Charles Stanley - The Call of God
When you think about God do you think about Him as a power or a person? And when you think about Him do you think about Him being distant or do you think about Him being close? Well, the way you and I view Him is the way we're going respond to Him. And the truth is, God isn't just a power, He's a powerful Person and he isn't just distant. He's only distant to those who have distanced themselves from Him. He is a God of mercy and love and goodness and kindness. He's a God who seeks the best for us. He is a God who desires the best for us. He is a God Who expresses His love and kindness toward us in every way possible.
In fact, one of the most wonderful things about God is that He is not so distant that He cannot speak to us, but He desires to communicate with us, to speak to us and to have us to speak to Him. And often times people will go through their whole life never thinking in terms of the fact that God wants to talk to you. We think sometimes that praying is we do all the talking and that's sorta the way it is but... God desires to communicate with us and He communicates with us in ways that we don't even understand probably. And sometime we give the credit to someone else, when truly it is God Who is in the process of communicating with us.
And when I think about all the aspects of God, the fact that He's willing to do that, is one, one aspect of His character and His love for us that we need to examine. And when I think about, for example, all the way back in the Old Testament, the Bible says, in Genesis chapter twelve the first verse, that God called Abraham to separate himself from his people and his family and go into a land that He would show him. Later on in the book of Exodus He calls Moses on the backside of the desert, at a burning bush to go and lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Then if you turn to First Samuel chapter three, you'll find God speaking to a little lad. Not only to grown men but to a little lad. And He says in First Samuel chapter three:
"Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli and the word of the LORD was rare in those days. Visions were very infrequent. And it happened at that time as Eli was lying down to place, (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well)," listen what happens, "and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel," who was just a lad now, "was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was, That the LORD called Samuel and he said, 'Here I am.' Then he ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call. Lie down again.' So he went and lay down. So, the LORD called but yet again, 'Samuel!' So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he answered, 'I did not call my son, lie down again.' Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him. So the LORD called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am for you called me.' Then Eli discerned that the LORD was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, 'Go lie down and it shall be if He calls you, that you should say, "Speak LORD, for your servant is listening".' So Samuel went and lay down in his place".
And you know, I do believe that God does works in people's hearts and speak to them is such a way that sometimes they don't even realize He's speaking. You and I could through the Old Testament, for example again, He called Gideon to go and deliver the people from the Philistines. We can go to the New Testament and find Jesus saying to the disciples as He walked by the Sea of Galilee. He said, "Follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men". Then you could go all the way to the book of Acts and find here's Saul of Tarsus persecuting the Christians, throwing 'em in jail. And all of a sudden, he is struck down on the Damascus Road, blinded. He hears a voice and God is calling him.
Now once in a while I'll hear somebody say, "Well, once when I was saved, I had a Damascus Road experience". And I want to say, "Did you go blind, and did you hear voices speaking"? "No". Well, don't say you had a Damascus Road experience. I am grateful to God that He didn't have to knock me down and blind me to get me to listen to Him. Because that would have been a horrendous kind of spirit and an attitude. And the whole circumstance would have been awesome. He spoke, and He speaks, and He's speaking today. And sometimes somebody says, "Well, I've never heard God speak".
Well, you may not have heard Him audibly and I don't know that God speaks audibly. Sometimes I think it's so loud it seems to me to be audible. But God has His awesome way of speaking to us and communicating to us. And, what I want us to think about today is, I want us to think about how God does communicate to us and the fact that He does, and He calls us. And you may say, "Well, I don't ever remember God calling me". Let's see if that's true or if it's not true. Because this is the way God calls. He calls very quietly, not out loud. He doesn't yell, scream, and holler. He speaks to our mind. He speaks to our spirit. He speaks to our heart, we would say. He speaks to us personally. He doesn't speak in terms of generality.
God never says, "You all". He never speaks like that. He's not a Southerner, number one. But not only that, He doesn't speak in terms of generalities. Because His message is always personalized. He may speak to a whole nation through His servant that the whole general crowd is affected and impacted, but when God speaks, He speaks to you as a person. And though you've not heard Him, or you feel like that God has never spoken to you, let's see if He really has. He speaks to us personally, He always speaks. Listen whatever He says the resources will always be there. If He calls you to do something, He doesn't call you and leave you alone to do it. If He calls you to something, He's always gonna be with you step by step no matter what's happening.
God's calls are very deliberate, they're very personal, very quiet. Sometimes, they're very difficult. That is, He may call us to do something that we either do not know how to do it at first, we don't want to do it, we don't like the idea, that does not stop Him from calling us. So, I want you to ask yourself the question, Has God ever called me, has God ever spoken to me as He seemingly has here? He always speaks. Listen. And with that opportunity there's always the opportunity of being blessed. You see, when God speaks to us, He's got something in mind. It's an opportunity for us. And with that opportunity always comes the blessing, because He is there in the process of doing so. So, as you look at your life, your Christian life, or maybe you say, "Well, I'm not even a Christian. God's never spoken to me". Has He, or has He not? Let's think about it for a moment. When you think about how God speaks.
You say, "Well, He speaks sometimes through a pastor, or sometimes just through a book, or a tract, through the radio, through the television, and sometimes a friend". Sometimes it's some circumstance that's going on in your life. And in the process of that circumstance you begin to sense that God is trying to say something to you. God is continually calling us in different areas of our life. So, when you think about His call in your life, let me ask you a question. How have your responded? Well, you can respond, yes, no, wait. Or you can ignore the call. But remember this when you say yes, that's very clear. When you say no, that's very clear. When you say wait, what you're really saying is no. God doesn't usually say, "Ten years from now, here's what I want you to do". But He speaks in today. He says, for example "Behold, today is the day of salvation".
God does not speak in sorta questionable, unclear garbled language. He makes it very, very clear. It's not always as clear to us as it is to Him at first. But it's His responsibility to make what He says very clear whatever that call may be. So, when He calls you, you can say yes, no, you may say wait, but what you're saying is no. Or you can just ignore His call which is always very dangerous. You can say no to God's call. But what you're saying no to is you're saying no to the sovereign of the universe who created you. You're saying no to the best blessings that God can possibly create for you. You're saying no to the One who knows you perfectly, Who has your life all planned out. Who has promised to bless you, promised to fill you with Himself and to go with you every single step of the way wherever He may call you.
Would you not agree that it would be very foolish to ignore God? It is very foolish to ignore the calls of God. So, you say, "Well if He's called me, I'm not sure. It seems to me that I've never heard". So, what I'd like to do is, I would like to sorta share with you the four ways and the four reasons God calls us. Because He does. And you say, "Well, I'm not a Christian, so you're not talking to me". Oh yes, I am. You say, "Well, I've been a Christian a long time, I don't need you to talk to me". Yes, you do. So, what I want you to do is I want you to listen carefully. And I want us to think about the ways God speaks to us. Now, think about this. God desires to set up a communication with us, to establish communication with us.
So, what does He do? The first call of God in anyone's life is the call to salvation. To trust Him as personal Savior. That's the first call. That's how He sets up His relationship with us, because you see if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, you don't have any relationship to God. Now, you may say, "Well, I believe He's up there somewhere and I can talk to Him and He talks to me". If you have rejected His Son, you have rejected the means by which you and I establish a relationship with Him. And so, you may be hearing things, and you may be placing words in the mouth of your god, whoever this god is. The truth is you have not heard from the God of the Bible until first of all, God begins to speak with you.
And so, what happens? He begins in this way. He begins to make you aware that something is not right. This is the way He calls us to salvation. And He begins to increase that uneasiness until you begin to acknowledge the fact that you're not living right. Finally, you begin to realize you know this is sin. And finally, you begin to realize that this is sin against God. And what's happening is the Holy Spirit is beginning to enlighten you, and to open your eyes, and to open your mind and to open your heart to realize that you are sinning against the living God of the universe. You're sinning against your Creator. You're sinning against the One Who's chosen you, and Who is calling you, and you've sinned against Him, rebelled against Him and you've separated yourself from Him.
So, what is this first call all about? This first call is all about establishing a relationship and that is bringing you to the realization that your sins have separated you from God and that God wants to bring you into relationship, He wants to reconcile you to Himself, and establish a warm intimate personal relationship, but before that can happen, you have to deal with the issue of sin.
So, here's what happens. The Spirit of God begins to convict you. You begin to realize you need the living God. And you face up to it to the point that you begin to speak to God that you've never seen Him, never felt Him necessarily, but you know God is trying to speak to you. You begin to confess your sins, you repent of your sins. You do have a deep abiding sorrow for the way you've been living. God brings you to the realization that when His Son, Jesus, died on the cross there was something about that death that made it possible for God to forgive you of your sins. And you begin to realize that God is helping you to understand what His death is all about. That He died and paid your sin-debt in full.
You may not use those terms, you may not understand very much about it, but there's something about the cross, something about His death, you can't get through to, and yet the Holy Spirit is working on the inside of you. What is He doing? He is enlightening your mind, enlightening your heart to help you understand, that if you ask Him to forgive you of your sins that the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross and died for your sins, He's the One Who paid the debt for your sins so that you don't have to work for it, cry and beg and plead for it, it is offered to you as a gift. And that's what we call the gift of God's grace, His love and mercy and forgiveness. And so what happens? You have just enough understanding to cry out to God and to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you and that you're receiving His Son, Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and you are saved.
His first call is the call of salvation, and you may not have recognized what's been going on in your life till this very moment, when you beginning to think about right now and you're saying, "You know what, I've had these feelings you're talking about. When so and so witnessed to me, I had this funny feeling in my heart". You see it may be a funny feeling, it may be a strange feeling, it may be a difficult feeling, it may be a very dis, disturbing feeling, it's the work of the Holy Spirit, doing what? Cultivating and stirring you up so listen, that you will hear and receive the message of the gospel. God's first call is the call to salvation.
Now, for a lot of people they say, "Well, I'm saved and that's it". That is not it. That is only the first call. Now watch this again. You do not grow into salvation. You become more and more enlightened and more and more understanding until the moment you receive Him as your Savior. That call finally is answered once and for all. Your sins are forgiven, you become a child of God, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and you're forever secure, call number one. Call number two, is a call that most people never even think about your sanctification. It means simply this, that you have been set apart by God for the purpose of God, to live a holy, godly life. And the word "sanctification", and the word "holy" both come from the same Greek root.
Now, when he says, we are to live a holy life, what does he mean? What does he mean by a sanctified life? Does that mean sinless life? No. And often times we want to take words like sanctification and relegate them into some denomination or so. No, listen. Sanctification, listen, it is an act, and it is a process. Salvation is an act no process. Saved once and for all. What does He do? You receive Him into your life. He sets you apart as a child of God, for the purposes of God. Now, the Bible says we are to live a holy life. What does that mean? Here's what it means. It does not mean a sinless life because all of us have a little carnality in us and we're gonna falter at times and sin against God at times, not because we want to, because we are weak in certain areas of our life probably everybody has some area of weakness. But sanctification is a process, it begins the moment you are saved and it lasts for the rest of your life.
What is that? That is the Holy Spirit who came into your life the moment you were saved and sealed you as a child of God doing what? Beginning to work and conform you to the likeness of Christ. So, He's the one who begins to show this in your life needs to go. This you need to add to your life. So, what happens? Little by little, God begins to work righteousness and holiness as a way of life into our life. You and I will never reach a stage in our life where He is not calling us to sanctification, where He's not calling us to live a holy life. But I want to ask you a question. Have you ever made a decision, have you ever made a simple but very personal, honest to goodness decision to say, "Lord Jesus, I do want to walk holy. I do choose to be obedient. I choose to live the sanctified life, and God when I falter and fail, bring it to my mind quickly so I may repent of it and move on in the godly life to which You've called me".
Second call is the call to a holy life, a call of sanctification. The third call is the call to service. And there are lots and lots of verses, but I want you to turn if you will to Ephesians chapter two for a moment. And this passage, most Christians probably believers who know anything about the Bible know these passages, but listen if you will in the second chapter and verse eight and nine says, "For by grace have you been saved". Period. You've been saved. "Through faith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we can walk in them". Listen to that. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them".
Now, when he uses the word "walk" in the scriptures, here's what that means. If he's talking about walking in the light and living in the light and so forth, that's a way of life. When he says, that we should walk in good works, that means serving God should be a part of our daily life. So, let me ask you this question, once and for all you've been saved. You're in the process of sanctification and walking a holy godly life. Have you ever said to God, "Lord, I'm willing to serve You anywhere, anytime, all You have to do is tell me what to do".? I want you to turn if you will to First Peter. Go back over to First Peter chapter four, and I want you to notice a verse, and I'll give you time to find it. First Peter chapter four. Because you think about this, you have to ask yourself the question, would this be you. In what way are you serving the Lord?
Look at First Peter chapter 4, verse 10. Verse 10: "As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God". God has called us to serve Him. And when I think about what He says, look if you will in Colossians. Go back to Colossians chapter three. Back to Colossians chapter three, I want you to notice a couple of verses here. Verse twenty-three says: "Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord, rather than for men". Then listen this next verse. "Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve".
Now think about this. Why didn't God save you one day and take you home to heaven right then? He could have. Why did He leave you here as a representative, as an ambassador, not only that God has chosen, listen, God has chosen to carry out His work in the world through those of us who are saved and give our lives to Him. We're not talking about preachers, and missionaries, and musicians, and educate, we're talking about every single one of us. Every single one of us who is saved has a responsibility to serve the living God.
Now, there are thousands of ways to serve the living God. I think about for example, all the nurses and all the doctors there are out there who should certainly see themselves as servants of the living God Who's equipped them with knowledge and skill and experience and understanding and here, they're dealing with people who are hurting, who have lots of doubts, who are afraid. I think about the kind of awesome testimony, the kind of awesome service that could be given to someone while they are doing something physical for them, they could also do something spiritual for them. Servants of the living God, every single one of us is a servant. You work in a store, for example. And you say, "Well, you know, I work in a store, I work in a hardware store, I work in some department store, how can I be serving God"?
Here's how you can serve Him. That you always have a gentle spirit, that you're kind, that you have a genuine spirit of service, you want to help the person. If they're complaining and moaning and groaning, and just giving you a fit, you just smile, and say, "Thank you very much, and we'll correct this". In other words, there are lots of ways to serve God. And see, what He wants above everything else is the spirit. He wants us to reflect Him. Watch this. If I'm living a sanctified life I'm going to reflect Him, no matter what. And we think the only way to serve God is to do it inside the church building.
Another way to serve God is to this. Let's say for example you're a painter, or a plumber. Say, "Man, I'm out there by myself painting every... how can I serve God"? Give them the best paint job they could possible get. Fix whatever needs to be fixed the best you can do it. Thank God for the privilege that you have to work, and you're serving somebody by helping them do something that they cannot do. And most of us are not very mechanically minded, at least I'm not. And so, when I need some help, I have to call somebody, for the simple reason that I don't know how to fix anything electrical. I don't know how to fix any plumbing. I don't even know how to do anything about a car but drive it. If I need help, I have to find somebody else.
And you know what? God's made all of us different. He's given all of us different skills so we can do what? So, we can serve one another in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, what I want to ask you is this, have you ever said to Him, You said, "I'm trusting you as my Savior. I choose to live a godly life". Have you ever been willing to say to Him, "Lord, because You're my Savior and my God, You've done so much for me, I offer myself to You, to serve You any possible way I can. You can send me anywhere to do anything. You've promised to equip me and to anoint me with the Spirit of God to enable me to do whatever You've called me to do, so here I am Lord as your servant".
Have you ever said that to Him? Most people never have. You can ask any pastor in the world, say to them, "Do you have a need for workers in your church"? Oh, yes. This church, every church. Why do we have so many people, so many tasks, so many places of responsibility and there's so many more people than there are servants. I'll tell you why. Because many people have never said, "Father, You own me, You possess me, everything that I have is Yours. You can take away any of it any time You want to. I owe You my life. What do you want me to do? I may not do the best job in the world, but I'm willing to do the best I can. Whatever You'd have me to do, Father, the answer is yes". You see, number three will not happen until number two happens, and you chose to live a godly life. First there's salvation and then there's a choice to live a godly sanctified life, which is a life of obedience to Him. And then what a life of service to whatever He's called you to. Now, there's one more.
Now watch this one. First one, you don't want to be saved? Shut it out. You can say no. Second one. You don't want to live a godly life? No. Thirdly, you don't want to serve God? No. But here's one call you don't have anything to do with. And that is the call to accountability. One of these days you and I are going to stand before the Lord and when we do, here's what's going to happen. We're going to have to give an account of whether we were saved or not, whether we lived a godly life or ungodly life, and whether we served Him or not. I want you to turn to one verse. There are many verses we could turn to. Fourteenth chapter of Romans. Listen to what he says.
Romans fourteen. "So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God". There is a judgment in which you and I will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to give an account for our life. Did we trust Him as our Savior? Did we live a godly life? Did we serve Him? Now here's the tragedy of tragedies. Listen to me carefully. One of these days, this is an inescapable, unavoidable, absolutely a time of an appointment, a destiny in our life and we stand face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ, and you know what? There will not be any excuses to offer in the face of God. People often say, "Well, here's what I'm going to tell Jesus". No, you're not. In the presence of Holy God, the last thing is an excuse for an unholy life.
Now think about this for a moment. Every single one of us chooses to be saved or not to be saved. We choose to live godly or not to live godly. We choose to serve God, or we choose to serve ourselves all the days of our lives. The judgment, we have no choice. "It is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment". So, then every one of us shall give account of himself and herself to God. What are you going to say when you rejected Jesus? What are you going to say when you've lived an ungodly life? What are you gonna say when you've served only yourself? And what are you going to say when you stand in the presence of the very One Who died for your sins?
I think about people I know, I think about people I see in the news and all the rewards and all the hype and all the wealth and all of this, and I think to myself, Oh, God what a shock the judgment is going to be when they recognize that they've rejected, they've clamored and cleaved after everything in life there was and neglected the most important. And when they put them in the casket, their fame is not there. Their wealth's not there. Listen, their reputation's not there. There their body lies and their soul is somewhere. There's nothing more tragic in life than to make a decision to reject Christ, to live an ungodly life, serve yourself all the days of your life, and die and meet the God who created you. Listen, to walk a holy life and to walk it serving Him. What are you going to say to Him?
And some of you listening to this say, "Well, I'm not going to think about it". Oh yes, you are. You've heard too much to forget it now. Remember this, "So then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God". And I want to challenge you, if you've never trusted Jesus as your Savior, to ask Him to forgive you of your sins and tell Him that you're fed up with life, the way you've been living it. You want life at its best, and you acknowledge your sinfulness, and you trust Him as your Savior. If you've never made a commitment to live a holy life, make it now. If you've never committed yourself, "I'm willing to serve God, Father, whatever You say". Make it now, so when you stand at the end of the fourth call in the presence of the living God, you can hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Here's your reward". It's real simple and clear. I'm either gonna be saved, or I'm gonna be lost. I'm going to live godly or ungodly. And I'm going to serve Him or serve myself. But the judgment, I must face.
And Father, we pray the Holy Spirit sink this simple truth into every single heart. That there is no escape, that it's absolutely unavoidable, it's inevitable that we'll one day stand before You. And I pray the Holy Spirit is convicting even now, and people are making decisions even now. A decision to trust You as Savior, a decision to walk godly, a decision to serve You wholeheartedly all the days of our life. And we pray this in Jesus's name, amen.