Becoming Believers - Generational Calling
Review of Last Week: Getting Perspective - 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
•The Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing
◦Everyone who is not under Christ is perishing
•What does a perishing world look like? > Psalm 2
◦The nations are conspiring (raging)
◦They are raging against the leadership of Jesus
▪ “The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed” - Ps. 2:2
•The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers
◦Who is the god of this age?
▪You - the me-centered, self-seeking culture we live in that says its okay to please your every desire at any cost because if you’re not happy your not living.
◦Unbelievers - are those who don’t deliver that Jesus is the Son of God and the King of Kings. They don’t haven’t encountered the love of God and live for themselves.
◦Believers - are those who believer that Jesus is the Son of God and the King of Kings and they live in a submit their lives to His authority, they enter into an eternal love relationship.
Becoming Believers - 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12”…we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worth of His calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” How do we become who God wants us to be?
•Through Relationship. God created us to be with Him so that we would know Him and that we would be known by Him.
◦Unfortunately this relationship has been reduced down to just ‘being saved’ and there not being any relationship
◦Relationship requires sacrifice and it requires devotional love.
•Relationship with God may require the greatest sacrifice we will every be asked to give up…our lives…but it will also be unto receiving the greatest love.
“That our God may make you worthy of His calling"
•We can not make ourselves worthy of His calling. No matter the experience you’ve had, education you receive, amount of good things you do, nothing can make you worthy of God’s calling except Him.
◦God makes us worthy. Holy Spirit makes us worthy through the transforming of our minds so that we would know His good and pleasing will. (Rom. 12:2)
▪We have to position ourselves by choosing not to conform to the world and choosing to be transformed by Holy Spirit
◦How do we get transformed?
▪Romans 12:1 - We offer ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
▪A living sacrifice is living with Him by dying daily to self and turning from our position of rebellion from Him and turn towards walking rightly with Him
•Being made worthy is a constant process because its not a process at all its relationship. Not only relationship but right relationship.
◦Anybody and everybody can have a relationship with God. Some people aren’t aware of their relationship and others are but ignore it, others abuse it and then some choose to walk in right relationship.
◦Anyone can have a relationship with their parent but that doesn’t mean they have a good relationship with them. Many walk around with poor or broken relationships with their parents but would still admit they have relationships.
◦We need to get into right relationship with God. That is relationship that is pure with forgiveness. That is strong in love, in mutual wholehearted love. Relationship that is based in knowledge of one another.
▪God wants to know you because He loves you but you have to let Him in. He knows your life but He wants to know your heart and He wants to share with you His heart.
▪His love for you was completely voluntary and sacrificial. He gave up His one and only Son so that He could love you. He gave up the love of His life so that He could have you! How have you responded to that love? How will you respond to that love today?
•God wants to make you worthy of His calling.
◦Many of people are going to tell you to follow you dream or in the church they just mask this same question with follow your calling. These questions normally revolve around pursing your desires in life. What do you want to do with your life? What do you enjoy? What are you good at? Do those things and don’t let anyone stop you.
▪No, please let me stop you. If you desire to walk with the Lord and have a life that is given to the glory of God you must stop thinking this way. You have to cut off the life of the American Dream. There is no I will follow Jesus after this or that its will you follow Him today and give Him your whole life.
▪He doesn’t just want your convenience or your extra time in life. His love is the best, His intentions are the best and He is the best and He wants your best back.
◦God desires to make you worthy of His calling. Not your calling. There is a mindset in the church that focuses on individuals finding their calling within the church but I tell you the truth. There is no calling that will fulfill you within the church.
◦The only calling that is worthy of being consumed by is the His calling. And His calling has already been declared. That we would be a bride made ready for His Son and that we would fall under His leadership as the King of Heaven and Earth.
▪Psalm 2- He has called for His Son to be set on a Holy Hill and established as the one true King of Heaven and Earth.
▪He has called His church to be a Bride made ready. He has called us to be His light in the world.
▪You get caught up in that calling and you will find your place within it. But God’s call for you is that you would get your eyes set upon His Son and never look away.