Have You Answered The Call Of God?

- A Sermon - Greater Faith Fellowship 7/9/08 8:07 AM

Greater Faith Fellowship, 909 E. Church Ave., Longwood, FL 32750 (407) 767-6442

Have You Answered The Call Of God?

God is calling all the time. Tenderly He is calling today. God is calling, God is
speaking, God is pleading with you today. Have you answered the call? Do you
remember the words of the old hymn, "Speak my Lord, speak my Lord, speak and
I'll be quick to answer thee. Speak my Lord, speak my Lord, speak and I will
answer, Lord, send me." It still prods us today and says, "God is calling, God is
speaking, have you answered? Have you answered unequivocally, and unashamed,
without conditions, and answered yes? I will go anywhere and do anything You
want me to do, I'll be anything You want me to be." God has spoken. He has
expressed His wishes and His desires. He has made very clear what He wants. The
remaining question, of course, is have you answered the call?

The Bible says that the world is full of nothing but sinners. They all need to be
saved and redeemed and born anew. They all need to start over and make sure the
clay is in the Potter's hands so God can do with them as He sees fit and what He
wants. God has started calling people and people have begun to respond and I want
to say to you today the church is nothing but a group of sinners saved by grace.
Grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin. I was with them, now I
am with Him. I have answered His call. Called out of the world to leave my former
lifestyle.

I believe in a know-so salvation. When you are born again and you say to someone,
"I'm a believer, I'm a Christian", I believe you ought to be able to back it up with
your lifestyle and conversation. There ought to be a difference and change in
people's lives if they are going to make that confession of faith. There ought to be a
seeable difference. You don't know how many times I've simply been at the mall or
in a restaurant or store and people will come up and say to me, "You're a preacher,
aren't you?" Do I dress differently than an insurance salesman? No, but people just
pick up on it.

Some have responded to God's call years and years ago. Others have responded
only a few years ago and some have responded to the call of God only recently.
That means we are all on different levels in the process of becoming what God
intends us to become; all of us at a different stage of maturity, in a different stage
of being conformed to the image of His Son. Some know and know that they know.
Some are still wondering and questioning and still scratching and digging and
trying to come up with something that is absolute, definite and for sure. Levels in
the process of becoming all that God intends that someday we will be.

There are not many ways to God. Some of you may find that surprising because
you've probably heard it for a long time. There are not many ways to God, as some
would have you believe. There is but one way. I know that sounds narrow and that
sounds even intolerant, but we need to make sure we clear the record. I didn't say

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Have You Answered The Call Of God? - A Sermon - Greater Faith Fellowship 7/9/08 8:07 AM

it, I only repeated it. Jesus said it. I repeated what Jesus said. Jesus said, "I am
the way. No man comes to the Father but by me." Those who want to argue about
the straight and narrow way and want to claim that we are intolerant and that we
are bigoted and narrow-minded have an argument with Him; they do not have an
argument with me. If that doesn't set well with you, take it up with Him, don't take
it up with me. I'm only repeating what the Word says.

The church, that is, this group of people who have heard the Word of God and have
responded to that call, that group throughout its history has always been a counter-
culture to a lost and dying world. It's been a different people. It's been a group
that has lived their life in a different style and different way.

What happens when this counter-culture thinks that they will do a better job if
they get closer to the world instead of staying further away from the world? The
counter-culture becomes a compromised group that is no longer white, but murky
gray, and that is not necessarily standing on solid ground, but picking and choosing
their own way. They become impotent and powerless to do the will and purposes of
God when they take on the ways of the world. When the church conforms to the
world it becomes a place where people are drawn to it for the wrong reason – for
personal gain and not for the glory of God. The word ecclesia means "called out
ones." Come out from among them and be ye separate. It did not say separate
yourself from it, it said be ye separate, or a different kind. So now the church
becomes a messy mix of believers and non-believers and so it becomes impotent,
powerless and a stench in the nostrils of God.

There are times in the church's history when the church has been more a
synagogue of Satan than it has been the Bride of Christ. A bride without spot, a
bride without blemish. Hardly a week passes by when spiritual conflict does not
result in splitting churches and sometimes congregations and even denominations.
When the church is under persecution because of its stand and because of its
lifestyle, because of its uniqueness as salt in the earth and light in the world – when
it is under persecution, and there is unrest and polarization, I tell you, only those
who are serious about their faith will remain at a time like that. The church is at
its best when the world is at its worst. When you think they have done their dirtiest
and slimiest, hang on, they will show you that you're wrong and that they can come
up with something worse.

We must understand that the Bible has made it abundantly clear when it says that
Christians cannot become what God wants them to be apart from active and
regular participation in the local church. For the serious believer, in order to be
vital they must be connected to a vital, local church or fellowship, one that is alive,
and one that is on the right track. They must be connected to a vital, local body of
believers in a giving and receiving relationship, because that is how we grow. It has
been a challenge and it has been rewarding and very satisfying to me to watch some
of you growing up, with hiccups, spits and spurts, standstills, setbacks, difficulties,
but trudging along, day in and day out, committed to the call of God in spite of all
kinds of reversals. That is rewarding.

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Have You Answered The Call Of God? - A Sermon - Greater Faith Fellowship 7/9/08 8:07 AM

We must understand that the church in the world, in this untoward generation, this
wicked place, is not a museum where God puts wonderful examples of His
redeeming grace on the shelf for everyone to stare at and applaud. If you think that
the church is a museum and a place where we display something that is
remarkable, then you have a wrong slant on the idea that God has in mind. It is not
a museum where God displays perfect specimens; it is more like a field hospital in a
combat zone.

II Timothy 1:9 says, "He has 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 to us in Christ Jesus before time began." Called of God, saved,
experiencing His goodness and grace, not so we can carry out what we want to
carry out, but so we can be in a place to fullfill the purposes of God that have been
established since before time began.

There are so many differing views even about the plan of salvation or living for
Jesus or walking with God, but we must not be confused, nor should we be
deceived about this. Let me set the record straight. There are not many, many
ways to God. There are not many, many plans of salvation. There are not a lot of
different walks with God that please Him. When it says in our text verse that He
has saved us, that means that God makes His name ours, by making us, His. They
called themselves Christians first in Antioch, which means, followers of that rebel.
Followers of that troublemaker called Jesus of Nazareth. We still call ourselves
Christians today, but we must understand, we are still following that Rebel. We
are still involved with that Troublemaker. He came into the religious world and the
religious world refused to accept Him and to go along with Him, so if you think you
can be saved or a child of God today and go along with the religious world and the
religious world is going to embrace you, you are in a fairy tale. Jesus said they
hated me first and they will hate you also. Why? I thought we were supposed to
love everyone and that everyone would love us.

Do you understand that your lifestyle rubs so many people the wrong way they
can't stand to have you around? Why? Because they are not willing to make the
commitment you've made. They are not willing to answer the call you have
answered and your life is a rebuke to them. Some of them are backslidden believers
and you've just rubbed them the wrong way. They don't like you being around
because you're living what they are not willing to live. You're doing what they
figure they cannot or do not want to do and therefore your life, as a powerful
witness for Jesus Christ, just riles them. They get upset whenever you're around
and they would rather leave the room than listen to your cheerful voice and see
your sparkling eyes. Anything to get away from the person who is doing it when
they are not willing themselves to do it.

God has given us the privilege of calling ourselves by His name, because He has
made us His. In II Timothy chapter one, Paul said He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling not according to our own works, not to do as we please, but as
He pleases, not to do as I want, but as He requires, not to live as I please but to live
as He has chosen and asked me to live. He saved us and made it possible for us to
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Have You Answered The Call Of God? - A Sermon - Greater Faith Fellowship 7/9/08 8:07 AM

call ourselves Christians because He has called us and we have responded. From
the Living Bible it reads, "He who has saved us and chose us for His holy work,
not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan long before the worlds
began. To show His love and kindness to us through Jesus Christ." If for some
crazy quirk and idea you think you're sitting here was a part of your maneuvering
and your smarts, you've got another thought coming. You're living the way you are
living today and sitting here today under divine appointment and part of the
master plan and scheme of things.

In the book of Isaiah chapter 43 I read these words, "Through the prophet the
Lord commanded, Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the
earth. Everyone who is called by my name whom I have created for my glory, for I
have formed him, yes, I have made him." This is a picture through the prophet
Isaiah of what is going to happen someday in Israel. From the four corners of the
earth Jews are going to head back home again. For unknown reasons they are
uprooted from their countries here and there and have gone back home to their
motherland. "Call them from the north, from the south, the east and west, bring
them back, everyone of them that I have chosen and called and made them", God
says.

Some day a trumpet is going to sound and from the four corners of the earth, from
every tribe and every tongue, every color and every culture, everywhere, they are
going to be gathered home. God is calling those who are His. "I have created you
and have created you for me, for my honor and my glory." I made you and the call
is going out and if you respond to that call, when the final call comes, I don't care if
you have been dead 50 years, it doesn't matter, up from the grave He arose, up
from the grave you are going to rise and will meet the Lord in the air. That is
God's promise.

I have a certain belief. I speak now, not the Lord. I think only the believers are
going to hear the trumpet. No one else is going to hear it. Why? Because their ears
are not tuned to hear it. They are not on the right frequency; but the believer will
hear the trumpet sound and will suddenly be gone. They are going to answer
another call of God and they are going to stand in His presence and be like Him,
"for we shall see Him as He is." Out of the four corners of the earth they come in
answer to the call. Isaiah 43:1 says the Lord who calls you by His own name also
calls you by yours. "But now thus sayeth the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and
who formed you, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you, I have called you by
your name; you are mine." You see, my name and your name are not foreign to
God. He knows exactly who you are and where you are and what you are and all
about your life and what is going on and He calls you. "Hello, Lois, this is God
calling, I'm glad you answered. Hello, Will, this is God calling." He calls you by
name. Like an ever ringing telephone, God is calling. The question is, have you
answered that call? And if not, that means He is still calling.

The church is a community of people who are saved by grace through faith,
trusting Christ and His accomplished work. In love with Jesus, gathered around
Jesus, committed to Jesus, worshipping Jesus and serving Jesus in His Kingdom
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Have You Answered The Call Of God? - A Sermon - Greater Faith Fellowship 7/9/08 8:07 AM

here in the earth. There are not a lot of saviors out there. Do not be duped. There is
only One. There are not a lot of ways to God. Do not be deceived. There is only
One. There are not a lot of different Christian lifestyles; there is only one that
pleases Him and that's a lifestyle of commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior of your life.

You cannot be a crisis Christian, serving God only in a crisis, and expect that He is
going to make that powerful change in your life that will cause you to be different
and part of this counter-culture. The Bible says people will constantly look to you
because they see you're different and they want to know what is that difference,
and whatever it is you have, I want it, and how do I get it? They have noticed a
difference, a change, an attitude, an air about you and they say whatever it is she
has, I want. Whatever he has, I need, and whatever that is I've seen at work in
them, I know it will work in me, and that's what I want.

In Romans 12 it says, "I beg of you brethren by the mercies of God, present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,
and be no longer conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God." Daily living in a different way that proves that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God. Living in such a way that God knows my name and knows
where I am.

God is calling. Have you answered? His call is not to do as you please; His call is to
become what He wants. His call is also to be committed to Him and to His cause
through the local church, where everything He does in your life is beneficial and
you grow together in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
When the man says to me, "I can be just as spiritual dangling my line in the water
by the banks of the river", I say that is not true according to God's Word. God's
Word says, you come together with other believers and you grow along with each
other. You rub elbows with other believers, you pray with other believers, you
believe with other believers just like they do with you, and you grow up that way.

Have you answered the call of God? Not just to be saved, but to be committed to
Him and to His cause, to the local church, where you are involved in the Kingdom
and Kingdom work? If not, why not?

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