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God Has Called You to Something, What is it? · Sacred Men

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What's up, man? Welcome back to the Sacred Men
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YouTube channel. I'm your host, Pastor Justin
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Dean, and today's video is about helping you find your vocation,
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your calling in life. Now, I did a video on vocation a
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couple weeks ago. I've heard from some of you that
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it was helpful. And so I wanted to clarify some
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things and I want to get a little more practical today on
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about just how can every single person find their calling in
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life, find their vocation. But before I jump into things
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first, what I want you to do is if you haven't subscribed,
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please subscribe. It helps people find us, helps
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you find our videos. You can hit the notification
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bell. Give us a like man, it goes a
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long way. Really appreciate it when you do
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lets me know you're watching it lets me know you like the
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content and you want me to keep putting it out.
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So I appreciate all that. Now we're talking about calling.
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If you're tempted to click away off this video because you think
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I'm about I'm talking about a calling into ministry or
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something, don't. The word vocation is taken from
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the Latin word vocair, which means to call.
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Now again, I covered this a couple videos ago, but the point
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is, every vocation is a calling from God.
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When I say I want to help you find your vocation, I'm saying I
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want to help you discern God's calling in your life.
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What does he want you to do right now?
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Is God calling you into the ministry?
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OK, great. Is he calling you into a trade?
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Is he calling you into college? Is he calling you to launch a
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new business venture? I want to help you discern how
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to find your vocation so that every day when you wake up and
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go to work, whether that's behind a desk, behind a steering
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wheel, behind a counter, or behind a pulpit, you know it's
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what God's called you to do. And it matters to God that it is
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all sacred work. Now, you might be tempted to
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kind of write me off here. There's no such thing as
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callings. There's only choice.
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I choose what I want to do, and then I do it.
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Oh, really? Did you choose your family you
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grew up in? Did you choose the language you
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speak? Did you choose what city or
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state you were raised in? Did you choose your IQ or your
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athletic ability or your aptitude in math?
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No, you didn't. God determined all of those
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things for you. We call that God's Providence.
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He called you to be born where you were, right?
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Born in what year you were born in, and to be born with the
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gifts and talents that you have. If vocation and finding our
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vocation was all about choice, most of us would probably be
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professional athletes right? Now think about when you were a
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kid, what did you want to be? Professional football player,
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baseball player, golfer, famous rock star?
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Whatever it is, or maybe the one I hear a lot often these days, I
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just want to be rich when I grow up.
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Being rich, by the way, isn't a vocation.
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That's a wish. It's not a calling.
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And the reality is you aren't a professional athlete because you
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didn't have the gifts and talents to be 1.
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No matter how hard I worked, no matter how hard I tried, no
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matter how many times I I wanted, I could choose it.
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I could not be a professional football player, right?
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You don't just get to choose to be 1.
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You have to be called to it by God.
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You have to have the gifts, the talents, the the right
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circumstances, the right work ethic, all the stuff in order to
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do that well. The doctrine of vocation tells
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us that God has a very specific calling for every single person
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and that calling is custom designed for you.
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It's meant to fit your frame to work with your personality, your
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talents, and your relationships, the community that you find
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yourself in. The question is, do you know
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what yours is? Do you know how to figure out
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what it is? Well, if not, that's what I want
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to help you with today. My first point is this.
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God is the one who calls men into vocations.
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When you read the Bible, he called Abraham out of ur of the
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Chaldeans. He called Moses out of burning
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Bush. He called Gideon when he was
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threshing wheat. He called Nehemiah when he was
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serving wine to a Pagan king. Jesus called all of his
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disciples, right? And his calling is a twofold
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calling, Twofold calling. There is a primary calling and
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then there is a secondary calling.
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We're going to look at both of those.
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The primary calling is this. Your primary calling is not your
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job. It's not your career.
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It's not your role as a husband or a father.
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It's not your ministry position or your place in the community.
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Your primary calling, your first foundational life giving
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calling, is to know God and to be known by him in Jesus Christ.
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That's your first calling. Do you know Christ?
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Does Christ know you? Oz Guinness in his landmark book
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The Call, puts it this way. Our primary calling as followers
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of Christ is by Him. He calls to him and for him.
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First and foremost, we are called to someone that's God,
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not to something such as fatherhood or politics or
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teaching or or to somewhere. I'm called to this city or
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something. Our first and primary calling is
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to know God himself. It's come to me through Jesus
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Christ. Jesus said it like this when he
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was asked what's the greatest commandment?
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He didn't say find the right career that fits your needs and
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works with your mental health. He said you shall love the Lord
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your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
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your mind. This is the greatest and 1st
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commandment. Your first calling is to know
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God and to love Him. Everything else in your life, if
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that's right, everything else is going to flow from this reality
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and it's going to be measured against this reality.
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Now, you might ask, I'm just here to find out what job I
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should take or what career I should take or whatever.
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Why does this matter to me practically that God calls me to
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himself first? Well, it matters to us
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practically because many men are tempted to find their identity,
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their fundamental sense of worth and purpose in their secondary
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calling, in their work, in their roles, in their achievements.
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And then what happens when that work disappoints or that role
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gets taken away from us or our achievements crumble?
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Well, those men often crumble too.
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The man who has rooted himself in his primary calling, knowing
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God, God knowing me, loving God, who knows that he is a son of
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the living God, who's been justified by grace, who's been
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adopted into the family of God. He's held in the hand of Christ.
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That man can lose a job, can lose a title, can lose a
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company, and still know who he is.
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He stands when all hell comes against him.
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He can stand, right? He's not shaken because his
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foundation is built upon Jesus Christ.
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OK, so that's our primary calling.
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We have to get this first. Now let's get to our secondary
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calling. This is where the practical work
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of finding our vocation comes in.
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Your secondary calling is the specific place, role, and work
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to which God assigns you in this world.
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Hear that specific place, what city, what neighborhood, role
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and work to which God assigns you, God calls you to in this
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world. It's your work as a Craftsman or
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a business owner or an engineer. It's your role as a husband, a
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father, a neighbor, a citizen. It's your service in your local
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church. Here's how the apostle Paul
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frames it, and I want to note it.
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I want you to notice here how he connects your calling directly
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to grace. Grace is an undeserved gift that
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comes down from God. OK?
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He says this in Romans 12, verses 3 through 6.
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For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not
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to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to
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think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of
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faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many
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members, and the members do not all, all have the same
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functions. So we that's all of us if we're
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in Christ, though many are one body in Christ, and individually
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members one of another having gifts that differ according to
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the grace given to us, let us use them.
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Notice God assigns, God distributes the diversity of
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callings and gifts is not random.
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It is gracious and purposeful. So that means you are not, you
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know, I want to be a, you know, I want to play in the NFL.
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Well, I must have been born in the wrong body then, right?
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No, you are not in the wrong body.
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You're not in the wrong family. You're not in the wrong city.
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You're not in the wrong season of life.
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God has placed you in a specific situation with specific gifts
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for specific purposes. And Paul tells us here to think
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with sober judgement. In other words, know yourself.
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Know what yourself, What are you good at?
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What do you suck at? Right?
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Be honest about who you are, what you've been given, and what
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you have not been given. This is humility here.
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It's not self deprecation, it's the clear eyed self knowledge of
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a man who knows he is a creature, not the creator.
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Right. God put some stuff in me.
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I'm really good at some things and I'm really bad at other
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things. My giftings and my calling line
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up. And while we're on this topic
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here, your calling and your vocation is something that often
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evolves through seasons while you're in school.
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Your vocation is that of a student, maybe a student
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athlete, and you're meant to do that as unto the Lord with all
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your heart. Then you get a starter job and
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your vocation is whatever it is that you are doing.
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You aren't meant to do this job grudgingly on not called to do
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this job thinking you know, when I get to the when I get to my
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next job, that's what I'm called to do.
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No, whatever job you're in right now, whatever season you're in
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right now, this is your calling in life If you aren't faithful
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in this season, right? God says if you're faithful with
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little, he'll make you ruler over much.
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If you're not faithful in this season, you more than likely
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won't be ready for the next vocation, the next calling in
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the next season. All right, so how do we actually
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find our vocation? Well, we've done some theology.
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Now we're going to get a little practical because this is where
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many men get stuck. They hear the language of
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calling and they think, how am I supposed to hear from God,
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right? You read the Bible and there's
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no Justin. You're going to be a pastor,
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right? Justin?
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You're going to be a father, Justin, you're going to do that.
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So how am I supposed to hear from God?
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I've never had a burning Bush experience like Moses.
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I haven't had a dream or a vision, right?
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I've just got bills to pay and a family to feed, and I'm not sure
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that I'm doing the right thing in this season of my life.
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Well, that's a real and honest question.
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And the Reformed tradition gives us a remarkable, remarkably
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practical answer. God ordinarily speaks through
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ordinary things. God ordinarily speaks through
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ordinary things. Here's the framework.
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Here's 4 questions that will help you discern your vocation.
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Write these down if you're somewhere where you can do that.
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Question one, What has God-given you?
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What has God-given you? Your gifts, your abilities, your
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natural aptitudes, your trained skills.
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The things you're good at, not just the things you wish you
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were good at. There's a big difference between
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what I'm good at and what I wish I was good at.
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If you're not good at math, you're most likely not called to
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be an accountant. If you suck at writing, you're
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probably not called to be an author.
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Our callings in life line up with the gifts and talents God
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has put in US. Now they often come to us
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unrefined, and we have to work really hard at them to, you
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know, to improve them. But we're still usually pretty
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good at them. Listen to what Peter says in his
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first letter. First, Peter 410 as each has
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received a gift, as each has received a gift, we all have
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been given a gift by God. Use it to serve one another.
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So you've received a gift. Use that gift to serve one
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another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
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God gives grace, and this is both common grace and special
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grace. Common grace.
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He gives this to all men. All men are gifted at something.
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All men and women have specific gifts and talents that's unique
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to them. Right?
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Like No2, snowflakes are alike. No two men are alike.
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God's grace is abundant and varied, and He gives each and
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every one of us some special gifts.
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Some of us are good talkers. Some of us are good at math.
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Some of us are good. There are athletic prowess, good
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at leadership. We could go on and on and on and
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on. You have received a gift.
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You need to be aware of that. God has given you something, a
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specific, particular individual gift, and more than likely it's
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probably more than one. So you are called by God to be a
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good steward of that gift that he's given you.
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OK, so God's given you a unique gift that matches your
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personality, that matches your frame, and now you're called to
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use that gift to serve others. That's what vocation is all
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about. A lot of men suffer because
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they're trying to be something they're not rather than
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developing what they actually are.
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Here's one example. I am not a good singer.
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I would like to be a good singer.
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I actually kind of enjoy singing.
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My wife is a phenomenal singer. My, my son, my daughters,
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they're they're good singers. I'm not a good singer.
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It doesn't matter how hard I work.
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I could get professional vocal lessons and I could probably
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improve a little bit, but I would never and even come close
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to being able to sing as good as my son or as my wife.
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So in my mind, why waste my time?
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Why waste my time? God's given me some gifts.
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I need to focus on what I'm good at and get really good at that
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because that's what God's, the gifts God's given me.
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And that's how he wants to bless the world, bless my neighbors,
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bless my friends, bless my church, right?
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So what are you genuinely good at?
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What comes naturally to you? What have wise people in your
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life affirmed in you? What have you built or created
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or LED or taught that actually worked?
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That people came to you and said I appreciated that, that helped
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me, that was beneficial? Those are when you answer the
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answer those questions that can help you find your calling,
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right, That can help you find what am I actually good at?
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Question 2. What has God burdened you with?
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What has he burdened you with? Now, I chose the word burdened
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there carefully because a true calling often feels less like
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enthusiasm or passion and more like weight, like something
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you're carrying around that's heavy on you.
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It's a holy dissatisfaction. It's a thing you cannot not care
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about. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to a
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king. He was comfortable, he was safe.
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He was far from home. But when he heard about the
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broken walls of Jerusalem, the Scripture says his heart broke.
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He wept for days, he fasted and prays, prayed, and he could not
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let it go. He couldn't get it out of his
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mind. That was a weight, a burden that
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God had placed on him, and it was not an accident.
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God was leading him into a huge mission to rebuild the city.
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Now when I felt felt when I felt called to the ministry, the
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calling felt more like a burden to me.
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I wanted people to come to Christ.
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I wanted my friends to come to Christ.
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I wanted my roommate to come to Christ.
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I was just, I was in college, I was inviting all these people to
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come to church and I wanted, when I brought my friends to my
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church, I wanted my church to be biblical.
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I wanted them to preach the gospel and not be full of a
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bunch of man made junk that gets in the way of people coming to
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know Jesus and then following Jesus.
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So what happened was God placed this huge burden on me and to be
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honest, I became a pest to my pastors.
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I would meet with them and I'd say, why are we doing this
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right? And they would explain it to me.
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Sometimes it was biblical, sometimes it wasn't.
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If it wasn't biblical, I would say, well, this is what the
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Bible says. Why are we doing something
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different? Like why are we doing that
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right? And I would, I was, I just had
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this burden. And then eventually that burden,
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I was reaching the loss and bringing all these people in and
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I was bringing homeless people into the church and the pastor
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didn't like it. And eventually it LED this
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burden led to me getting fired. And I got hired on as a youth
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pastor. And I started building the
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church that I thought God was or the the youth ministry that I
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thought God was calling me to build.
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And I wanted just to preach the Bible and worship God.
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And that's basically all we did. And then God started putting
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this burden on my heart for a new church.
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The youth ministry I was leading was like twice the size of the
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church. I was like, well, God's blessing
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what I'm doing, but our main church is still small.
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So I, to be honest, I think I could do a better job at this.
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I think I could preach better and I think I could lead the
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church better. And I just kind of had this
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weight on me. And then what happened was year
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after year we had done this marriage conference and I was
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wanting some. Some biblical teaching.
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I was wanting some exegetical teaching, verse by verse of
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books, the Bible for couples. And I went to this marriage
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conference that we put on and it was like the third year in a row
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where the pastor taught through the four love languages and the
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four love, love languages. It's fine.
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It's an entry level book. It's maybe a little helpful, but
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it's very simple and it's not deep and it's not really
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scriptural. And the like the third year in a
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row, you know, you get people away for this conference and
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you're giving them this book. And I was just incredibly
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burdened and frustrated. And it was like the the final
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switch in my head of I'm done with this.
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I have to plan a church. I have to plan a church.
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I have a burden on people knowing the word of God, knowing
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Jesus and I'm tired of this fluff.
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And I went to a buddy and I said I think God's called me to plant
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a church and he said I think you are too.
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And boom, it was off to the races.
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So you've got to find out what kind of burden has God placed on
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you? Ask yourself what breaks your
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heart, what ticks you off? What injustice or need or
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problem will not leave you alone?
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What do you see in the world around you that makes you think
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someone has to do something about that?
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Well, here's the reality. There's a good chance if you're
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that passionate about it, there's a good chance that
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someone is you. And that burden could be leading
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you to figure out your calling. Question three.
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What doors has God opened for you?
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What doors has God opened for you?
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This is the question of opportunity and Providence.
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Our Reformed tradition is deeply committed to the doctrine of
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God's sovereign Providence that he is in control of all things.
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He governs all things, including the seemingly accidental
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circumstances of your life. Who's in your community?
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Who's your boss? Who are your neighbors?
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Who's in your family? Paul says in First Corinthians
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7. Each person should remain in the
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condition in which he was called.
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This is a call to both contentment and faithfulness in
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your actual situation. God has called me here.
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I need to be content and faithful here.
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Many people think they cannot be content until they find
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themselves in the situation that they fantasize about, right?
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Well, you'll never going to be content if you're trying to
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figure out, you know, get to that place in your head.
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I'll be content when I get there.
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No, you won't. That's a lie.
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The calling to be content is to be content in the situation that
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God has put us in. Be content in the family that
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you were born into. Be content in the city that you
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live in. Be content with the connections
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you have. Be content with the doors that
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have opened and the doors that have been shut in your face, no
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matter how hard you've knocked. God's Providence is not subtle
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brute force here, right? It's the gentle but firm
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guidance of a Father who knows the plans He has for you.
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Now just think about that. God is in control of all things.
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He knows what gifts he's put in you.
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He knows your vocation and your calling in life.
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And He's purposefully closing doors.
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He's purposefully putting people into your life and connections
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and relationships and ideas and pastors.
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And he's opening doors so that you would look and go, oh,
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there's an open door, I should go through that.
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And he's closing other doors. So you go, oh, I shouldn't try
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to go through that door. God is doing that through his
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Providence. And sometimes the clearest sign
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of your calling is simply the path that God has already been
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walking you down without you fully realizing it.
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See, this is where many times we live like atheists.
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We live like practical atheists. We think, no, I got myself here,
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I earned this. I worked hard, I knocked down
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all these doors and I did all this.
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And listen, that's just not reality, man.
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That's not reality. You are where you are because of
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the grace of God. It might just be the common
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grace of God-given to all men, like God sends rain on the just
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and the unjust right. Or it might be the the the
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special calling of God, right? He is purposely as a Christian,
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He's purposely leading you down this path for a specific divine
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purpose. OK, question 4.
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What does my community confirm in me?
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What does my community confirm in me?
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This one might be the most countercultural, especially for
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men who've been formed by a culture of radical
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individualism. Like it's all me, I've done
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everything. It's all about what I do, my
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thoughts, my idea, my plans, my will, my power, etcetera.
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In the New Testament, calling is never simply a private inner
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impression. It's almost always confirmed by
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the church community. Paul and Barnabas were set apart
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by not by private revelation alone, but by the gathered
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church under the Holy Spirit. Timothy was identified and
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commissioned by the laying on of hands by the elders.
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The early church sent, confirmed, and supported those
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who were called. This means that if you think you
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have a calling that no one around you can see, no one
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around you affirms you know what?
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You're actually good at this. I think you could do that.
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No wise elder affirms it. No mature Christian confirms it.
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No community supports it. You should probably hold that
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calling loosely and ask yourself hard questions.
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If you cannot put a sentence together, if you not cannot
26:24
organize thoughts, if you cannot lead men, you're probably not
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called to the ministry, or at least not called yet to the
26:32
ministry. Your local church is not
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optional for discerning your vocation.
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It's essential, right? If you don't have good eyesight,
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you're probably not called to be a pilot, right?
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You can't be called to something that you can't actually do.
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People around you are going to see gifts in you and they're
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going to affirm them. Doesn't mean everyone's going to
26:59
see them. Doesn't mean they're always
27:00
right. But there should be people
27:02
around you that, that if you come up and say, I think I'm
27:05
going to start a business, if they've known you to be a lazy
27:07
person, they're going to be like, bro, I don't think it
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God's calling you to be to start your own business because to
27:14
start your own business, you're going to have to work twice as
27:16
hard as you did with your hourly job, right?
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So God puts people around us to see the things in us.
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Sometimes we don't even see ourselves.
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And to affirm our callings, your local church, your local
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community is not optional for discerning your vocation.
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It's essential. It's the body through which the
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Spirit of God speaks. The elders and pastors in your
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life, They're not meant to be bureaucratic gatekeepers.
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They are gifts from God for exactly this kind of
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discernment. So ask who are the wise men in
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my life? What do they say about my gifts
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and my calling? Have you even asked?
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Send an e-mail to them, get them coffee, buy them a cigar, get
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some men around you. Throw this out there.
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Be bold and ask them, do you see these gifts in me?
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Do you think I could be called to do this and see what they
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say? All right, now what I want to
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look at is I want to look at 2 great enemies of vocation.
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The first one is the idol of career.
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Let me warn you about two ways we often get this wrong to
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enemies of healthy vocation. The first one is the idol of
28:35
career. This is the man who has confused
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his secondary calling with his primary one.
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He's made his work into his God. He's made his work, or his
28:47
ambition or his success into the thing that his soul is actually
28:54
resting in. His soul goes to work for its
28:57
identity. His soul goes to work for its
29:00
rest, for its success, for its feeling of power and and meaning
29:05
in life. He's working to be somebody, to
29:09
build an identity. He performs to matter in the
29:14
world. The Reformed tradition,
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following the great tradition of Reformation thought, calls this
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precisely what it is, idolatry, making a good thing into a God
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thing. The heart is, as Calvin said, a
29:32
perpetual factory of idols. Our heart doesn't want to rest
29:36
in God, our Creator, so our heart constantly makes idols to
29:41
worship. And for many men in the modern
29:43
West, the factory's primary product is a version of
29:47
themselves in which their career is their God.
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As long as I am successful at work, that's all that matters.
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I go to work to find out who I am.
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I go to work to get the attaboys.
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I go to work to feel successful. Well, the warning sign in this
30:07
is when your work goes badly, does your sense of worth
30:12
collapse? When you fail at work, do you
30:16
feel like a failure? When you're outperformed by a
30:20
colleague, do you feel less like a man?
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When the company has to downsize and you lose your job or you
30:28
lose a title, do you still know who you are?
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Or does your whole world collapse in on you?
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The man who has made his career his identity cannot answer that
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question well. But the man rooted in his
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primary calling, who he is as a son of God first and a worker
30:50
second. He can weather any storm.
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I lose my job. It doesn't change my identity,
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right? I get downsized or I fail at
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something at work. I'm still secure because I know
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who God is. I know I'm loved by God.
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I know I'm forgiven by God. I'm a child of God.
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That's my primary identity. And so God's closed the door.
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He's going to open up another one.
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I just need to be aware of it. It doesn't crush me.
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It still hurts, but it doesn't crush me.
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It doesn't ruin me. My identity doesn't collapse in
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on itself. OK, the second enemy is what
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I'll call the paralysis of the perfect calling.
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This is the man who's been so gripped by the idea of a unique,
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specific, God breathed, life defining calling that he cannot
31:41
bring himself to do anything until he hears the voice from
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heaven telling him what it is like.
31:49
He was waiting for God to say, I want you to buy this house in
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this neighborhood and then I want you to meet that one
31:55
person. And then I want you to have that
31:56
one job and that one career and then marry that one woman and
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then have those however many kids.
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Everything has to be so detailed and so planned that he drifts in
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life. He constantly waits.
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He processes endlessly. He reads another book, attends
32:13
another conference, has another conversation, but he never
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commits. He never plants.
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He never puts down roots. He never builds.
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He never loves anything enough to suffer for it and work hard
32:29
for it. Here's the pastoral word for
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that man. Scripture does not promise you a
32:35
mystical revelation about your career path.
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What it promises is wisdom. Wisdom that works.
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Wisdom that comes through prayer, through the Word,
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through your community and counsel, and then through
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action. Wisdom isn't all up here.
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Wisdom is is. Wisdom ends in action, doing
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something in line with the way that God made you and God made
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the world. You learn your calling in part
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just by showing up, just by being faithful in the small
33:11
thing, by planting your feet in the current field and working it
33:15
well right now with what you have.
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Ecclesiastes 910 says whatever your hand finds to do, do it
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with all your might be that type of man.
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Whatever my vocation is right now, whatever's right in front
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of me, I'm going to do it with all my might here.
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What it says, whatever your hand finds to do, not the perfect
33:38
thing, not the ideal thing, not the divine thing, the thing that
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is in front of you, Do it with all your might.
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Martin Luther reportedly said that if he knew the Lord was
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returning tomorrow, he would still plant an apple tree today.
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That's the spirit of faithful vocation.
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Planting trees is a good thing. Apples are a good thing.
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Hard work is a good thing. Do it, and do it now.
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No anxious, searching, not passive waiting, faithful,
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diligent, present engagement with the work God has given you
34:16
right now. And when you understand this,
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when you understand your calling, it's not some mystical
34:26
experience. It's the work that God has fit
34:28
you for and put in front of you to do right now.
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There's an incredible freedom in it.
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You, you are free to serve. You are free to work.
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The doctrine of vocation is ultimately about freedom.
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Not the freedom that our culture thinks it is like to do whatever
34:48
you want, but the freedom that comes from knowing that you've
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been called, that God is holding you and directing you by his
34:56
hand, and that your work, no matter what it is, matters to
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the God of the universe. Luther's most famous treaty on
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the Christian life is called The Freedom of a Christian, and the
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central paradox that he identifies as this.
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He says this the Christian man is perfectly free, Lord of all,
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subject to none, and yet the Christian man is perfectly
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bound, servant to all, subject to all.
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What does that mean? It means we when we come to
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Christ and we know our primary calling is to know Christ, and
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that all comes by grace through faith, right?
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We are free in Christ and we are servants to our neighbors.
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We're free in Christ, and yet we're servants to our neighbors.
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And this is what vocation looks like in practice.
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You're a free man. You're not enslaved to anyone's
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opinion of you, not your boss's opinion, not your neighbor's
35:53
opinion. You're not defined by your
35:55
productivity, not owned by the corporation or the culture.
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Your worth, your value, your identity is settled in Christ.
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And because your worth is settled and your identity is
36:06
secure in Christ, you're now free to be a servant of all.
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You're free to pour yourself out.
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You're free to serve the man next to you at work.
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You're free to love your wife and children without keeping
36:19
score. You're free to build something
36:22
that's not just to build you a good name, but something that
36:25
outlasts you. Because your legacy is not what
36:28
makes you matter. Christ's righteousness is what
36:31
makes you matter. The called man is not performing
36:36
for an audience. He's not trying to build an
36:39
identity. He's working for an audience of
36:42
1 and that changes everything about how you show up no matter
36:47
what you do right work as unto the Lord.
36:52
CS Lewis in his book The Weight of Glory, he makes this
36:58
staggering claim. He says there are no ordinary
37:01
people. There are no ordinary people, he
37:04
says. Every man you work with, every
37:06
customer you serve, every person who passes through your life,
37:09
they are immortal souls. They're eternal beings.
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I'm paraphrasing, but he says every single person is on a
37:18
trajectory. They're either they're an
37:20
immortal soul on the trajectory towards heaven or on a
37:25
trajectory towards hell. That means every single person
37:29
is either is in the future is either going to be far more
37:32
glorious than you could even imagine right now, that if you
37:35
saw them in the future you would want to bow down and worship
37:37
them, or they're going to be far more hideous that we would.
37:41
They would look like orcs or worse.
37:46
Every human being is on a trajectory an eternal they're an
37:49
eternal soul heading in one of those directions.
37:51
They're getting worse or they're getting better.
37:55
And that means that how you do your work, how you treat the
37:59
person across the counter, how you honor the contract you
38:03
signed, how you lead the team that you've been given, how you
38:06
protect and provide for your family, it all has eternal
38:11
weight. Like you're, you're serving
38:14
eternal souls, right? You're either going to push them
38:17
towards the darkness and ugliness, or you're going to be
38:20
pushing them towards the light. You're not just building a
38:25
product or filing a report or fixing a car.
38:29
You're dealing with eternal souls and you're doing it.
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Corumdeo. That's a Latin phrase that means
38:37
before the face of God. That means all of our work, all
38:41
of our vocation, all of it is sacred.
38:44
All of it's meant to be done before the face of God.
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That's the holy weight of being a man who's been called by God.
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As I close here, let me give us, give us a charge.
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If you are a Christian man who's been drifting, going through the
39:03
motions, putting in the hours, waiting for something to feel
39:06
meaningful, I want to tell you, you're waiting maybe over today.
39:12
The work in front of you is not a placeholder.
39:16
It's not what you do until your real calling comes from God or
39:20
your real life begins. This is your life, this is the
39:24
field God has placed you in and He's prepared works for you to
39:29
walk in right there, right now, with what you have.
39:34
Start with your primary calling. Get your soul anchored to
39:39
Christ, Sit with your Bible, meet with your people, come to
39:44
church, worship God, confess your sins, receive the grace of
39:48
God, and remember who you are in Christ.
39:52
Then go to work, Go to work and work hard, work honestly, work
39:58
for the glory of God and the good of the people around you,
40:01
and trust that the God who prepared those works, the God
40:04
who wrote you as his poem. That's what the book of
40:07
Ephesians says that he says, that we are God's workmanship
40:12
created in Christ Jesus for good works that he prepared
40:16
beforehand. That word workmanship in the
40:18
Greek is poema. We are God's poem created for
40:22
good works. So He did all this for grace and
40:25
by grace. And then out of the gifts that
40:28
He's given us, we're meant to do do the works that He's prepared
40:31
for us. Again, our vocation, Our Calling
40:35
has been prepared for us, has been put in US, and we're to do
40:39
those works that God prepared for us.
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As we do that, He will be faithful to complete what He's
40:45
begun in each of us. Philippians 16 says this.
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I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will
40:54
bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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Amen. Guys, I pray that you would work
41:00
your work through these questions that I presented
41:02
today, that they would help serve you to find your vacation,
41:06
to help you be faithful in what God's called you to do right
41:09
now. Thank you for watching this
41:11
video. If it's been helpful for you,
41:13
please give us a like, subscribe, share it with a dude
41:16
who needs to hear it. And until next time, guys, go
41:20
act like men. God bless.