Living Beyond Sunday.  

In this 12-week series (week 3), let’s peek into topics connecting our Sunday Sermons with what we do in our “9-5”.
 
Your Calling Understood Part 2:  

We all have a calling. Have you heard this before.  Your calling to the office/warehouse/Data Center/hospital/etc. is just as important as the calling someone may have to the pulpit or foreign mission field.  There is no such thing, biblically speaking,  as a sacred calling versus a secular calling.  

All Callings are sacred and endowed upon us by our Creator God! 

The Lord has such a great sense of humor and timing.  As I mentioned Last week, Martha and I met in August of 1982 just 3 years after we both made the commitment to full-time Christian ministry.  Of course, I thought that would mean that I would be a Youth Pastor or Senior Pastor one day.  In fact, when Martha and I got married, after I finished my Bachelor degree, I immediately enrolled in Seminary thinking

“I made a commitment to full-time Christian ministry. I better get moving on that by going to seminary.”

Then the Lord sent the Senior Pastor of our local church to tell me

“Jim, not everyone is called to full time Christian Ministry. We need lay people to serve. I don’t think you could handle having 400 bosses.”

I unenrolled from seminary and went back to volunteering.  The sad part of this story is that our pastor perpetuated some very common falsehoods.  I do not believe in any way that he intended to misrepresent God but he did in two ways.  

There is no distinction made in the scripture between someone who is called to be a “pastor” and the rest of us called “Lay people”.  

It is simply not there. We are all called and there is no top down structure in the kingdom placing one position over another.  

We are all critical parts of the Body.  

The second thing that my pastor misrepresented was that my only opportunity was to serve within the church.  He missed the opportunity to speak truth into me as a 22 year old that my workplace was my ministry place. 
 
The Lord called me not to be a pastor in a pulpit but to be a minister in the marketplace. He called me to use my skills in IT, Insurance sales and organization to bring Him glory in my workplace.  I am called to be a person of excellence, sharing that my skills were given to me for the benefit of others and for His glory.
 
Don’t miss this:

You have a calling.

God designed you with that Calling built right into your DNA.  

Use that gifting to bring joy in your life and into the lives of others.

The Scriptures speak about the significance of your specific gifting as it relates to calling:

Romans 12:6 (NLT)

6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.

Romans 14:7-9 (NLT)

7 For we don’t live for ourselves or die for ourselves. 8 If we live, it’s to honor the Lord. And if we die, it’s to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 Christ died and rose again for this very purpose—to be Lord both of the living and of the dead.

1 Corinthians 12 (I recommend that you read this entire chapter – here are some excerpts)

…4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. 7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other…11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have... 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,[e] some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit…So God has put the body together..for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad…

What does this all mean?

God gave us all different gifts, on purpose

We live to honor the Lord, not ourselves, and we do that with our life!

Our gifts were meant to work in harmony with others in the Body

No gift, talent, ability is indispensable

When we fail to appreciate a gift within the body of Christ it hurts everyone.
 

Things to think about:

Do you know what your gifting is?

Have you ever looked down on someone’s role in life or their role within the body of Christ?

Do you appreciate what you have been given as a unique gift from God or do you desire the gifts of others and complain about yours?

How does your unique gifting bless others and contribute to the body of Christ?

Your role within the Body of Christ is Critical.

Come to grips with the fact that your job, not matter what it is, was designed by God to bring Him glory.  When your gifting matches your daily work, a rhythm should exist that brings you peace, knowing that you have been placed here on this earth on PURPOSE.  God chose you to represent Him in what you do each and every day.  

Your calling is critical.