The Call of the Father

[00:00:00] Well, if I could tell you my current heart rate and the tremor of my leg muscles on the Richter scale, I'm sure all of you would say that it's not a good thing to deal with at a time like this. I'd like to thank those who've prayed on my behalf and the words of encouragement that you've shared with me. It's been greatly appreciated. Two of my favorite comments from some good friends who are here went something like this. [00:00:32] Oh good, it's a great experience for a person after it's over, implying that it's not so great at the time. And then my all-time favorite, and I love this one, it went something like this. Tim, do you know how frightening it is to speak in front of 300 plus beachy preachers? And I wanted to say, oh no, what did I get myself into now? [00:01:06] There's just a bit of comfort in the fact that most of us deal with the same human issues at a time like this. And I assure you, it is only by the power and the strength of God that all my current human fears can be defeated. And this morning, I trust in that source of help. As my brothers and my sisters in the Lord, I extend greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, [00:01:41] Anabaptist who I believe is intently focused on this gathering. Imagine with me for a moment Jesus drawing his father's attention right now. He says, Father, come take a look at this particular group of people down there. I think I'd like to go walk the corridors of their hearts. I'd like to heal their hurts. Strengthen their faith. [00:02:15] Renew their commitment. Go, says his father, go meet their needs as only you can. Those are our people down there. Those are people that we call to our work. Go, son. Go meet their need. It is my desire that Christ would walk among us here today and that he would touch the very core of our lives. [00:02:55] Three points I'd like to address in this subject. First one is our call comes from God. Secondly, recognizing it is God's work. Third one is, what is it we are called to do? I invite you to join me as we explore the call of the Father. To discover the core of this subject and how the Father's call relates to me personally, [00:03:25] I found it necessary to ponder my own life's journey, where I was then in my life and how I responded to the call of God, where I am now in my journey and how I am answering God's call. The call of the Father is life-altering. It is weighty and time-consuming, demanding sacrifices of us, depleting our energy and our resources. [00:04:01] The Father's call is not the easiest path to tread in life. But the Father's call is unique in its spiritual blessings and its eternal rewards. Providing the motivation to continue our pursuit of the Father's call Isaiah 43 verse 1b Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine [00:04:36] And I like that The Father's call is not just exclusive to ministerial positions, but I believe extends and applies to many other people for many different role responsibilities. Is it not God who calls the missionary, the teacher, the doctor, the counselor, the translator, the minister, and multiple other roles in life. [00:05:09] Our theme is intensely focused on the Father's call to the ministerial role, so I would like to explore that particular role with you. It would be fascinating to sit and listen to each of your calling stories. When did God call you to the ministry? How did God call you to the ministry? How did you respond to God's call? What was your primary spiritual battle then? [00:05:41] And what is it now? How has it altered and molded you into the person that you have become today? And what is it that you are today? And what does God know as the real person inside of you? Those are all tough questions that we'd rather not ponder because they are a bit disturbing. And yet I believe is a very, very important part of our personal calling experience. [00:06:22] I suppose most of our ordination experiences have been via the lot procedure. Structure to resemble the method employed by the disciples to replace Judas Iscariot recorded in Acts 1, 12-26 They continued with one accord in prayer and supplication for a time Then they selected two of their number and asked God to show which one of these two he had chosen An excellent method to duplicate, and one I'd like to validate just a bit later as a part of my calling experience. [00:07:01] Is it the only calling and choosing method that God honors? Without creating division and controversy among us, I much prefer a constructive dialogue in our varied opinions, and I know this debate rages among us. Let's not create restrictive perimeters and put God inside a box that does not fit and potentially limits what he can do among us. [00:07:33] Allow me this illustration. The Apostle Paul had a very dramatic calling experience. Acts 9, 1-18 records this literal knockdown event. Certainly not a very conventional method of calling among beachy people, is it? You see, the church wasn't involved in Paul's calling and choosing. But God personally chose Paul, and then he involved the church, who had some very understandable, serious reservations about all this. [00:08:15] And Ananias, he showed an incredible trust in God, even though all of his instincts objected to this. God, you want me to do what? Do you know who this guy is? Do you know what he's been doing of late? And yes, God knew all about it. Just as he knew all about our particular environment. When he called you and he called me to be ministers of his. [00:08:51] So whatever the method that we employ that permits God to choose from among ourselves, paramount in any ministerial calling and choosing method is this very basic core theme. It is the Father who calls and chooses whom he will. And I believe here are two basic core elements that should never be bypassed or eliminated, whatever procedure that is used. [00:09:27] Recognizing that it is God, and only God, who looks into the heart of man and chooses who he wants for that particular time. It's the human manipulations and influences that must always, always be eliminated in any ordination for leadership. John 15, 16, Jesus said, [00:09:58] Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And I really believe that this is a very important key to our acceptance and our embrace of the Father's call into our own lives. Paul himself said about himself in Galatians 1.1, An apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. The Apostle Paul was convinced that it was God, and only God, who called him to minister. [00:10:36] And I think equally, you and I need that same affirmation in our calling to the ministry. And anything else leaves room for doubt and second guessing. No, we weren't perfect then, were we? Not by any stretch. Nor are we perfect now in our humanity. May I suggest that perhaps God is not looking so much for perfection [00:11:09] as much as he's looking for someone who embraces his call. So often, it's my own will that is the most difficult to subject to God's will at a time like that. Permit me to use my own personal story. I, for the most part, have always been a preacher's son. And believe me, that is not some elitist status. [00:11:42] If anything else, it's the opposite. Being a preacher's child can be very tough. And I know the difficulties. I know the pressures. I know the spotlight. I know the expectations of other people of preacher's offsprings. And far too often by their own minister parents, it's not a pleasant thing. Early in my adolescent and my youth stages of life, the scenes I observed of a preacher's life convinced me that a preacher's life was a dog's life. [00:12:23] And I decided that I wanted nothing to do with ever being a preacher. Now, one of the statistics that did bother me at that time was the percentage of preacher's offsprings who seemed somehow to be ordained as ministers. And that was just a bit disturbing, being a preacher's son. But I can honestly say, in all that, I never felt or in any way sensed God calling me to be a minister at any point in my life. [00:13:06] And that was just quite fine by me. I assumed that God always forewarned those that he had called and chosen to be ministers by some obvious revelation of his Holy Spirit. And I discovered that's not always the case. My greatest struggle had to do with the acceptance of his call. How do you grapple with something that is so undesired? [00:13:40] What do you grab a hold of when God alters the direction of your life so drastically? What do you latch on to as an anchor to bring a sense of stability back in your world when it feels as though your whole world has just exploded? That's how it felt. Within myself, I sense this desperate need to establish something secure, [00:14:15] something bedrock that doesn't move when everything else seemed to. And here are some essential anchors that I latched onto that helped me find the acceptance of God's will with some time. Anchor number one, that God is in control of my life, not me. No matter what happens, I have to believe that. If I don't believe that, then my life has no reliable steering mechanism by which my life is steered. [00:14:56] And no matter what happens, I have to believe in God. Can I control the direction of my life? Can I say no to God and be in God's will? Anchor number two. God doesn't make mistakes in my life. We stumble. We fall. [00:15:28] We mess up. Not God. God's ways are not littered with mistakes and bad choices. And I had to believe this wasn't some mistake in spite of how it felt. Anchor number three, that it was God who called me to be a minister. He just left me know that through the lot method. And for me, this method provided affirmation and confirmation that it was God who chose this role for my life. [00:16:06] Certainly not myself, not anyone else, but God himself. And now, it's up to me what I do with his call. How will I respond to the Father's call? Let's compare two distinctly different types of responses. As a young lad, Samuel's response to the Lord's call was, Speak, for thy servant heareth. [00:16:39] An incredible response for us to duplicate. And maybe you can identify with that type of response. Perhaps it's been your response to the Lord's call in your life. And at some point in time, we need to recognize the necessity of this type of response in our own lives. Not only is it important for us men to do that, but it is important for you wives to do that as well. [00:17:12] Sometimes it does take us a while to get there, but I'm standing here to tell you that the Lord does understand and he does give us that time. There was an 8th century B.C. Israeli prophet. When called by God to preach repentance in Nineveh, Jonah responded with, I don't think so. Not me. I want to do this my way. And he headed for a location of his own choosing. [00:17:47] Not a very smart thing to do, especially in a boat, or by any other method, really. But so often, I want to do the Jonah thing. And then God has to manually recharge my course and set me back on the straight and the narrow way. God has this unique way of changing perceptions and perspectives as we mature in life of which I am very grateful for. [00:18:21] And I'm so glad that he doesn't need to use whales every time. Honestly, and this scares me to say this, But honestly, only in the last two of the past 12 years have I stopped fighting God's call and embraced it. That felt so good. How have you responded to the call of the Father in your life? [00:18:56] Where are you and the Father at this juncture of your ministerial role? Have you embraced the call of the Father in your life? Perhaps that's still necessary for you to do. There's time. Which brings me to my second point. Recognizing it is God's work. I believe all Christians are called to be involved in God's work, whatever their role in life, integrating into their involvements the work of God, and it does not require an ordination to do that. [00:19:42] It's been said, and I quote, it is good to do the Lord's work, but better still to do his will, end of quote. The basic difference between God's will and God's work is when we are doing God's will, then God is working through us to do his work. The call to the ministry is simply our directive from God into a specific arena of involvement, doing God's will first, and then his work. [00:20:25] Jesus said in John 4, verse 34, My need is to do the will of him that sent me. At the age of 12 years old, Jesus said to his mother in Luke 2, 49, I must be about my father's business. And yet it was 18 years before he really pursued that mission. And I believe that his obedience to his parents was the will of his father for that time. [00:20:58] And that is what he submitted himself to do. What is the security of God's will? Consider God's infinite knowledge, his perfect goodness, and his self-sacrificing devotion to your highest good. And that alone is enough to force this conclusion, that disregarding God's slightest desire is the height of stupidity. [00:21:32] When God asks you to do something, he is granting you the unique privilege of tapping into the greatest mind in the universe. Instead of saying, Lord, this is what I'm going to do for you, we should be saying, Lord, what will you have me do? Too often there's this huge gap between what is my will and what is God's will. [00:22:07] Because it is the Father who calls us to our ministerial role, it then is the Father's work that we are called to do and not our own. God's work must never be replaced with our own agenda. If my focus becomes just the doing of God's work, then I tend to rely on my own strength and abilities to accomplish a task, and often it results in total failure and spiritual burnout. [00:22:44] What is God's work for you? I believe that the Lord's work involves every facet of our lives, our marriage, our family, our work, our church. And the question becomes for us too much of the time is how do I achieve a proper balance of involvement in all these areas with such limited time and such high demands? [00:23:16] Is it ever justifiable to sacrifice something important for something considered more important? I'd like to create a word picture for you. In my one hand, I'm holding a glass full of water. When suddenly, God places into my other hand this big, heavy tray that takes two hands to hold. Both of my hands are occupied with their individual things. [00:23:53] How am I supposed to hold both of these responsibilities adequately when this tray is calling for both hands? What am I to do with this glass of water in this hand? Do I drop it and permit it to break so that I can hold this all-important tray with both hands? Far too often, we drop the glass and we use both hands to hold the tray. [00:24:28] Now, what am I to do about the broken glass? Somehow, we need to realize that the glass that we're holding is the Lord's work. And what we do with it is very, very important. Do we honor God to labor in His vineyard and neglect the vines that He's already given us? Is there anything else that I can do with the glass in this hand? [00:25:07] I like the response of our 14-year-old son who was listening into this conversation between my wife and I on the way home from church. He pops up and he said, that's simple, Dad. I said, why can't you figure this out? He said, set the glass on the tray first, and then you can hold the tray with both hands. Perhaps it's not so much the sacrificing of one thing for the other, as it is its inclusion as a part of God's work for my life. [00:25:42] A proper perspective of God's work often involves the attitude of John the Baptist. In Mark 1 verse 7, There cometh one mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. And then in John 3.30, John the Baptist said to his disciples, he said, he must increase, but I must decrease. [00:26:22] It's not about the legacy that you leave about your ministry, as it is the promotion of the person of Jesus Christ. Let's not lose touch with this important reality that what we are called to do is the Lord's work and not our own. After people are exposed to your ministry, are they left thinking about you or about Jesus? [00:26:56] You see, our identity should never supersede our Lord. Point number three. What are we called to do? We are called by God to do His work. Allow me to read the ministerial charge given to me at my ordination. [00:27:28] And yours may vary a bit depending on your role, but this is pretty much the standard charge that is used among us. Upon this confession and these promises which thou hast now made before God and these witnesses, I herewith, in the name of Jesus Christ and his church, charge and ordain thee to go and preach the gospel in its purity, to warn the sinner, to admonish the unconverted to repent, to teach, instruct, comfort, and encourage the believers. [00:28:01] Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. Do the work of an evangelist, make full use of thy ministry, likewise give heed to thyself, walk circumspectly, read the word, meditate upon its precious precepts, pray without ceasing, and in all these things seek to be a faithful laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. [00:28:35] Continue thou in these things, for in so doing thou shalt save both thyself and those that hear thee. Amen. Out of curiosity, how often have you read your ministerial charge since you've been ordained? I believe that there just might be value in pondering our charge occasionally. [00:29:09] It might be an excellent means of refocus for us. Of not losing perspective of what our involvement is all about. Doing God's Work Permit me to showcase just several points in this charge of what we are called to do as ministers. The first point of doing. Be a faithful laborer. [00:29:45] The words of Jesus himself in John 15, 16. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. I want you to notice two specific points of doing in this particular verse. The first point, bring forth fruit. And the idea here is of effective fruit production. [00:30:17] And that's only going to happen one way. Jesus said in John 15, 4 and 5, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. [00:30:50] For without me ye can do nothing. God has called us to produce fruit for him. And the only way to do that is to be attached securely to him. Whatever the fruit is for you, whether it's soul saved, relationships healed and restored, church leadership, teamwork, mission field, etc. [00:31:32] Whatever that might be, it is to have eternal value. And that's very important. What does it mean to you to bring forth fruit in God's kingdom? Note the second point in this verse. That your fruit should remain. The idea here is of eternal preservation, not popularity. And when our fruit is eternal fruit, then its preservation is eternal in God's kingdom. [00:32:06] I like the idea in Colossians 1 verse 10 that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God and that's what fruit preservation is all about increasing in the knowledge of God prevents decay, shrinkage, and delusion Don't permit that to happen in your ministry. [00:32:42] The second point in our charge. Make full use of thy ministry. 2 Timothy 4-5 But watch thou in all things. Our spiritual combat strategies are Warn, admonish, reprove, rebuke, exhort, instruct, teach, comfort, and encourage [00:33:13] God has given us a responsibility to be alert to elements that are destructive to the souls of God's people And I believe that proper identification of these elements are crucial Too often we hang up on the external evidences and we neglect the deeper core issues. And we fix the evidences and we neglect the real problem. And it's like using a band-aid on something, on a wound that requires multiple stitches. [00:33:50] It's a cheap fix and it never works. To make full use of thy ministry may mean that you don't choose the easy route when the hard is called for, nor do you reach for harshness when gentleness is needed. To make full use of thy ministry may mean you detect your people's struggles under the surface before they rage openly. To make full use of thy ministry may mean that you develop and hone every talent and gift you've been given to its greatest potential for God's usage. [00:34:34] Never content to function on a plateau of mediocrity. This third point in this charge is give heed to thyself. There is no sadder story than the story of one who can tell everyone how to live the Christian life, but fails to consistently live it out himself. Listen, there is no greater pleasure for the devil than to have one of God's chosen stumble and fall. [00:35:11] And as God's chosen, we soon discover the intensity of Satan's attacks. Give heed to thyself. Galatians 6.9 Let us not be weary in well-doing. Jesus repeatedly took time for solitude and time away from the pressures of life, communicating with his father. And I don't know what that means to you, but I know the necessity of it. [00:35:51] A track star does not run a 10 kilometer race at full speed, else he depletes his energy prematurely. You see, a good man knows his limitations. And as ministers, we are not immune to the stresses of people relations And the demands of pressure situations Don't give up and neglect your own spiritual welfare [00:36:27] Isaiah 40, 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength They shall mount up with wings as eagles They shall run and not be weary They shall walk and not faint In the ancient Greek games, there was a race where the contestants carried a burning torch [00:37:04] The winner was not the contestant who crosses the finish line first. But the winner was the first one to cross the finish line with his torch still burning. May God bless.