Intro story- when I was called

I knew what the Lord wanted of me

I couldn’t explain why I knew I just did

The call on my life was evident and I could feel it in my spirit

I don’t know if it was fear

Or selfishness maybe

I wanted to be in control of my life

So I rebelled against the word the Lord had given me

I lived a life of complete disobedience to the Lord

I kept running away, far away

I became worse than I had previously been

Even though I tried whatever I could to run

I knew ultimately that I should submit to God and follow the call He placed on me

It took years, I think about 12 years later I finally submitted to His will and not my own

Romans 11:25-36

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own ^[a]opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be ^[b]saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
²⁷ For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, ³¹ even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. ³² For God has ^[c]committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
³⁵ “Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”

³⁶ For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

We are wrapping up chapter 11

The main verse I will be focusing on is verse 29

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

But before I get into that I want to give biblical context to what paul was speaking about

Im going to give a quick recap of chapters 9-11 because they all tie together to give the overall them of these 3 chapters

Paul talked about Israel’s rejection of Christ and Gods purpose

Israel’s rejection and Gods justice, Paul discussed the present condition of Israel and that they were in desperate need of the Gospel

Only to have Israel reject the gospel and the Messiah they had all been waiting on

But there is still hope because Israels rejection is not total and it is not final

God is coming back for His remnant

Which brings us to where we are now

Paul is speaking to jews and gentiles

Romans 11:25-28

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own ^[a]opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will be ^[b]saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
²⁷ For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. 

Paul is showing both jew and gentile that they are both important to Gods plan

So that way neither of them could boast that the other was more important

Out of Israels rejection and disobedience to God, it allowed Him to open the door for the gentiles to be saved, graphed , and adopted into the kingdom of heaven

Because of their disobedience the gentiles were also called to God

We are now able to have the same privilege that was initially for the jews

God in His infinite wisdom knows what he is doing

In verse 25 it speaks about this great mystery

This mystery is Gods uniting of the Jews and gentiles to accomplish His will

It is the mystery of the Church

Somethings remain a mystery until God reveals them to believers through His Spirit

In verse 26

And so all Israel will be ^[b]saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

There is some controversy as to what this means

One viewpoint says that Paul is speaking about all of Israel from the beginning of time will be saved

No matter what happens they are Gods chosen people and He is going to save all of them

In the most basic that is kind of how it reads out

The next view is that All Israel is referring to the elect of Israel throughout history

Israel will experience a partial hardening of their heart until the select amount of gentiles come to salvation

And after this happens God will come back for His remnant of Jews

Meaning all Israel could be talking about the church, Jews and gentiles

Since gentile have now been brought in and adopted by God

This view fits the context of Romans 9-11

In chapter 9 paul states that God is faithful even though Israel rejected the Christ

Gods promise was to save Abrahams descendants was not based on nationality

But the true Israel consists of jews and gentiles

In romans 10:12

¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

Paul says there is no distinction between the jews and gentiles in the matter of salvation

Gods promises were not fulfilled in the nation but in the true believing remnant

Which brings us to verse 29

²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 

Gods gift of salvation is irrevocable

He has called people to come to His kingdom to serve Him and further His will

He has given us the gift of salvation, a free gift. No one can take it

If you have confessed Jesus as your saviour and crucify your flesh to live for Him

Then you have this gift of salvation

So how can we apply this scripture to our lives

Everyone has a call that the Lord has placed in their life

Just like me we all have a choice. Either we will except the call or reject the call on our lives

Once we have given our life to the Lord the call He has placed on you will begin to show

But before we get into the call for ministry he has placed on you

The first call you need to answer is found in this scripture

Matthew 22:37

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

We must put God above everything

Christians should live with the mindset that His will comes before our own

We must lay everything at the foot of the cross

Our desires, our plans, and our thoughts should all be laid down before the Lord

HE needs to be first in every aspect of our lives

We should be more concerned with living our lives for Him and less concerned about our own comfort and plans

If you call Jesus the Lord of your life everything should fall under subjection to Him

You should want to honor God with your whole life

Not just the Parts you want to give Him

He wants all of you not some of you

Believe me, laying everything at His feet isnt as easy as it sounds

Example(subs)

I still struggle with this sometimes

My flesh wants what it wants but I always remember that God is in control and I’m not

As Christians we must live what we speak and believe or it is worthless

When I gave my life to the Lord I said you direct my life and I will follow

It’s a long process that never ends, but Whatever He asks of me I will do

This is a result of giving Jesus your heart

Fully believing and having faith in Jesus Christ will change your heart

You will begin to see your life and actions changed the more you put Him first

Your desires will change, sometimes your plans and goals will change also

Because you no longer look at life through a worldly perspective

But through the lens of Jesus Christ

His will and His mission will be at the forefront of your mind

To put God first you must change your focus

With all of the negative things that go on in this world it is very easy to get distracted

There are also plenty of internet preachers and people that have their own agenda

That is why if you want to know the Lord and what God wants you must read your bible

You should always read your bible for yourself

Even now, read your bible. Don’t just take what I say

Not that im going to lead you astray, but that way you know for yourself

Story-prosperity gospel

If I hadn’t read the word for myself, I could easily still be where I was

But over time of reading the word I began to realize somethings just don’t align with the Word of God

As Christians we must take His word seriously

Its how we know what He wants

It convicts and corrects us

Hebrews 4:12

¹² For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Most of the changes in my life have come from reading His word

I read scripture, get convicted and then work on that area of my life

God must be first in your life in every area

Its not always easy, but it is worth it

This is the first call

We also have a another call on our lives

This call uses our giftings and abilities to help grow the kingdom

Even from the beginning of time we were created to work

Genesis 2:15

¹⁵ Then the Lord God took ^[a]the man and put him in the garden of Eden to ^[b]tend and keep it.

Psalm 90:17

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit^[a] your works to the Lord,
And your thoughts will be established.

We were created to work unto the Lord

We should be using our gifting and call to serve Gods church

Each person has been given an area where they excel at, maybe a few areas

We use these to build the kingdom and serve the church

I was called to be a Pastor

This isn’t an easy task

I hear plenty of people that say they were called to be a pastor

9 out of 10 times you probably weren’t

You get to see about 5% of a pastors job and that’s when we preach

You don’t see the hours of studying

The sleepless nights and all the tears that come with it

The hours of phone calls and meetings with people

Dealing not only with our own problems in life but then taking on the problems of the congregation

Helping people through emotional trauma, injuries, loss of jobs, and even death in their family

And the worst part, spending years pouring into people that have something happen in life then turn the blame on you as if you are the enemy

I don’t say this to exalt myself or other pastors

I say this because if God had not placed this call on my life there is no way I could’ve on my own strength live this kind of life

Not everyone has been called to the 5 fold ministry which is Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers

But everyone is called to an area and it is your place to find out what it is

I don’t know if you know this, but our building doesn’t take care of itself

We have so many ministries and people that make it run

Because people use their skills to help grow the kingdom

Jami has a renovation company

One day he decided he wanted to head the maintenance ministry

He is using his gifts to help grow the kingdom

Maybe you wonder how that helps

Because nothing is broken

You don’t notice it because he will work all day then come to the church to fix things that break

You would definitely notice if no one was doing it though

The same with the cleaning team

You don’t notice its clean, but if the church building was disgusting and never clean you would notice

No one wants to come to a dirty stinky building

People volunteer to teach your kids the bible and how to worship in childrens ministry

We have a team of people that work the landscaping for hours on their own time so our property looks nice

There are so many more ministries that we have

I could probably go on for awhile

But all of them are just as important as the next

You must figure out what you have been called to and allow God to use you in that area

He will bless the work of your hands

If you haven’t figured it out yet, it doesn’t hurt to just serve in another area until it has been made clear to you

If you are not sure what to do, we are having a work party this Saturday from 9-1pm

You can come and I can point you in a direction

One more thing that I want to mention is you also have a call to your family but don’t use that as an excuse to not serve the church

Also don’t use serving the church as an excuse to not serve your family

Whatever call God has placed on your life be sure to use it to help grow His kingdom

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