THE CALL OF GOD

good evening everybody happy wednesday night anybody come to worship tonight let's worship together ((music playing)) ((music playing)) drink of the water coming there's no more ((music playing)) come all you sinners come find his mercy come to the table he will satisfy the taste of his goodness ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) bring all your failures bring your addictions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) forever is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) of his ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) bring all your failures bring your additions come lay them down at the foot of the cross jesus ((music playing)) amen hallelujah you may be seated tonight shout amen in the house so glad you're here so honored to host you on this wednesday night for our bible study and our time of the lord's table and we never want to take that for granted thanks be unto god which giveth us the victory through our lord jesus christ that we get to celebrate something as as holy as set apart and sanctified as weekly communion with the lord and we always say that it's called communion for two reasons because our close fellowship and communion with god allows us to have close unity fellowship and communion one with another and that's why we do it every week and let me remind you that is not if you will overkill i know a lot of churches that uh maybe do it once a year once every quarter there was a time that we did not do it nearly as much as we should but i remind you in the new testament every time they met every single day they would break bread together in a house because it just brought about that communion between one another and that's what it's all about and so again in a few moments when we pray and we celebrate the elements together we don't look at who does partake and who does not partake that's between you and the lord but i just want to say a couple of things before we uh get ready to do that our servants can go ahead and be ready to to serve the elements and of course you'll just get both of them and head back to your seat and we'll dismiss our kids a little while where it will be one less song and uh appreciate the band and brother jeffrey filling in for us tonight of course miss monica's not feeling real well and so she wants to be on par and ready for sunday and so i i admire uh being able to raise up the team and just kind of bow out a little bit and just take a couple of days and get some voice rest i never could have imagined and we'll talk more about this on sunday maybe i should have imagined it because when god gives you big goals and big dreams he always comes through in a big way i never could have imagined the response that we were going to get from sunday's end of the message when i talked about the global vision adoption foundation i never could have imagined how quickly things were going to begin and not only did money begin to flow in in just unbelievable ways and and people stepping up to the plate people really from all around america began to call and even within the context of our own church volunteers began to to crop up and people already standing in line were already getting you know applications if you will you know just we're figuring all of that out and so it was a lot real real fast and then of course a lot of people had a lot of ideas let's do this let's see and so it was it was quick overload i thought it would at least give us a couple of weeks to catch our breath but apparently it was such a such a mighty mighty need and such a mighty shock that a church was willing to step out and do that and so man to god be the glory it's just been absolutely amazing you know we yeah hallelujah we give a lot of money away and this is just going to be another step in that but i'm going to go ahead and just tell you right now predictively prophetically i don't care what you want to call it this is not going to end up being a million-dollar venture this is going to be a tens of millions of dollars that's going to go into the kingdom there's no doubt about it i mean it's going to come in and you know what's beautiful even overnight we didn't even raise money and money started coming in right we'll raise some money this sunday so we can kind of get the count bumped up kind of get it started and all of that and i like to ring to it global vision adoption foundation i think that's kind of cool right that's just what it makes it simple run it all through the church right get this we it's we had a family call i think from kansas don't quote me on that but i think it was and uh we want to embarrass who they are and don't want to you know say anything about this huge gift that they're giving don't want to embarrass them they can tell us who they are if they want to but even over and above what we raised without even raising money the first one that we do is already completely paid for by a family that watches us online that's crazy that's humbling crazy right there and so this is a this is a massive massive stroke of faith that we're going to jump out into but uh we're going to do it the answer is going to be yes we're going to help a lot of families adopt a lot of children for the glory of god and it's going to be beautiful and so if if money has been the issue for why you don't adopt just get started get the leg work going you do the work we'll write the check it's that simple you do the work we'll write the check and we'll pay for it and that goes for people online and so it's going to be an amazing thing i believe that account is going to grow exponentially and very very quickly and uh people around the world are already talking about it and and we just really made a uh a crybaby mention of it at the end of the message right i was just so overwhelmed with god's goodness i just had to walk off and give it give it to the wife if you weren't here if you hadn't watched it go back and watch that last seven or eight minutes of the service it'll be well worth your time worth the price of admission as it were because we know when the holy spirit downloads something into our spirit says do this we gotta do it we gotta obey and so we'll even be talking a little bit about that tonight in our message on the call of god and so thank you for being a church that allows us to make some big huge decisions just because the holy spirit says so right that you do realize the the judgmental ramifications that 95 of pastors in america would have the backlash from their leadership and their congregation if they made a statement like that without voting on it for 15 years you didn't realize that most of the churches you grew up in would absolutely freak out if the pastor got up and said that most the churches you grew up in were so stingy if the pastor got up and said we're gonna give a hundred dollars to a missionary they'd freak out and pass out on the floor right but when the pastor gets up and says hey we're gonna start an adoption foundation and pay for all of the adoptions for god's people nobody in our church is like everybody's like going crazy y'all just as nuts as i am so we're going for it we're going for it it's going to be beautiful and so again we'll we'll say more about it on sunday and we'll just start giving into that fund and just watch what the lord's going to do this is not going to be a trickle this is not going to be a little waterfall this is going to be niagara for the glory of god there's no doubt it is going to be amazing it's going to be amazing well we're going to divide it right down the middle like we always do everybody on this side of the pole and screen just slip on this side everybody on this side of the polling screen slip on this side get both elements the juice and the cracker and head back to your seat and we'll read the text here in just a few moments and we'll partake in communion together amen ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) have been so so good to me ((music playing)) before i took bread you breathe your life and me you've been so so kind to me ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) yourself ((music playing)) how is your fault still your love ((music playing)) for you you've been so so good ((music playing)) you paid it off ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) yourself ((music playing)) ((music playing)) there's no shadow you won't light a mountain ((music playing)) ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) all around is ((music playing)) and i couldn't ((music playing)) hurt you ((music playing)) thank god for his love and his grace amen church thank god for his love for i have received of the lord that which also i have delivered unto you that the lord jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he break it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me ((music playing)) after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the lord's death until he come and the church said amen and amen well let's remain standing let's worship do one more song and then we'll dismiss our students and we'll get to the preaching of god's word ((music playing)) i'm calling on the god whose love endures through generations i know the one who opened up i need you now to do the same thing ((music playing)) oh god my god i need you oh god my god ((music playing)) i'm standing on your faithfulness ((music playing)) whose ((music playing)) ((music playing)) i'm calling ((music playing)) i may not ((music playing)) oh god my god i need you oh god my god ((music playing)) ((music playing)) on ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) standing on your feet you heard your children when you hear your children you are the same ((music playing)) you are ((music playing)) ((music playing)) you ((music playing)) ((music playing)) ((music playing)) you oh ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) standing on your face ((music playing)) yesterday ((music playing)) ((music playing)) and i feel your touch right ((music playing)) it's a solid rock ((music playing)) when the storm clouds come when the rain comes i'm calling on the holy spirit almighty ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) and fail me ((music playing)) us ((music playing)) ((music playing)) may that always be our prayer and our desire amen fill us up lord fill us up all right all the students can be dismissed it's time to go down to the student center and have a time around the word of the lord and praise god for that always love to see the whole whole gaggle of them amen they're getting ready uh next month going to camp boy got a whole bus full of kids going to camp it's going to be good it's going to be beautiful always a life-changing event and we love to invest in our students and our teenagers around here and so i appreciate them appreciate brother jesse and his wife so much and all that they've done while they're finding their place there i want you to find your place in the first chapter of second timothy turn their place second timothy chapter one is where we're going to be tonight for just a little bit second timothy chapter number one and just have a few things on my heart that i want to share with you and when i start the verse that i'm going to read first in a moment it's really just going to be introduction it just so happens right it just so happens to be something that we talk about often around here but it's not what i'm preaching on it's not even the context of the finality of what i want to talk about but it does set the context and it sets kind of the preface and sets the stage for what we want to deal with tonight so i just have a lot on my heart that i want to share with you and i i just want to i want to slow down i want to dial things back i want it to be just a real deal ross almost said sunday evening sunday evenings wild bob west around here uh wednesday night just wanted to be a real uh just cool calm and collective right i want to give you some words and i just want to i want to give you kind of the overflow out of a couple phrases here in the bible that god really spoke to me about and i promise you if you'll get a hold of this principle it'll change you i don't care if you've been saved for 80 years or 80 minutes i promise you if you'll get a hold of this it will resurrect something on the inside of you it will unbelievably abundantly and lavishly bless your life if you will get a hold of what your pastor's about to teach you tonight okay and so if i promise to teach the bible do you promise to obey the bible shout amen father bless the word of god to our hearts over the course of these next few moments help me to be a faithful preacher happy to be a good kind and biblical shepherd and i pray lord both in-house and online that you would lord captivate our attention but most of all we want you to get glory because we know the holy spirit shows up when we glorify jesus and so we glorify you lord jesus and holy spirit i pray that you would open our eyes to the scripture tonight in jesus name and all of god's people said of course first and second timothy is a book that deals with the disciplines the desires to serve god but without discipline your desire goes nowhere it's just a hopeful wish and i know a lot of people that desire to be used of god but they don't have the discipline so what happens is they go through life being used by everybody but god and so in first and second timothy it deals a lot with the disciplines the desires the dangers of the ministry the dangers the disciplines the desires of serving jesus christ but i want you to look if you would please at verse seven and it's a beautiful context because it's right where we are in the life blood of our ministry here at global vision second timothy 1 verse 7 for god hath not given us the spirit of fear i want to remind you and again i'm not preaching a deliverance message but we are a deliverance church say amen so it's everywhere in the bible but he calls fear a spirit he calls fear a person without a body last night a lady came to the meeting where i was in north carolina at first baptist church in murphy and me and dr were preaching and i felt heavy in my spirit to preach a message on generosity which you don't do a lot of in a revival meeting but god set some people free because let me tell you something giving is what i do generous is who i am there's a big difference and so when we got done this lady had driven from florida and i mean she needed some deliverance and most of the time nine times out of ten you ask the people to go with me i don't do deliverance on the road because it's not that i don't believe in it when i'm on the road it's that i don't want to disrespect the house that i'm in and if they're not there yet especially in a baptist church i kind of have to slow my roll a little bit you understand i don't want to come in and make a mess for a man and a church congregation that's not there yet it doesn't make them bad people it took us 30 years to figure it out say amen right there and so i could tell that she was desperate some people just want to sit down and chit chat with greg locke but i can tell in your eyes when you're desperate when you need something from the lord and so these two older ladies they said look i want you to deal with this lady we went in the little choir room and we all set in there and i started talking about some stuff and it was crazy the two ladies that brought her started manifesting before the lady did it was unbelievable i started calling out a spirit of fear man they got the twitching got to hack it and the lord started blessing but one of the things she said was this they just keep talking to me in my head every day they tell me i'm a failure every day they tell me to fear things every day they tell me to kill myself she said i don't know what to do with it i said first of all you have to recognize what you're dealing with anything that talks to you is a demon or a person if it talks to you it's a person right it's either the holy ghost or an unholy spirit but if it talks it's a person it's a person so we dealt with that last night and i find it interesting that the first thing out of the gate he says about fear is that it is a spirit it is an unclean spirit so if he's not given us that spirit what has he replaced it with but of power and of love and of a sound mind i'm glad we have a congregation that's full of power love and a sound mind power love and a sound mind by the way it's god's power it's god's love and it's the word that gives us a sound mind and so he says look this is what i want for you but now notice because of that verse 8 be not thou therefore if i say therefore all right you always look and see what it's there for okay based on the fact that we have power we have love we have soundness of mind soundness of heart we're not going to fear we're not going to give in to anxiety because of that therefore don't be ashamed of the testimony of our lord romans 1 16 i am not ashamed of the gospel for it the gospel is the power of god under salvation to everyone that believeth to the jew first and also to the greek we cannot be ashamed jesus made it plain three times in the gospels if you are ashamed of me before men i will be ashamed of you before my father which is in heaven that's a big deal that's a big deal if you don't get accolades from me whoopee dee but if you don't get accolades from god you're a mess neighbor and so he says right here do not be ashamed of the testimony of our lord nor i like this of me his prisoner i find that interesting he said look i don't want you to be ashamed of the gospel and the testimony of jesus but i don't want you to be ashamed of me either and so i think that's very befitting of where we are in our church because i say look i do not want you to be ashamed of the testimony of jesus but don't be ashamed of what god's doing at global vision bible church and the fact that you're part of it don't be ashamed of it when you go to a restaurant don't cover up gvbc when somebody says well uh where do you go to church don't be like oh no no get some interpretation for that tongue amen you go to global vision bible church i know i know i know i can be a bit too much at times for being told that you go to pastor greg locke's church you'd be surprised how many people smile at that you'd be surprised how many people think that's pretty cool but i'll tell you what you need to be surprised at and maybe not so surprised even the people that hate us in this town know where we stand they know what we stand for and they know what we stand against and by the way even the waiters and waitresses that don't like us they fight over us when our people walk in the restaurant because they know we're going to tip them big and be a blessing to them but anyhow so don't be ashamed paul said of jesus but don't be ashamed of him so don't be ashamed of jesus and you ain't got to be ashamed of your church now if i do something stupid you can be ashamed of me and kick me out but if i'm preaching the bible don't be ashamed of the fact that i'm your pastor somebody say you mean right there i ain't ashamed of you so don't be ashamed of me right he says but be thou partaker of the afflictions be partaker of the afflictions see it's not all just well-intentioned roads paved with gold rosy wonderful marvelous everybody loves you every day's a friday and your facebook page is always going to grow grow grow you'll never have bills you'll never have any altercations you'll never have any problems you'll never have anxiety you'll never have sleepless nights he said no what i want you to do is sign up for the fact that the gospel causes afflictions not everybody's going to appreciate the stand that you take not everybody is going to appreciate when you say things like this jesus is the only way to heaven they're not going to appreciate that you're going to get afflicted and persecuted but jesus said they persecuted him first so therefore they're going to persecute you and later paul says timothy i want you to endure hardness and persecutions as a good soldier of jesus christ because yea all that live godly in christ jesus shall shall shall suffer persecution so let's just be bare bones honest if you never suffer persecution i wonder how much spirituality you actually have in your life because you've got to be making somebody mad if you're standing for jesus i mean if you're playing in public if you're reading the word of god if you're fasting if you're sharing your faith if you're telling people what god's doing for you if you're not ashamed of the gospel there's going to be some people that bring about persecution and affliction in your life it's just gonna happen okay it's the same reason we get demons stirred up you know why people could have demonic activity in their life for decades and never know it because they're not a threat to them but when you expose that nonsense for what it is and you become a threat to the enemy and you start going the opposite direction because the devil hates oncoming traffic when you go the opposite direction you better know that's when the affliction begins to come so he said i want you to be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel you see if you're gonna suffer make sure you're suffering for righteousness not because you're an idiot if you're gonna go to jail make sure it's because you're standing for the bible not because you're not paying your taxes am i making sense okay don't call it spiritual persecution just because you're a jerk and can't get along with people there's a big difference he said look i want you to partake in the afflictions of the gospel according to watch this the power of god you know we think the power of god just brings about revival know the power of god because of revival sustains you through moments of persecution and affliction every day of my life without question without fail people ask me how do you handle the hate the power of the gospel that's how i handle the hate it's the power of god i signed up for this afflictions are here and it ain't gonna get no better it's gonna get worse but as it gets worse the darker it gets the brighter the light of the gospel shines did you know that stars do not go away in the daytime they shine just as brightly in the daytime as they do the night time but it's got to get dark for you to see them shine and i'm here to tell you a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid let your light so therefore shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven and our light don't go out it's just got to get dark before you can see it and he said afflictions are coming but here's what i want to preach on all that was introduction now we start verse 9. who now wait a minute who's who he just mentioned the end of the verse god the power of who the power of god not the power of the preacher no no the power of god who referring back to god hath saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our own works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us watch this in christ jesus before the world began you hear that let that ring your bell and crank your motor before the world began this past week we preached a little bit through jeremiah chapter one before i formed them in the belly i knew thee and before thou came this out of the womb i sanctified thee and i ordained thee a prophet unto the nations then said i ah lord god behold i'm just a child i cannot speak and the lord said unto me say that i am a child for thou shalt go to all that i shall send thee and whatsoever i command thee thou shalt speak be not afraid of their faces for i am with thee to deliver thee saith the lord then the lord put forth his hand and touch my mouth and i want you to know in that moment when jeremiah was touched by god here's what the holy ghost of god said before you were born i set you apart for a purpose before you were thought of i set you apart and called you for a purpose the bible's replete with that in the book of ephesians he talks about being called according to the purpose of god in romans chapter one three times in the first seven verses he said you are called you are called you are called and then in romans chapter eight it says and we know that all things work together for good by the way he does not say all things are good he says all things work together for good and there's a big difference to them who are called according to his purpose for whom he called me also justified whom he justified me also glorified you can't get away from that phrase call call call call all throughout the bible but here's the one that you need to see here's the principle that you need to admire from the text look at it again verse 9 who god hath saved us and if i say ann that's a bridge building word that's a word of continuum and something else he does besides save us who has saved us and called us with a holy calling if i were to say tonight and i'm not going to do it but if i were to ask how many of you in this room by the uplifting of your hand would know without a shadow of a doubt that you are saved by the grace of god most everybody in the room hopefully would raise their hand but if i followed that question with how many of you in this room know without a shout out of a doubt that you are called by god less than half of you would re-slip it up again and the problem is we have forgotten that you are just as called by god as you are saved by god the same god that saved you by his grace is the same god that called you by his grace and he clearly says right here he has saved us and and furthermore and called us with a holy calling so here are the facts every person who's ever been saved has also been called by god to do something for the kingdom every last one of us every last one of us and if you would get a hold of that tonight it would resurrect something inside you and change your life for time and for eternity the same god that caused me to salvation is the same god that caused me to holiness it's the same god that calls me to sanctification separation from the world it's the same god that says be sober be vigilant your adversary the devil has a roaring lion walk of about seeking whom he made of our he said you better take your calling serious he said work out your own salvation with fear and trembling does that mean i work for my salvation no it means once i get saved i work out what god's already worked in that's what the bible teaches and we got far too many people that sit in i would say pews but we got chairs that sit around twiddle their thumbs they fiddle while rome is burning and they say i sure wish i could be used by god you could if you would understand that the same god that saves you is the same god they called you do you understand according to this verse you are just as cold as you are saved you don't get saved without being called you don't get saved without being called ((music playing)) i'm gonna rewind that later i think i did it exactly the same but nonetheless look you are just as called by god as you are saved by god that is a profound thought god's called you why according to your works according to your gift in this court in your education according to your ancestors your family heritage according to his own purpose and grace god's called you everybody under this tent and everybody watching online and we'll watch later has a calling from the kingdom if you don't walk in that calling do not blame me because i'm telling you you got one don't blame the government don't blame your spouse it ain't your dog's fault it ain't your parents father ain't your kid's fault if you do not walk in the pre-ordained anointed will of god for your life it is your fault nobody else's every bucket sits on its own bottom and jesus said not my will but thine be done which would preclude the fact that god's got a will for your life and you better find it psalm 143 and verse 10 david said teach me to do thy will o god you know why people can't be taught the will of god they're not teachable they know everything so i'm teaching you something right now and here's what i'm teaching you the god that saves you by grace is the god that called you by grace he wants to use every last one of you no matter how sketchy your past is no matter how much money you got in the bank or the lack thereof i don't care if you are widowed divorced single hopeful whatever god's got a calling on your life red yellow black white tall short fat skinny hairy-headed bald pentecostal baptist you are called by god you have a holy calling on your life don't miss it you've got a calling on your life don't miss it you've got a calling for the kingdom god will use the area of your giftedness which by the way is why some of you have chosen jobs that you have and don't even know why you chose them you chose them based on your giftedness you chose them based on the fact that god's given you a high-end gift and you chose a job not even recognizing that the job you have right now is the greatest opportunity you have to share the gospel of jesus christ do you know that no matter what you do you are called by god everyone in this room has a calling but i also know something about many people perhaps in this room and a whole boatload of people watching online they're running from their calling or they've been taught otherwise well you only have a calling from god if you've been to bible college that's a lie sometimes bible college will talk you out of your calling i had to unlearn a whole lot when i got out of college but that's a whole other message but people have been taught well you know i i got to have more life experience before god gives me a call no no you don't have to have more life experience because god gave you a call before you had life at all god called you to his work and his network of the kingdom long before you were ever even thought of he called you he wants to use you just as you are all your gifts and by the way all of your cowinky dinky weirdness and imperfections now do not be some kind of ridiculous individual and then all of a sudden think well you know god's gonna use my my abrasiveness or god's gonna use my jerk for jesus or god's gonna use my bad breath no you gotta have some hygiene but at the end of the day god will use your imperfections you know what the bible says god uses the wrath of man to praise him if god can use the wrath of man to praise him i think a few of your inconsistencies will be okay and not disqualify you from working for the kingdom you see i like how we're doing it a whole lot better than how they're not doing it somebody say amen right there god's called you you have a calling on your life you have an anointing on your life you have an equipping on your life god wants to use you and when you get to the judgment seat of christ you'll not be judged for your sin the bible says you will be a judge according to your works or the lack thereof some people will get some gold silver precious stone others will get wood hay and stubble now he said so as yet by fire they will be saved meaning by that that saved people going to heaven are going to send the judgments to christ and not get very many rewards if any and the ones they get are going to burn up because they were called but they ran from it now let me just move in for a second i'm not saying everybody's called to full-time ministry but everybody's called to ministry everybody's called to ministry everybody's called to serve in the local church everybody's called to serve in the kingdom everybody's called to roll up their sleeves get their hands dirty and do something for jesus christ everybody has a calling everybody every last one of us and the problem is we try to explain it away we try to excuse it away but the facts are you have ministry in you you have gifts some of you have multiple gifts the church cannot operate without gifts and the reason god gave us the gifts are for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edify of the body of christ how long is that going to last till we all come into the unity of the faith the only thing that brings about the finality of the unity of the faith is when you use your gift i use my gift we use our gifts and it just works you have a calling you have a calling you have a ministry you have a job in the kingdom that i cannot do for you did you hear me you have a job that i'm not going to give an account for when you don't do it you know what the bible says in first corinthians 9 27 paul said but i keep under my body and bring it my body my flesh into subjection lest by any means when i preach to others i myself should be a castaway he doesn't mean by that i'm going to lose my salvation and not make it to heaven he means by that the word castaway is the greek word documents it means to sit on a shelf and collect dust let me tell you something did you know that for me you believe what you want to but for me you know what would be worse than being lifeless living but being useless i'd rather die than forfeit the calling that god's placed on my life now let me explain something to you about a calling because i get this a lot people come up to me and they'll say well you know how do i know if i'm supposed to be a preacher i always say when you start asking questions like that because ain't nobody else but preachers asking them questions i remind you everybody's got this mystical spooky pie in the sky idea about the will of god when it comes to the ministry what the bible says in second timothy it says that he that desires the office of a bishop desires a good work it doesn't say some specially anointed individual that god has raised up for such a time as it no it says if a man desires to be a bishop he desires a good word you know what the will of god is it's an internal desire that god put there and when god puts it there his desires become your desires and you have no other desire and that's why psalm says that god will give you the desires of your heart because he put the desire there to begin with that's preaching right there that's biblical right there but i'm saying something about a calling there is a difference learn this it'll beautifully set you free tonight there's a difference in a calling and a burden see i'm burdened to do a lot of stuff burdens come and go callings never leave you burdens may be here today may be gone tomorrow may stick around six weeks six months six years but a calling will nag you at night and keep you up and not allow you to have peace a calling will chase you in the shower a calling will chase you driving down the road a calling will chase you when you're trying to sleep a burden will come and go i've been burdened to do a lot of things for a lot of people but my calling remains complete because here's what roman says don't you know that the calling of god is without repentance here's what that means you may change your mind but god never changes his whatever god has called you to do will be the very thing that you have to do in order to keep from feeling like you have no success in life whatsoever you know why most people are miserable because they're living by their calling not god's calling you start chasing money you're not gonna be happy because money's not your calling money's a result of your calling whereby you can be a good steward and god can enhance your calling and the gifts of people will open doors for them the bible says and bring you before kings but if you're just chasing fame and you're chasing blue check marks and you're just facing you know chasing fortune and friends and family listen at the end of the day the love of money is the root of all evil which while some have coveted after they have aired from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows and that's written to believers and in that context it's written to preachers who become false pastors because they end up getting the motivation wrong but i'll tell you something some of you have changed your mind about a calling but god never changed his you're just living in disobedience there's men in this tent right now god called you to preach 20 years ago and you know it and you flopping around like a fish out of water wondering why your marriage is a crap fest wonder why your kids don't respect you wonder why every time you read the bible all you can hear is you're supposed to do it you're supposed to do it you're supposed to do it you're supposed to do it you've started 15 businesses and all of them are a failure huh because you ain't supposed to be selling cars in plexus ((music playing)) you're supposed to be preaching the gospel you're supposed to be healing folks you're supposed to be praying for people you're supposed to be delivering people god told some of you ladies in this room a long time ago you're supposed to write something so you've done everything in the world to figure out how to do something else other than write the book or write the music or write the poetry or write to whatever that god put on your heart and i'll tell you something you can write yankee doodle dandy all you want to and never be happy till you publish that book the holy ghost told you to write 30 years ago we just chatting tonight amen you have a calling now let me tell you something by my calling my calling is one fold but the administration of my calling may entail a lot of things for example i am called to do one thing preach the gospel now i'm talking about me i know we all have a level of preaching the gospel it's my calling in life i live to preach i long to preach i love to preach woe be unto me if i preach not the gospel somebody says what would you be if you weren't a pastor absolutely ashamed that's what i would be and absolutely miserable that's what i would be and so my calling is simple to bring clarity to the message of the gospel under that calling i have a writing ministry i have facebook videos and social media ministry we have a on point news program i'm a deliverance ministry minister we're trying to see as many people healed by the grace of god as we can have a healing ministry we have we have a tent ministry we got these new shirts we're about to put out it says i am a pentecostal how's that a pentecostal but nonetheless y'all like that but at the end of all of those administrations of my calling i'm only called to do one thing preach i'm a preacher i'm a bible teacher my job is to preach and teach the bible and bring clarity to the truth i just have other things that i do but the main thing that i live for is preaching because that's my calling so some of you have various ways that you operate in your gifts but you only have one main gift and one main calling from god and when you don't operate in it you are miserable as the day is long you absolutely are miserable you can't function it hurts your communication with your spouse because it's like the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about but when i read this verse it's so unbelievably plain and yet we are so stubborn who have saved us and same god that saved us called us with a holy calling you're going to have to take serious your calling from god some of you are called to do some unbelievable things for the lord but for some reason you just threw in the jake breaks you just refuse to do it you've dug your heels in well i just can't no no you just won't well you know i just don't have enough money no that's stupid you ain't got enough faith there's not a person under this tent i don't care how broke you are there's not a person under this tent that has money problems you have faith problems you don't have a money issue you don't have a lack of resources you have a lack of faith that's what you've got hear these preachers all the time well if we had a big tent if we had big offerings if we had big screens we'd have a crowd too we didn't start with this we started with a handful of people you know be bopping around like bbs in a box car in a great big 650 seat auditorium in a high school across town that ain't nothing but gang infested we weren't even in mount juliet where's that mcgavin that's rough side of town we didn't start with screams who wants to start with a tent by the way every preacher i know wants to graduate from college on friday and pastor 5 000 people on sunday you got to scrub some toilets for a while you got mow some grass for a while you gotta pick up some garbage for a while because every great leader in the bible was a servant before they were a great leader every single time god advanced somebody to the stage it's because they worked well behind the curtain david didn't start by killing goliath david started by keeping his sheep for his daddy and didn't get mad when his brothers got elevated and he didn't and our problem is we're so busy being mad about somebody else's calling we can't rejoice in the one that we've got you have a calling and if you disobey that calling i pray that the god of heaven keeps you up all night and you're exhausted when you go to work tomorrow i hope you can't eat i hope if you run from your calling and you know who i'm talking to every last one of you i hope when you go home tonight or you go to a restaurant you try to eat something like oh my goodness just like he said it just tastes so sour i hope it's that way for a month yes i do see i love you enough not to let you live in your disobedience and like it i'm telling you it's time that you understand you had a call and you got a call and you got a call and you got a call and you got a call and you got a call and right you get a car you get a car you get a call we've all got a calling from god and you better walk in that call and you better walk in that anointing because you are just as called as you are saved and if you are saved and not walking in your calling you are not worthy of the salvation that god gave you you are spitting in the face of grace spitting in the face of grace well thank you for not letting me go to hell now get away and let me live my life anyway i want to i got my fire extinguisher insurance i'm gonna slip out the fire hatch thank you for saving me jesus but i got a business to build thank you for saving me jesus but i gotta you know i got a big house to live in i got goals jesus i don't need you encroaching on me so thank you for the grace but don't fool with my stuff don't start asking for my car lord don't start asking for my bubba truck jesus huh don't start asking for my house don't start asking for my kids don't start asking for my gifts for my voice for my mind for my hands for my feet for my talent don't start asking for my stuff thank you for saving me and all that was real cool i appreciate it that's great but i'm out you see when you put it down like that it just sounds so abrasive doesn't it we've been so rocked and lulled to sleep well walk now sign a card pray a prayer get in the baptismal dunking booth and then basically just live your life there's a gospel song i hope i don't burst your bubble but it's the dumbest song on the radio i can't even actually remember like the whole chorus but it talks about the fact that you know you've got a house and friends down the road he died for all of this jesus didn't die so you'd have a big house that's the dumbest theology i've ever heard in my life jesus didn't die so we could have a big tent church jesus didn't die so you could wear name brand shoes and britches jesus didn't die so you could you know sell more amway than everybody else that is so first world nonsensical americanized bull crap jesus died to save us and he didn't save us so he could serve us he saved us so we could serve him you've got a calling on your life tonight use that calling forget all these people saying you know you've just disqualified you god can't use you that is a spirit come out in jesus name god can use you because god don't change his mind but for the foundations of the world god put a gift in you some of you have a beautiful gift of communication you ought to use it for your calling some of you god bless financially use it for your calling i think of people in this room right now that have a successful business of some sort you know why it's successful because it's an outgrowth of their calling they're walking in their gifts and they're giving back to the kingdom they're giving back to the work of god and god is honoring that because luke 6 38 says giving it shall be given that's not just money you give time you get time back right you give out energy you get energy back you give out love you get love back he that have friends must show himself friendly i get sick of people say well you know what every time i come to church nobody smiles at me maybe i'll smile when you show up i get husbands that say well you know my wife just don't understand me how much you understanding her i can't get people to hug me walk up in here start hugging folks if you give grace you get grace if you give love you get love if you give forgiveness you get forgiven if you give money you get money it's just the way it works and god's given you a gift god's given the body multiple gifts that for a long long time for some reason i was afraid to ever unpackage i would hear people say things like i'm just i'm just talking right now the overflow i would hear people say things like this well you know our ministry is a five-fold ministry and i'd be like what fifo ministry that sounds weird and i started reading the bible and he gave some apostles prophets evangelists pastors teachers why to give them for the perfecting of the saints and then all of a sudden we started seeing deliverance healings the gospel being preached generosity miracles signs and wonders and now people will ask us what kind of church we are like we a five-fold church we got them all up in our place you mean you got yep we got them all we ain't threefold we ain't four we full-blown five-fold got em all i don't care how un baptist that is i don't care how uncharismatic that is it looks super new testament to me looks super new testament to me and without you using your calling i cannot effectively walk in mine because my gift is a benefit to your gift and your gift is a benefit to their gift and their gift and their gift and the reason most pastors are hand-tied behind their back and can't do anything is because they're the only ones in the church trying to use the gift and everybody else is sitting around enjoying his gift not using their own we have people in this church listen to me i love to preach and i'm half decent at it i'm my own favorite preacher but i'll tell you something there are people in this church that can teach the word of god just as forcefully and effectively as i do but you've chosen to work in a restaurant now if you chose to work at a restaurant because you need to pay the bills to fulfill the calling that's different but if you're working at a restaurant so you can hide from the call and well we need to chat down in the office because you need to get busy for the kingdom am i making sense everybody's got a ministry in this room come to me all the time well how come we ain't got this how come we ain't got that and i said cause you ain't started it yet that's why it's amazing to me how many people want something and the reason they want it is because they're the one that's gifted to do it but they're the one not doing it do you want to tell you how you can know what your calling is i'm gonna help you right now praise god i could go for two more hours but i don't worked up an appetite praise jesus there's several ways you can know you're calling okay number one god will just download it on you and you can't get away from it he's like winner chicken dinner can't you see this knucklehead okay you'll look in the mirror you'll be like i know i know you know what it is okay but if you don't here's some real practical theological ways you can figure out what your calling is number one other people will recognize it and begin to confirm it people say things like this my goodness you make the bible sound so simplistic and man you just you just have a gift of teaching you know why because teaching is a gift somebody look at you and say wow you're just one of the most generous people i know thank you for being so kind and so benevolent you know why you have the gift of giving somebody will look at you and say my goodness i can't even balance a checkbook and man you are such an administrator you know why because there's a gift of administration sometimes people look at you and they'll say my how did you discern that in that person well supernatural sermon is a gift from god right people will recognize the gifts that you have and they'll start confirming those gifts that you have but hold on here's the number one way y'all ready for this let's talk about it next week y'all ain't ready for this okay here's the number one way hands down you will know exactly what you're called to do listen very closely this is not spooktacular it is supernatural figure out what frustrates you the most in life and guess what you're gifted to fix it think about that you know what frustrates me more than anything else stinginess stingy people get on my stinking nerves therefore i know that my high energy gift is giving because the thing that frustrates me is the thing i'm gifted to fix see what i'm saying if this organization just oh gets on your nerd you can walk into a room and think i'd fix that i'd change that i'd paint that oh if that's you guess what your frustration has led me to believe and should lead you to believe you have the gift of administration because what bothers you the most is what you're called by god to fix am i making sense am i helping somebody it's just that simple find a need and feel it if ignorance and gullibility frustrate you you have the spirit of discernment because people being gullible and hooked and crooked bother you if for example if injustice bothers you if and let's just be bare bones honest about not just in people let's say you can you can watch one of those shows where they're uh they're trying to raise money for the for the dogs in the cages you know the people have beaten and things like that and you watch that and you're like you know why that frustrates you you have the gift of mercy you just pick up strays you just love people right where they're at you could care less how dirty they are how broke they are how hurt they are what they've been shooting up who they've been sleeping with you have the gift of mercy and what frustrates you is injustice towards people like that ((music playing)) by the way i believe in giving credit where credit's due did you know we have one of the most growing exciting explosive and i'm even loose to use the phrase homeless they're not homeless they're unhoused because they got a home at global vision bible church you know we have one of the greatest unhoused ministries on the planet right austin kayla michael amanda y'all stand up stand up stand up sit up ronnie's in the hospital we love you ronnie look man these people are doing it man they're filling up vans filling up buses combing people's hair cutting people and feeding people every day the church bought them a 15 passenger van i'm gonna have to buy my 55 passenger bus they bringing so many people to church on the weekend but you know what they have a frustration with injustice that shows them that they have a high end gift of mercy and when they operate in mercy guess what everybody's helped you can know what you're called to do by the things that frustrate you in life so i want you tonight i want you to sit down you probably won't have to think very long you're thinking yeah let me do it what frustrates me well i can tell you the opposite of what that is is what you're called to do whatever will fix your frustration is what you're gifted to do it's really just that simple and we have over complicated the matter but here's how simple it is you are just as called as you are saved there are no saved people who are not called people does that make sense not everybody's called the pastor not everybody's called to preach nobody's called to be a missionary and go overseas not everybody's called to do that i'm going to give you this and we just need to break this up into a whole series on wednesday nights but let me say this it's beautiful years ago i preached a message before you'll remember this i preached the message on hold the ropes or get in the basket there's one small little story that's only referenced one other time very quickly from the book of galatians but it's in the book of acts and it's only a verse and a half when paul got saved the jews wanted to kill him and they continued to want to kill him because you can know a man's character not by who supports him but who hates him so one night the bible says in order to escape and go to the next town to preach the bible the word of god says that they made a basket disciples and those around they got a big basket and they put paul in a basket and they tied ropes to the basket and the bible says that they lowered paul over the wall in a basket and that day we had a big old basket i need to go get another one i got a hobby lobby there's a big old bat looked like our cobra was gonna come up out of that thing right and i was i was in that basket and had big long ropes because the idea is this not everybody is called to ride in the basket but all of you are called to hold the ropes for the people that get in the basket ((applause)) not everybody's called to pastor a church but you got to hold the ropes for the guy that's passing the church not everybody's called to go overseas but you've got to financially hold the ropes for the people that are going overseas am i making sense church not everybody's in the basket there's a lot of people that need to get in the basket but everybody's got to hold a rope you've got a job to do for the kingdom's sake and if you don't find that job and fulfill that job that ain't on me it's on you i'll give an account for what i say and what i don't say but i said it so you'll have to give an account for not doing it as to whether you did or not but you are just as called by god tonight as you are saved tonight so again we end the same way we started if at the beginning i would have said how many of you are saved by the grace of god every hand would go up how many of you are called by the grace of god people would deny that reality and say man you know they are he is she is but not me no no every hand should still be up because if you're saved you're called and here's what god said it's a holy calling god takes what he calls you to do serious so you ought to you're called to change the world you are called to change the world but you will never do it sitting on your couch boning the fact that somebody has a gift that you ain't got what a boring world it would be if everybody had my gift do you know what everybody having my gift would do it would make you having a gift non-essential whatsoever because if everybody's got the same gift ain't nobody got the right gift because every gift that you have and every gift that i have and every gift that we all have and everybody online is for one purpose really two purposes the glory of god and the good of those around us and he said god saved you and called you so don't walk in or say well you know not me oh no no you god called you okay how old you are i don't care how inexperienced you are god called you everybody online god called you you were called for the sake of the kingdom to change the world and you don't do that with talent you do that with holy ghost giftedness the world has talent oh there's a lot of people that hate god but you give them a basketball they can slam it wham it cram it jam it they can sing stand up comedians can make people laugh can fill stadiums there's a lot of people that hate god smoke crack but they got talent but what the church needs is no more talent what the church needs is some touch touch of the holy spirit touch of the holy ghost that's what the church needs it's what you need what i need what this church needs whatever church needs what people online need what your family needs your children needs everything about you needs to be touched by the power of the holy spirit away with talent you ain't going to change the world with talent talent will take you so far but the gifts and calling of the holy ghost they'll take you and a whole lot of other people to heaven because the only thing you take into heaven with you are the people you influence by using the gift that god called you to use if i'm making sense say amen tonight we are saved and the same god that saved us is the same god that called us never doubted again everyone in this room is a missionary of some sort we are all called to make a difference for the gospel father thank you for the word of god tonight thank you for its clarity for its simple plainness of speech and lord i pray that both in this room and online people have been captivated by the truth of just a sentence in the bible we are anointed we are called we're appointed we're equipped by god all of us and shame on those of us that are running from that calling it's time to repent it's time to regroup and it's time to say god i'm gonna have enough faith to step out and do what you told me to do maybe he's just telling you or maybe he's been telling you but i pray tonight father give us faith and grace and mercy to walk out of this room and say thanks be unto god which giveth us the victory through our lord jesus christ i have been saved and i have been called and lord may we never forget we are saved to serve that's it we are not saved to sit we are saved to serve help that sink in in the mighty name of jesus and all of god's people said let's all stand i love you guys thank you for being here i just thank you that'd make a great shirt we're not saved to see it or save the serve amen so let's go out let's serve the lord and let's walk in our calling i'll see you this weekend you're dismissed i love you guys justice says hey we got some baptisms i forgot all about it come on guys you