Many times people come to me and ask “So, what’s your calling? What do you wanna do life?” And it turns into this big 5 minute explanation of my whole life and my aspirations and it is that I wanna do for God…
Your calling…how can you figure it out?
I don’t have all the answers and trust me I don’t know what you calling is so please don’t start asking me stuff like that I’m done, only you can find that out. But what I hope to do today is to help you begin to think about and hopefully ignite a spark on you.
I’m sure most people here have already gotten to the point where you began to wonder and ask yourself “What is my calling?… What am I meant to do?…What is my purpose?…Why am I here?”. We’ve all been there. And so we spend years and years trying to figure the answers. But most probably you realised that the answers to these questions are not so easily found. They don’t just come to you one day like magic and you know exactly what you’re supposed to do. And if you haven’t asked yourself those questions yet, trust me, you will at some point…
Matthew 4:18-20
Let’s walk step by step through these verses, because I believe that they are key verses in helping you to answer you calling.
Verse 18 “They were casting a net in the lake”
Jesus hasn’t called them to do anything yet, they haven’t received their calling yet, but they are already dong something. They haven’t received their calling, but yet, they are doing something. They weren’t just relaxing on the beach drinking coconut water and eating ice cream. They weren’t asking “where is this Son of God to tell me what to do with my life???”…
THIS IS A PROBLEM! Because a lot of us are just waiting around, doing nothing, waiting for a voice to come from heaven and say “Go to Africaaaaaaa…Save come childrennnnnn…Be a pastorrrrrrrr”. But sure, if that happens to you, by all means go and answer that call, get on a plane and go to wherever you’re supposed to go. But you see, for most people, it doesn’t happen that way.
We can’t just sit and wait around, we have to do something, now! A lot of people get bogged down and many actually use this “waiting for a voice of God” as a excuse to not do anything and be lazy. The idea in this verse is that you might not always know what to do, but you can always do something. You might not fully know what your calling is, but you can’t let that stop you from doing something now.
You see, I have been the type of person that always thought about what I was gonna do in life, so I was always starting new things…
I didn’t know what my calling was at this point, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t let that stop me from doing something. And I hope that when you leave here today you won’t let that “not knowing what to do” nonsense cripple you from doing something. And let me tell you something, once you start to do stuff you’re very likely to face failure…because there’s so much that you can do, but you don’t know what to do, and you might enter things that you’re not gonna like and something that is far from your calling, and you’re gonna fail at that because that’s just not what God wants for you! (Life Experience).
The way to finding your calling is failure. Because it’s in the middle of doing something that God is going to call you to do the thing and that’s what Jesus done in verse 19.
FAITH challenges/ PURPOSE defines
Your faith in Christ should lead you to your purpose in a effortless way. Your purpose won’t be easy to find, but whenever you listen to Christ and obey Him you are constantly challenged to go into a new level, and these challenges as a result, lead you into the path that God wants you to be. And through each level that you go through, you will be a step closer to your purpose. This purpose will not only benefit you…it will define who you are and it will show others who Jesus is, because ultimately, our whole lives are to glorify His name!
Let’s look at the life of Daniel. In this man’s life we can see how his challenges in life led him to his purpose while glorifying God at the same time, because by following his purpose he was glorifying God.
His faith and his love for God challenged him and he didn’t just sit around waiting for things to happen or for someone else to do it first. He did it first! He stood up for belief, for Christ and for his faith. You see, when God is with you, you will be constantly challenged to go into deeper waters. He will challenge you, there will be a lot of obstacles in your path, but He is leading you to the right path, the path He wants you to walk through, the path where your purpose is. God He never brings you to a wrong path, whatever happens to you is because He wanted you there, it will be to teach you something and to Glorify His name in the end.
Daniel went through many challenges, his faith and conviction was constantly challenging him to against the flow of this world, to be outsider, to be na outcast, to be someone who would do things different, to be a person that would not reject a challenge of faith and belief.
In the end of it all, the path he went through brought him amazing things, brought him a good life, brought trust from the king. It defined him. It showed people who he really is, what he believes in, a definition of a word is what the word means right? It’s the same with a person, a definition of a person is what the person is….but also he didn’t just follow his purpose and the path set for him. By following his purpose, he glorified God in every situation that he went through, in every challenge, the outcome was glory to God…
Daniel 1:5-20
Let’s look at the first chapter of Daniel and what happens in it…
His faith challenged him to not eat the king’s food.
He accepted the challenge and asked not to eat from it.
He passed the challenge successfully.
It defined him and his life a little bit more, his life was beginning to take shape and the king began to trust him and see that there was no one like him.
God was beginning to be glorified and seen in Daniel’s life, as with the trust of the king Daniel could now be closer to the king and show more of God.
Daniel 2
Now let’s look at Daniel 2…(explain dream, cut into pieces)
Daniel was challenged to interpret the dream, he believed God could tell I’m the dream.
He accepted the challenge and went before the king.
The challenge was successful and the dream was interpreted.
It defined Daniel even more, people and specially the king (Nabuchdonazer) began to see what kind of man Daniel really is and placed Daniel in a high position.
God was glorified even more as the king understood that Daniel’s God was the God of Gods.
This goes on and on in Danie’s life….
(Explain statue and how it defined him and how God got glorified)
You want to find your purpose and your place here on earth. But how can you do that if you don’t accept challenges and is constantly trying to avoid them? How can you find your purpose by sitting at home? It’s just not gonna happen, I’m sorry.
You need to do something! Accept challenges, because even if one challenge wont end you straight to your purpose, God will teach you something in the journey, because God doesn’t make mistakes!
If you get challenged, accept it! Let it define who you are, let it make you who you need to be! But above all let your purpose glorify God in every way!