John Bevere - Stop Drifting from Your Call
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Guys, here we are in the next lesson, talking about our callings. You know, our specific callings. There's a general, and we're talking about specific. And, uh, before we really get into how we discover our calling, I think we've got to answer the whys before we go into the hows or the what's. I think it's really important that we do that because here's what we ultimately want to address: We want to address what is my specific calling, how do I fulfill it, and how do I maximize it? Let's get to the whys first.
First of all, let's ask this question: Why is it important to know your specific calling? First reason it's important is to maintain a right focus. You're not going to be pulled in counterproductive directions due to the currents of life. Let me give you an example of this. The man who was the best man in my wedding was a really close friend. We used to do Bible study after I got saved in my fraternity in college, and we did Bible studies. Man, Friday nights were the concordance, the Bible. We didn't have computers back then, just the concordance and Vino's Pizza. That was our Friday nights in the fraternity while everybody else was getting drunk. Anyway, he got an accounting degree, and by the way, he's not an accountant today; he is a pastor, and this probably is a large reason for it. He was working for a major oil corporation. If I said the name, you'd know who it is.
This corporation had a philosophy: they were going to pay more than anybody else. I also had a job offer from them, and their job offer was the highest of 13 job offers I had graduating from Purdue University. They paid their people better than anyone in the whole industry but worked them 60-70 hours a week. So, he's an accountant working for them, and one night he's in the office with another young accountant, and they're exhausted, draining the coffee just to stay awake, but they've got to get this work done. My friend, whose name is Matt, just looks at the guy in the office and asks, "Why are we doing this?" His friend looked at him and said, "The money." Suddenly, Matt thought, "I'm a slave to this; what am I really called to do?" That's what caused him to really seek God, and now he's been pastoring for like 30 years, leading a great church on the West Coast.
So, I want you to picture this: if I'm a boat in the ocean, you know oceans have currents. I'll never forget when I discovered this. A friend of mine took us fishing. I don't know if you were on the boat, Arden, but we had to be over this wreck to catch these snappers, right? But every 30 seconds we drifted, and I'd ask him, "How far down did we drift?" and he said, "About 100 yards," which was an exaggeration; it was really about a minute. That's how far we drifted. If you're in a boat and in the ocean, you know what you're going to get? You're going to be pulled by the currents. You're going to get tossed around by the waves. But if I turn on my motor, what happens? Now I can go to my desired fishing spot or I can go back to the dock; I can go wherever my destination is, and that current won't bother me.
Oh, I may have to deal with it, but it's not going to prevent me from getting to my ultimate destination. This is how people are in life, guys. Do you know what runs their lives? Earning money, bringing in income, paying bills; they're existing, not living. You're not going to live until you're doing what God has created you to do. Psalm 37:23 says, "The Lord directs the steps of the godly; he delights in every detail of their lives." Oh my gosh, I just preached myself happy just reading that. I want you to notice he directs; he doesn't force. The devil wants to push people; he wants to force people. But God will never push or force; he directs. So that means it's up to us to listen.
Think of the Lord's direction as a GPS, you know? My friend with the fishing boat, when we finished fishing, if he had said, "John, drive back to the dock," we would be out there all night until we ran out of gas because I literally can't see the horizon; I have no idea where we're at. But we just set that GPS and turn the motor on, and that boat goes right back to the dock where we started. God's direction in our lives is like a GPS, and God's got an internal GPS in us, and you know what it is? It's our calling. He created that calling, Ephesians 2:10, beforehand. We'll talk about how long beforehand, but that is a GPS. If we're intentional, we'll fulfill our divine calling.
I want you to notice the last part of that verse: it says he delights in every detail. Now, if God delights in every detail of our lives, don't you think he's interested in our vocation? I would say so. So, the second point, why is it important to know your specific calling? The second point is: you will use your entrusted gifts effectively. Now that's so important. God has equipped all of us with gifts, and you know what those gifts are given to us for? To help us maximize what we're called to do.
If you look, there are gifts and callings. The Bible says the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable, and I'll talk about that in a later session, but those gifts are given to help us do what we're created to do. Look at Romans 12:6; I love this: "God has given us different gifts for doing certain things." For each one of us, it's a different certain thing. Well, if you look at our gifts, they may work in arenas that maybe we're not called to.
Let's say I've got a stock car, and I've got a tractor. That stock car and that tractor represent our gifts. That stock car is made to run on a NASCAR track; that tractor is made to work in a field. Now let's say the tractor driver goes, "Man, the popular thing is stock car racing; 150,000 people come out and watch that. I want to drive my tractor on the NASCAR track." Guess what? You can drive a tractor on a NASCAR track; you're not going to be very efficient; you're going to get beat by everybody else, but you can do it. And let's say the stock car driver goes, "I really want to be in the field and plow the fields." You know what? The stock car can work in a field and maybe even drag something behind it, but it's not in the arena it was effectively created to maximize its potential.
God's given us these gifts. These gifts overlap in many areas. I could say right now today, "You know what? I want to be a businessman. I want to start a business. I want to use the gifts that God has placed; they may work in the business world to a degree, but they're not going to work nearly as well as when I stand behind a pulpit or behind a table talking to these fired-up people like you who are so hungry." You really want to make sure that you're maximizing that gift in the arena you're called to.
I have a friend who pastors a church, and in his church, he had a guy who started out with a garage where he fixed cars. His business exploded because he was so good at it, and he kept adding on to this business. Well, his mind, being so technical, also made him a great teacher of the Bible. One day, he took my friend, who has a massive church, to lunch and said, "You know what? I want to serve God better. I'm tired of fixing people's cars. I don't believe that's going to build the kingdom of God as efficiently as if I teach the Bible on a full-time basis." My pastor, who was very wise, said, "Don't do that. If you do, you'll get out of the call of God in your life. Yeah, you can teach the Bible, but you're so much better with cars." He warned him that his kids would become disillusioned, his wife would become discouraged, and they would suffer financially.
Well, you know this guy got mad at my friend, left the church, and went to the largest church in the city, which was Crosstown. They hired him as a teaching pastor. After a while, finances dried up, his wife got discouraged, and his kids started walking away from God. He went back to my good friend for lunch and said, "Everything you said was right. My wife's here, I'm discouraged," and he left, resigning to go back to fixing cars.
One night, he fell asleep and had a dream where God showed him how to diagnose a problem in a car with a computer hooked up to it. Now, we're going back several years, okay? He said, "I don't know much about computers, but I've got a friend who knows about them." He called his friend and asked if he could work with him on this diagnostic machine that could figure out an automobile's problem four times faster than anything on the market at that time. Do you know what happened? CarMax, just starting out with properties in five states, said, "We want your garage with that diagnostic machine next to every single one of our car dealerships in five states."
He went to my friend and said, "Pastor, I'm called to fix cars." He had the ability to teach the Bible, and God wants all of us to do that, but he was using that gift in the wrong arena. God had called him to be a mechanic and run a business and give financially into the kingdom. Isn't that beautiful? I love that story.
So, the second question: Why is it important to live in your calling? The first reason is you will be satisfied and fulfilled. Look at Galatians 6:4: "Pay careful attention to your own work." I love that: "your own work." "For then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done." So notice that satisfaction; you're fulfilled. You know what happens when you're in your life calling? You exude energy. I studied to be an engineer, and I dreaded walking into those offices at Rockwell International every day. Now, I can't wait to get up and do what God's called me to do. I can't wait to preach to the people in Brazil, where I was last week. I'm so excited about going to Vietnam and Singapore next month. I'm just thrilled about it. It creates life in you when you're in your calling.
Are you seeing this? Look at what he goes on to say: "And you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else." This brings us to the second reason why it's important to live in your calling: you will not envy what other people do. I have friends in professional athletics; I have friends in the business world just excelling. I don't envy them; I admire them, but I don't envy them. Why? Because I'm so fulfilled in doing what God has created me to do. I don't care what your calling is, whether it's being a stay-at-home mom of three kids, a businessman, or involved in government, you will never envy what somebody else is doing in another arena of life if you're in your calling. That's why you want to live in your calling; it's that important.
The third reason why it's important to live in your calling? You are strengthened. Listen to what Jesus says: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." Now, let's think about food. I know we don't do this much anymore; if I were speaking to us 60 years ago, we'd all relate to this, but let's say I'm digging ditches, digging trenches for sewage lines to go out of houses. Let's say I don't eat for seven days. Do you think I'd have the strength to dig ditches for eight hours? Never. If I were an NFL football player and didn't eat for seven days, would I be able to block these massive defensive line ends and tackles with so much energy? You'd never be able to do it. What does food do? It gives us strength.
You know what else food does? It energizes us. Okay, I know most people don't eat right now; 90% of what we have in our grocery stores isn't even food. But let me challenge you: go get somebody to make you a glass of spinach, carrot, apple, ginger, and kale juice, and when you drink that, you'll be loaded with energy. When you're in your calling, you're energized.
If you look at Jesus, he said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." If you look at David, in 2 Samuel 11:1, it said, "It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rahab. But David remained in Jerusalem." It was the time kings were supposed to go to battle. David has the title of king, but he's not operating as king; he's not being energized. He doesn't have strength. He walks out on the balcony and sees Bathsheba. Boy, we got a long history here. He doesn't have the strength to resist because he's not doing what he was created to do in his calling. Jesus said, "My food is to do the will." You get energized by doing the work. And also, Jesus said to finish his work. It's not just about starting; we see a lot of people that start. It's about finishing the work. Jesus said, "I've finished the work that you have given me to do."
Now, the fourth reason why it's important to live in your calling: you will flourish and be rewarded in this life. Boy, that is so important. You will flourish and be rewarded in this life. In the years I've been serving in the body of Christ, I've noticed a lot of ministers, and I'll specifically talk about ministers right now because this is the area I'm involved in. I've seen ministers who are genuinely called to the ministry, but they're not doing it by the power and the strength of the grace of God anymore. They're maintaining it in their own strength, so they're like David: they're not engaged, and they have no passion, no energy, and no life.
As a young man preparing for the ministry, I'd get around ministers who had so much life. My job would be to drive them around for our church. I'd pick them up from the airport, and there would be ministers who would sit down in that seat next to me and bring so much life into the car, I wanted to go win the world when I dropped them off at the hotel. Then, there were others who got in that seat, and I felt a ton of heaviness come over me, and I had to take a bath when I was done dropping them off at the hotel. What's the difference? One was engaged in their calling; the other was just doing it as an occupation.
This transcends all areas. When we're actively engaged in what God has called us to do, we're energized, we flourish, and we're rewarded. I see ministers who are energized—who are rewarded. I look at a friend of mine, a professional golfer, one of my dearest friends. I call him my little brother; he calls me his big brother. He's from Australia, and his name is Aaron. I remember he came to the United States about 15 years ago to be on the PGA Tour. We became very close friends; he'd heard me speak in Phoenix, Arizona, and he looked at his mom and said, "That guy's going to be more than a friend." We struck up a close friendship and started talking for hours on the phone each week. God put it in my heart to disciple him.
When he played in a tournament in Colorado, he stayed at our house. I remember he missed the cut, and he was having a terrible year. He was number 124 on the money list, and if you were 126, you'd lose your PGA card. He was floundering, missing cuts. He missed the cut for a tournament, and I was on my way to minister at a church in Oklahoma and then over to Las Vegas. I said, "Why don't you come with me?" So the first church in Oklahoma he got ministered to. The second church in Las Vegas was a conference focused on the Holy Spirit, and God touched his life in a profound way. He had that look of having been in the presence of God. I asked him, "God really touched your life tonight, didn't he?" He said, "Yeah." I asked, "Did he say anything to you?" He replied, "Yeah, God told me to quit trying to preach and play golf."
We were just on the golf course a couple of days ago, and he said, "At that time, what I was doing is I was putting my PGA as secondary to bring in enough money, but I wanted to build my ministry." He said, "I envied you; I wanted to do what you were doing." After his encounter with God, he said, "I stopped trying to build a ministry, and I started working on golf." Within a year and a half, he won his first PGA tournament and became number 16 in the entire world. When you're in your calling and pursuing it, what happens? You're rewarded here on this earth. You flourish and you're rewarded.
Are you seeing this? Alright, the fifth reason why it's important to live in your calling: you will be filled with joy. Now, joy is so important. Why? Because the joy of the Lord is our strength. Joy is what brings us through trials. It's the strength that gets us through hardship. If you look at what Paul says, "I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work." Paul's engaged; he's called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, and these Philippians were part of the Gentile church. He said, "You're my joy; you're my crown for what I do." There's a satisfaction, fulfillment, and joy that comes when you do what God has created you to do. It cannot be compared to anything else.
As a college Division One tennis player, I played Junior Davis Cup and started for Purdue University. My dream was to be a professional tennis player, and I can tell you right now, I used to think how great it would be to play at Wimbledon and win. I couldn't care less now, because Wimbledon could never give me the fulfillment I have received in watching people's lives change. The reason I have that fulfillment is that this is what I was created to do—not to be an Andre Agassi, but to be John Bevere, who preaches the gospel.
This is what happens: we don't envy other people; we're satisfied, and we get rewarded in this earth. There are so many great reasons to fulfill our calling. This leads us to the third point: why is it important to fulfill our calling? There's one more aspect, and that is we will be rewarded eternally. That is probably the most important thing, and that's what we're going to discuss in the next lesson.