You know, this reminds me of school. If I let the kids choose their own seats, nobody’s in the front row. You know? And I understand, because I’m not a front-row person.
See, right here—you go to the front row. That’s right. And over here. Okay. Right, brothers and sisters?
Let’s read a few verses, shall we? We’re going to the book that we’re studying, 1 Corinthians. We’re going to chapter 1, and we’re going to read the first nine verses.
Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
unto the church of God which is at Corinth, those that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus;
that in everything ye were enriched in Him, in all utterance and all knowledge;
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;
who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreproveable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
And then, if we go back a couple of pages to Romans 12, verse 2:
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Let’s pray.
Father, we want to thank You again for that open door that we have with You because of Jesus Christ. We thank You that He laid down His life to become that door for us, and He brings us through Himself to You even right now.
We stand in Your presence without guilt and without shame. We thank You. We praise You for that standing. And we ask that door, since it is open to us, will be the door through which Your voice will come to us this morning, and that You will speak to us.
Speak to us a word for this time and for this day, something that will help us to go on with You. Lord, we know that we are just unable to do anything unless Your Holy Spirit is working, unless You, Lord, initiate things.
And so we are looking to You and asking for You to speak to us through Your Word and Your Holy Spirit. Through Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
Okay, I found out from Jack that I’m the only guy who wears this contraption now, because I’m a low talker. I’m sorry.
I do have one student now who always tells me, “Mr. B, speak up.” And I’m glad for that, because I don’t know.
But anyway, this morning, and in the next few times I speak, I think I want to be speaking out of 1 Corinthians, the book that we are reading right now. To me, this book has been speaking to me in different ways since we started out. It has been like, “This is a godsend for me.”
It is just something that the Lord has said: “This is the word for the day. This is the word to you for today.” And I am wondering if it is not actually the word for today for us, as we look at the Corinthians and stuff.
I would like to speak out of it. We have read the first nine verses, and I am not going to give some exposition from them, but I just want to show you what the Lord has been speaking to my heart. Maybe it is to us—Richmond, you know? I do not know. Maybe it is to all Christians, like it says here, to all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
This is a letter written to Christians. When we start studying, it is always important to know who it is written to and why it is written. It is written to Christians. This is not written to unbelievers.
It is written to Christians, written to the body of Christ, to all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The second thing that is really important, I think, is that it is written to a group, and not just individuals. Like any time when we read the Bible and study the Bible, all these letters are written to groups, except for Philemon, Timothy, Titus, and I think 3 John. Usually they are written to a whole group of believers.
It is okay for us to take that and individualize it and say, “Well, what is this really speaking to me?” But we have to understand also that when Paul wrote it, he was not writing to an individual person. “Sosthenes, this is for you.” He was writing to the group at large. This is a message to the whole group. It was intended for everyone in it.
In other words, when I am talking about writing to a whole group, there is something common in this message. What I mean by common is that it was common to each individual. It was something each individual could take. There is a commonality in them that Paul wants to make sure they all see.
And it is corrective. This is a really corrective letter. Romans was an instructive letter. Romans is the gospel unveiled to us in a way that we need to see. Corinthians is corrective: the gospel applied to us—not just getting us in the door, but now that we are living.
When we read this, there are needs that are going to be addressed, sins that are going to be addressed, weaknesses and flaws that are all going to be addressed and exposed. Everything is open before the eyes of God. God does not give corrective ministry just to give corrective ministry. It is pointed. It says, “This has to be dealt with.”
Yet in these first nine verses, if this were the only thing in the letter, there is no correction at all. There is no mention of any faults, no mention of any flaws, no mention of the carnality that we all know this book is about.
You would think that if there are problems, you would start out and say, “You know something? There are problems here, and we have to fix them.” But Paul does not do that. He brings them all to something common—something common.
In the first nine verses, the things he mentions are the backdrop to everything else. Everything else must be seen with that backdrop. Otherwise, brothers and sisters, correction is hard. But if you do not see that backdrop, the correction is too hard. You have to see the correction in the light of what he is showing you first.
What is He showing us in these first nine verses? What does He have to say that all of them have in common? He brings us first to this one commonality.
There are four times in these nine verses that you have a word about calling. Four times. Verse 1, verse 2, and verse 9. Okay, one is specifically Paul—it applies to him. He is talking about being called to be an apostle.
Now, I know you guys are counting and saying, “Well, Jim, I only see three.” I know what you are doing. “Well, Jim, where is the third one?” It is in verse 2. Look real hard. See it?
“To the church of God.” What is the church? Called-out ones. See, there is that third one. It was buried in there, wasn’t it?
But the whole thing is this: it is all about calling. Before Paul even corrects, before he does anything, he puts them on this ground. He says, “Brothers and sisters, before I say anything, let’s first remember our calling.”
If we do not see correction in the light of our calling, sometimes it is just too hard. Sometimes it feels nagging. Sometimes it feels too critical. But if we see it in the light of our calling, it takes on a whole different sense. That is what he is after.
This is to a group. Everybody in the group—if we are all Christians in here—it applies to every one of us. We have all been called in all these ways that we are going to talk about.
Josiah has been called just like Brother Stephen has been called, just like Philip has been called. None of us are excluded because of age, gender, education, background, or anything else you can think of. Nobody has been excluded from this calling in the assembly.
That is what Paul is saying in Corinth: “You guys are the church of God. You have this in common, that you have been called out.”
There is no saying, “Well, sorry, Josiah is just too young. He is out of it. Sorry, buddy.” Or, “Well, Kenny, although he wears a bow tie, he is just too old, and the bow tie shows that.” Sorry, brother.
Or we cannot say, “Oh, you are a sister. I’m sorry.” We cannot say that. You cannot say to Philip, “Oh, gee whiz, you were in the army. It does not count for you.” Oh, Marine—sorry. Take that back. Armed forces. Little slip.
So we want to look at this calling. No, we do not want to look at the word calling; we want to look at our calling. I think this opens up the whole thing that the Lord is trying to say to us. We have been called.
This calling in these verses is not the general call of an evangelist, the calling that says, “Whosoever will may come,” where He is scattering the seed and some are going to respond and some are not.
No, this is to a group specifically that is being summoned. Summoned.
Roger was talking about being summoned a couple of weeks ago. Roger, where is Roger in here? Is a summons a serious thing? Definitely a serious thing.
When we think of this calling, we read over it and gloss over it: “You are called to this and called to that.” But if you really read this, Wuest translated it, “a divine summons.” A divine summons.
God is summoning you. That is a serious thing, because He expects you to respond. Roger’s response was late, but he finally did respond.
The Lord is summoning us. He is bringing these Corinthians and saying, “I am calling you.” As we look at these things, we want to see: What is He calling us to?
We are not talking about a calling like Paul’s—“I am called to be an apostle.” This is the calling to the whole church, the calling of all the redeemed. Everybody who is redeemed by Jesus Christ has this calling.
It is not some special calling: “You are going to be apostle to the Gentiles,” or, “You are going to the Jews,” or, “You are going to be a missionary here.” It is not that type of calling. But it is specific.
It is not a general calling that says, “Well, you know, if you do not want to, you do not have to. Whosoever will.” No, it is meant to be responded to. He is calling for your response. He is expecting you to respond.
When they send you that summons, they are expecting it. “I have sent it to you. Respond.”
Paul uses calling three separate times, apart from the word contained in ecclesia. We talked about ecclesia. It has in it kaleo, which is calling, and the other part means out. The church is the called-out people.
Calling is like one of those Matryoshka dolls—the nesting dolls. On the outside, it looks like one thing, but then you open it up and there is something else inside. You open it again, and there is another one, and another one. Finally, you get to the core of it and find out what it is really all about.
It is not like peeling an onion. Onions just do not do justice to these things. But Paul is using calling like a Matryoshka doll. He says, “I am going to open it up. I want to show you your calling.”
The first thing he says is, “You are the church of God in Corinth.” There is a really big difference there.
I would never have seen this had I not read G. Campbell Morgan’s commentary on Corinthians. He made the point that the most important thing in this letter is this phrase: “The church of God in Corinth.”
He said the problem with the Corinthian church was that it was Corinth in the church of God instead of the church of God in Corinth.
What was Corinth known for? Corinth was known for basically three things. First, it was known for its wealth. It was a trading, commercial city, known for the wealth of trade going in there. We could compare it to places like New York, Hong Kong, or Shanghai.
It was also known for its learning. You guys have been studying and reading about the wisdom of the world. It was a big thing there to be able to speak eloquently about what you believed, to win people over by smooth speech, great knowledge, and control of language.
The third thing it was known for was its lack of morality. That is kind of weird, isn’t it? You have people known for their learning, and yet they lack morality. It does not seem to fit together.
But when you think about it, this is Western civilization in a nutshell. What is Western civilization known for? Its learning. We talk about the Greeks and Romans, what they passed down, the Enlightenment in Europe, and those types of things.
It is known for commerce. All these places were based on commerce. The wealth that comes through commerce is amazing. And then, toward the end of each empire, what are they all known for? Immorality.
Now, the church is not called out as if God were saying, “Get out of Corinth. Move to Berea. It is a better place. Those people study the Bible.” That is not the idea.
We are called out of Corinth to live in Corinth. Do you understand that? We are called out so that we can live in.
These things—wealth, worldly wisdom, and immorality—define Corinth, and they define the world we live in. Commercial, wealthy, knowledge, and immorality. I do not care what order you put them in.
I am not trashing Western civilization; I am observing it. Do you understand the difference? It is an observation. This is what we see when we study history. A lot of good things have come out of it, but these things define it.
But these are not the things that define the kingdom of God.
Paul is saying that you have to come out of that kingdom, that cosmos, that ruling idea. You have to come out of those ways that rule that system. You are called out into the kingdom of God.
In other words, you are called out to learn a whole other set of values, knowledge, morality, and everything else. They are opposed to each other. They are opposites.
We are called out so that we might exhibit what the kingdom of God is like in the midst of Corinth. That is what it means to be called out.
I am not talking about merely learning a new kind of knowledge, reading books about the kingdom of God, and then talking about it. I am talking about finding the reality of the kingdom of God.
As I find that out, I submit to the rule of the kingdom of God. That is being called out.
For many of us, one of the first things that happened when we got saved was a big coming-out party—not that we had a big party, but that was the first thing we really knew. “I cannot do these things anymore.” Remember that?
We started doing things and found ourselves saying, “I cannot do this. Something inside me is not letting me do this.” We find ourselves being called out—called out of this system, out of this world sphere, out of this philosophy, out of this morality.
All of a sudden, we find out, “You know something? I cannot, because I am a citizen of another place.”
So we become sojourners. We set up our tent outside, but we are not like Lot, who went inside the city and adopted everything that was in Sodom. You stay separate.
As we are called out, we begin seeking to know what the kingdom of God is all about and to know its King. We are called out to Him. He calls us outside the camp.
The second calling is in the same verse where Paul talks about being sanctified. Some versions say, “called saints,” and my version says, “called to be saints.” Which is it? It is both.
We are called saints. That is the end product. That is what Jesus died for: to make us saints. We are saints. We are in the heavenlies.
If we could see all the way through, we would see ourselves sharing the throne with Christ, ruling as God would have man rule. That is the whole work of Christ—not just to forgive sins, but to bring us all the way through to where man should be.
But there is a process of getting there.
It is like being drafted into the armed forces. You are being drafted to be a soldier. When you get your draft notice and you are drafted, you can say, “Right, you are a soldier. You are now in the army.” But let me ask you this: Are you a soldier?
We just said yes. Which is it? We are soldiers, but at the same time we are being made soldiers. We are set apart by our calling, and then we are made into the thing we are set apart for.
We are soldiers by being drafted, but we are also being trained to be soldiers.
Joseph was set apart by his dreams. His dreams told him, “You will be a ruler.” But what made him a ruler? Was it his dreams? No. The Lord took him through training, so that in the end he was faithful to God. That is one of the things you get from Joseph: he was faithful to God through all the things that happened.
I have never been in the army. I got my draft notice, but I never got in. They would not let me in. Too good-looking—can’t have somebody so handsome in the army. No, physical things.
But I could have been a soldier. I was called to be a soldier. The draft notice called me by name. It did not say, “Hey, we want somebody from the Bogdanowitz family. Send them down.” No, it was, “James Anthony Bogdanowitz, you are summoned to appear at the Selective Service Board in Los Angeles on such-and-such a day.”
A lot of you do not know what the draft is because it is past your time. They stopped the draft in 1973. I got my draft number in 1972, and I had my physical at the beginning of 1973.
It was scary, because you are being called by a higher power—a power that you had never known in your life was so powerful. The government says, “You come.” It was an awesome thing in a way, and it was a humbling thing.
You are called, and you go where you are called. If you go into the service, you are destined to become a soldier. You are called a soldier, but you are also destined to become that soldier through training, through boot camp, and through all those things. At the end, you are a soldier.
Just like us, the end of our calling as saints is that we are saints. You know what a saint is? A saint is somebody who is holy, sanctified, wholly committed to the service of the One who called him or her.
A saint is like Jesus—a man wholly committed to God’s will, to the will of Another, to do the service of Another, and to bring it all the way through.
You might say, “Gee whiz, that is too tall an order for me. I like the first calling, but this other part of the calling, I am not too sure about.”
But you know something about draftees? When I was nineteen and went in for my physical, I had nothing to give the army. I had no wealth. I was not a great physical specimen. I think I was six foot four or six foot five, 175 pounds—just a stud of a man.
I did not have much. But that is the thing about it: you do not supply anything. When you are drafted, the one who drafts you supplies everything.
You get that general issue. You get clothes to wear, shoes to wear, housing, weapons, and training in how to use them. All these things are given to soldiers, and they are trained in how to use them.
What about the church? The full armor of God. The full armor of God has been given to you.
“Well, gee whiz, I do not know how to do it.” Oh, you get a drill instructor. The drill instructor is going to make sure you know how to do all these things. He is going to train you. That is the Holy Spirit.
Everything that we need is given to us that we might become saints. That is God’s will for us. That is why God has called us. God has not called us just so that we can be forgiven. He has called us that we might be saints, fully committed to the One who called us into His service.
My summons came as an individual. Everybody who gets drafted receives an individual summons. But what happens in the interim as they become soldiers? They become a community.
They are no longer individuals. They become a community, a company. They leave their family and friends, just like being called out, and become brothers in arms.
They look out for one another, obey the will of the commander, learn how to fight the commander’s battles, and are all bound together in the camaraderie of being brothers in arms.
This is our calling as saints. You are no longer an individual. Remember back in the seventies they used to talk about Lone Ranger Christians? “I can be a Christian on my own. I will just do this and stuff.” No, you are called into fellowship.
The Lord never lets you get away from that. Wherever you go, all of a sudden you find out that there are saints around. You are drawn to them. It just happens. That is part of your calling: to be called together.
We are called together into everything. We have a unity, and we have no idea how we became unified, but it is that Spirit He has given us.
It is God who called us to be saints. Because it is God who called us to be saints, He is behind everything that goes on so that we will be established.
That word in verse 8, where it talks about being confirmed, means established. God is not saying, “Hey, you make it on your own. I drafted you. You come here, you make it on your own, you provide for yourself, and here are the instructions.”
No. He has given you everything you need, and with that Instructor, He is behind establishing you in that calling, securing that.
In 2 Peter, it says, “Make your calling and election sure.” God has given you everything to make that calling and election sure. He has given you everything.
2 Peter also talks about the promises of God, so that you might know that divine life in you, that life of Christ in us. Everything has been given to us in this way. Plus, God is behind the training that we might become saints.
Finally, the last time calling is used, it says that we are called into fellowship with His Son.
I want to talk about fellowship, because a lot of times I look at it in a half-baked way. I do not know how you look at it, but this is how I have looked at it: fellowship means relationship.
When you think of fellowship, you think relationship. “I have a relationship with Christ.” It is communion. It is knowing Him intimately. Tozer called it a mystical union.
That sounds kind of airy, doesn’t it? But we think about that kind of relationship, and how many of us want that? “God, I want that. I want that type of relationship.”
But Wuest translates fellowship this way: joint participation. Fellowship is joint participation.
What are we participating in? G. Campbell Morgan said it is a relationship, but it is also a partnership, like a business partnership. The word koinonia was used for business partnerships.
We think of it just as fellowship with God, but there is more to it. It is like that Matryoshka doll. You think it is this, then you open it up and there is something else. There is more than just “mystic sweet communion.”
What does joint partnership mean? When Jesus came to the realization—when He knew, when He was twelve years old and came before the temple—what did He say to His parents?
“I must be about My Father’s business.”
What is that? Is that mystic sweet communion? Well, it is, but it is more.
Where does the idea of what I am to do come from? It comes from communion with God. But it does not stop with communion. There is a partnership. There is joint participation.
“I only do the things I see God doing.” Out of that communion, that mystic sweet communion, I see God doing things. I see what God wants. I start to understand His heart.
How is that understanding translated? I begin doing the things I see God doing. That is the translation from communion to partnership—to joint participation.
“Take My yoke upon you.” What is that? It does not sound like mystic sweet communion. That is partnership. But in that partnership, you know what you have? Mystic sweet communion.
We are called into partnership—called into what He is doing.
I want to add something to that: called into what He is doing now.
A lot of us get to this place where we think God is not doing anything, and we have a relationship that is mystic without shoes. It is like the Gnostics thought Jesus did not really come in the flesh because He never made footprints. It is just some kind of ethereal thing.
Jesus had footprints. You know what I am talking about? In other words, He walked. He did not just have communion that was up in the air. That communion that was up in the air came down to earth and walked.
“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” Then we were able to see things.
We are called into partnership. We are called into what He is doing presently—what He is doing here in RCF, Enrichment Christian Fellowship. He is doing something here.
I know we are starting to sense it, but He is doing something here, and He has called us into partnership with Him for it.
Some of us are looking at this changing of groups as being a new calling out. Okay, then let us partner with Him in it. What does He want from me in this? What does He want my place to be in this group?
How about what He is doing in the city of Richmond? A lot of us do not think about the effect of our fellowship with God in the city of Richmond. We say, “Well, we do not go out. We do not evangelize.”
Oh, you have never shared with somebody? You think God is not doing something in Richmond? Is that what you think?
He is doing something in Richmond. Why does He lead you to say something to someone or help someone else? God is doing something. He is trying to reveal Himself to people in Richmond.
What about Virginia? What is God doing in Virginia? Let us go wider than that. What is God doing in the United States? We can go on and on, but then we lose it and say, “It is so big that I cannot fit into it.”
Okay, let us come back to here: what God is doing in Richmond. We are called into partnership with what God is doing in Richmond.
We see this idea about calling. We understand that we have been called out of the system, called to be something, and called into fellowship.
The realization of this calling is that it is all one calling. It is not like we are just called out. It is beyond just being called out. We are called to be something. We are called into fellowship. We are called into partnership.
This is all one calling. It is not separate. You cannot separate these things. You cannot say, “Oh, I am in the stage of being called out,” or, “I am in this stage.” No, it is one calling, and all of this is included in that one calling.
The thing is, if we realize it—not merely have the knowledge. “Okay, we had a lesson today. We know this now.” No. When it sinks into us, when it begins to touch that inner part of us, and we begin to realize, “Oh my gosh, God wants my life.”
I do not know if you guys have ever had those experiences where you really have the sense that God is saying, “You are Mine.” Not merely in the sense that you are saved from sin, but in the sense that He is saying, “You are Mine to do My will.”
Have you had experiences like that which are so awesome that you have to throw down, fall on the floor, and say, “How can You want me? How can You call me to do this? Look at me.”
When you begin to realize His calling—not know what calling is, but begin to realize it—and when the summons comes, you say, “Okay. Your will be done.”
Then we begin to realize and give ourselves to this: this is the testimony that God wants.
This is the testimony that God wants: a people who are called out from among those Corinthians, those Richmonders, those Virginians, or whatever you want to call them.
But they are not called out so people cannot see them. They are called out within the confines of Corinth, so the people in Corinth can see them daily.
They are called out and put in juxtaposition. In other words, they are put opposite one another, so that when you look at them, you can say, “There is a difference.”
That difference is right up front, right in front of you, and you cannot deny it. That is what God wants Corinthians to see. He wants them to see His called-out ones, because He wants to show them, “This is what I am after. This is My kingdom.”
He wants them to see us being made saints before their very eyes. He wants them to see a transformation that can be seen, not just words only.
We talk a good game. No, that is not enough. That is not the kingdom of God. He wants them to see people transformed before their eyes so they can say, “That is God. No one else could do that. That has got to be God.”
That is the testimony He wants in Corinth.
He wants Corinth to see Himself ruling through these people—ruling. In other words, overcoming the mores of the time because they do not buy into them.
They do not buy into the idea that, “If I am going to succeed in this world, I have to be wealthy. If I am going to succeed in this world, I have to be eloquent. It does not matter how I act to get these things. If I am immoral, it is okay—everyone else is.”
No. When Jesus came and walked the earth, people saw a different rule of life in Him.
He was not overruled by Pontius Pilate. He was not overruled by the rulers of the synagogue, the high priest Caiaphas and Annas. He was not overruled by them.
But you could see that He was ruling in the things that He said and did. There was no fear in Him. Isn’t that amazing?
There was no fear: “Oh, what if I do this? It is just not going to be correct in this society.” He was not afraid about that. He was not afraid of the consequences of things.
Brothers and sisters, that is the testimony God wants.
The testimony is Jesus, but the testimony of Jesus is Jesus Christ being formed in us—formed in us in such a way that people take notice of it.
Our testimony is not that we meet here. Our testimony goes on past here. It is what we take home with us. It is what we display in the world. That is our testimony.
But our testimony is shaped by our calling. This is our calling: out of the world, called to be saints, called to be in fellowship and partnership with the living God.
It is a tremendous thing. Who is fit for these things? Hey, impossible for man. But all things are possible for God.
So how do we apply this? Other than that, if I do not apply this, it is just stuff. So let us bring it to earth.
Have you heard Him calling you?
That is the bottom line. I am not going to tell you to do this, that, or the other thing. The bottom line is: Have you heard Him calling you?
In the depths of your being—not right here, but in the depths of your being—are you hearing Him call to you?
We are not talking about, “Have you heard His teaching?” Have you heard His call?
“Come.”
What did He say to Peter? “Come, follow Me.”
We respond, and we go off. We respond, and we go off. But that is not the whole thing. Have you heard Him? And if you have heard Him, have you responded?
Some of us are AWOL. We are absent without leave. What does that mean? It means we are off going and doing our own thing. We are not under the discipline of the army. We are just out without leave. We have not been given permission. We have gone off on our own.
I will say this: sometimes that is the permissive will of God for you. God just says, “You want to go that way? Go. I am not going to put constraints on you here.”
But I will tell you something: being AWOL does not negate His divine summons.
That was Roger’s experience when he talked the other day, wasn’t it? It did not negate the responsibility of the summons, did it? No. That summons is on you. That summons is to you. He is expecting you to respond to the summons.
Maybe some of us need to get back to duty. That is the army way—the Marine way.
Maybe some of us think, “You know something? I am just too old.” Somebody said the other day that we have to speak up because there are a lot of deaf people here, because we are getting older and do not hear as well.
Some of us are thinking we are too old. “I have spent my time. I have already served my generation.”
And some of us think, “I am just too young. It really does not count for me. I am just too young.”
I looked up drafting in World War II while studying for this. At the beginning, in 1940, before the United States was involved in the war, the Selective Service Act made all men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-seven register for the draft.
In other words, they registered so they could be called up. You know what happened after Pearl Harbor? They passed what was called the Selective Training and Service Act.
Do you know who had to register for that? People from the ages of eighteen to sixty-four.
Yeah, sixty-four in 1941—you are almost dead. I mean, your life is gone. And eighteen, your life is just beginning. But all those were saying, “You register for the call.”
It is almost like the service of the priests, from twenty to fifty. You are to serve. We have been called to worship and serve God.
If they needed it, you could be sixty-four. “Come on. You are joining the group.” That is how serious it was. It was 1941. We had just had our Navy almost destroyed in Pearl Harbor. Who knew if they were going to invade?
Called into service. Summoned.
Then the next month—because we say, “Well, I have served my generation”—I think it was February 1942. It used to be that those called into service were called in for twenty-four months.
But in 1942, I think it was February, they said, “No, you are called for the duration, plus six months.” Not just the duration—duration plus six months.
Brothers and sisters, our calling is an eternal calling. It never ends. It never ends.
The question is: Have I heard the calling, and am I responding to it? That is the bottom line.
We can fail to respond, and there will be some loss. I think there will be some eternal loss for us—just some loss. I cannot tell you what it is, because I am not God. I do not know.
But there is also something lost in the moment. There is something lost for this moment that we are in.
That does not mean we might not hear the call again. Thank God, I believe He will. I think He never stops calling us. That is why, in Laodicea, what is He doing? Knocking at the door, continuing to call us out.
There will be a time when that is too late. It is not saying you lose your salvation, but you are going to miss what God is really doing and what God has called you for: to be His testimony.
You see, He writes to these people before He says anything about anything else. He says, “You need to understand what I have done in calling you.”
“This is My calling, so that you would be My testimony in Corinth.” That is the beginning of the book, not the end of it.
“I want you to see, as the background to your life, this calling.” Let that always be the background of your life, so you can look back and say, “Oh, now I remember,” and go forward.
This is what God is after. He is not chiding us. He is just saying, “I summoned you. I summoned you to be something for Me. I will give you all that you need to be this. All I want you to do is answer My summons.”
Let’s pray.
Father, we want to thank You that You love us so much that You would not have us out of the things You are doing and out of Your purpose. We have no idea what these things are, but Lord, I know that You are calling to us and saying, “I am doing something now, and I want you to come with Me and do it with Me.”
Lord, help us to consider these things. Help us to have our ears open to that call so that we might respond.
And Lord, forgive us—for those of us who have been hearing and have been knowing and have just been putting it to the side. Forgive us, and help us repent and be about Your business, to be in joint partnership with You.
Lord, do not just let us think that it is stuff to do. We need that relationship with You firmed up also.
So, Lord, we thank You. We thank You for this being Your will for us: to be that testimony in the world, in Corinth, so they can see how mighty, how great our God is. We pray in Jesus’ name.