all the time in the Middle East, you know. Or horns are not always a good thing.
The best way to know the difference between a sheep and a goat if they're both white color like that is what? How they act. They are definitely different on the inside. Saying that says if your fence can't hold any water, it can't hold in a goat. You know goats are ornery. They're lone rangers. They go off and do their own thing. And goats, you don't have to be driven. You know, whereas sheep all are like really sweet to each other and work together and they group together. And they are led. They follow the shepherd wherever the shepherd goes. Two totally, they're like opposites, even though they look similar. And that'll be in the kingdom. If you served in the little things. If you care about the little things. You'll be in the group that God says come and receive your inheritance.
So you want to find your calling? It's so...of course you wanna find your calling. Of course, you want to make an impact. Of course, you want your life to matter and make a difference. But if you want those things, ironically, not and needs to not be about you and your calling anymore. And needs to be about finding a need and filling it. So here's a wrong question to ask. What's my calling? What's my calling, Lord? Here's the right question to ask. Where's a need God wants me to fill? Just start looking around. Where is there a kingdom of God need that needs to be filled? And you might even recognize that someone like you has a unique set of skills or experience or perspective to make a real positive difference in this kingdom of God made.
Here's the wrong question to ask. What title do I want? What job do I want? What ministry do I want? Here's the right question to ask. Who does God want me to become? In what ways shall I be different a year from now, five years from now, two weeks from now? What steps will I take to become a different kind of person that lives according to the kingdom? Here's the wrong question to ask. How can I get a raise? Anybody wanna raise? Everyone wants a raise. That's the wrong question to ask. How can I get a raise will never get you a raise. Here's the right question to ask. How can I become more valuable to my team? How can I increase my value in the marketplace? How can I become someone at my job that's indispensable? They would do anything to keep me.
If you feel that way. You'll know you'll get your raise when you ask for it or you if you feel like you wouldn't get a raise you know that at another place you'll get a better job and you'll be able to leverage that position. Asking how can I become more valuable is a better question. These are the kinds of questions in the kingdom of God that matter. It's about who you become. So if you want to get closer to that group those great things that God's calling you to, this message is for you. God wants you to hear this message. Start finding small ways you can make a little difference and God will trust you with more. Think with a relaxed mind. Relax, relax, don't think with an angry mind. When you're angry you act like a drunk would, right? Anybody experience that?
When you're angry you say things you wish you hadn't have said. You do things you wish you hadn't done. You drive recklessly. Anybody? We should get an DUA, Driving Under Anger, you know? Think with a relaxed mind. When you have a fearful mind and you're spinning your wheels, you're really afraid, what happens? You become tired, all right. Or if you think with a hurried mind always hasty. Always tryin' to get to the next thing. Always in a hurry. You become clumsy. Start messing things up. And tipping things over. Ends up taking much longer ironically. So think with a relaxed clear mind when you think about your life. My grandpa used to say never cut a tree down in winter. Because on a farm when you look at a bunch of trees in winter, all the trees look dead, but when spring comes some of them come back to life and some don't.
And so what he meant by that is don't make big decisions in your life when you're in a bad mood. Just make that a rule. If I'm feeling angry, hurried, or scared, just don't make big decisions. Just chill out. Wait until you're in a good mood and then make those key decisions in your life. So you don't cut down something that's still alive. In life, it is important that we see what the world thinks is important is not actually probably as important to you. When you actually get it you'll realize it doesn't have the value thought it would. See the world through through the lens of the kingdom of God and recognize that when I serve others, I am taking a step to leading a meaningful powerful life that God planned out for me, but to get there I have to be faithful in the little things before he trusts me with the big things.
So Lord we come to you in Jesus's name and we thank you for all you've given to us. How kind you are to us. Lord, all of us want to make an impact with our lives. All of us want to do great things for you. We pray in Jesus' name that today, you'd give us eyes to see the small things. That we'd be faithful to you over time in these things and we ask it all in Jesus's name. All God's people said amen.