The Concept of Calling

Nothing else matters any more than knowing that you're fulfilling the purpose for which you are placed on the earth. Dr. Tony Evans reveals how you can find your reason for being.

Because once you have that, you are now alive. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Lots of things can be mass produced, but today Dr. Evans starts a series based on the idea that God builds one life at a time, each of us with our own special purpose on this planet.

Let's join him as he explains. I don't know how many Seinfeld watchers we have here today, but it broke all kinds of records as a TV sitcom. What was interesting about Seinfeld is that it was noted not to have a plot.

That is, nothing connected with anything. You know, he would show up and start off with this kind of gag routine and go on to the show and nothing seemed to have much to do with anything. It was a plotless sitcom.

And it went to the top of the charts. They were analyzing why Seinfeld was so popular, and it was concluded that Seinfeld was popular because the folk watching it were in the same situation as a sitcom. Plotless.

No clue. Aimlessly going from situation to situation. Sitcom. Going from one day to another day, one job to another job, one place to another place. Without rhyme or reason, unconnected. Most Christians today are living decaffeinated lives.

All the lead is gone. And like a hamster on the wheel, ever moving, never arriving anywhere. I don't know how many Sunday drivers we have here, people who simply like to get on the road and just drive.

You're not really going anywhere. You just want to drive. It's a pretty day. Let's go riding. Well, I'm a driver.

I love to drive. But even I must admit, after a while, that gets old. Because you're not going anywhere. You're just out there. Far too many of us are living lives like the flicker of a candle rather than the blazing of the noonday sun.

No brilliance. No significance. We don't really feel that we matter that much because there is no sense of ultimate purpose, destiny, or the word we're going to use in our series, calling. Your calling may be defined as the customized life purpose God has ordained for you. The customized life purpose God has ordained for you to accomplish in order to bring Him the greatest glory and the maximum expansion of His kingdom. Your calling, your reason for being, is your customized life purpose, which God has ordained for you and you alone to accomplish, which is designed to bring Him greatest glory and the maximum expansion of His kingdom. There are three things I want to say about this definition of calling, which has to do with your purpose for being. First of all, it is a created purpose. Purpose, calling, it's your reason for being. It's the reason why you were made. You were made to fulfill your calling. A car is not fulfilling its calling if it doesn't run.

A piano is not fulfilling its calling if all the strings are broken, there is no tune coming out. It's not fulfilling the purpose for which it was produced. It's there, but it's not doing anything, or certainly not doing its ordained thing. To live life without purpose or calling is to be like the Dead Sea over in Israel. No life there. It's death. Fish can't swim in it. You can't swim in it.

You get the salt in your eyes, it'll burn you. It is a lifeless existence because it is not fulfilling its purpose. You see, you can't flow out of the Dead Sea.

It's the lowest point on planet Earth, and water runs in it, it just has nowhere to go. Far too many of us are living Dead Sea kind of lives. No outlet, no progress, perpetual stagnation, no calling. God did not create you for fun. He created you for purpose. He didn't just look up one day and say, oh, I'm bored, let me come up with something to do today.

Why don't I make folk? No, you were made with a purpose. Verse 14 of Genesis 1 says, Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens, to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. And God, verse 16, made two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, the lesser light to govern the night.

He also made the stars. God didn't just wake up one day and say, I'm bored, why don't I just throw something up there to shine? He said, no, no, let me make two great lights, one that will govern the day. It will determine how bright the day gets.

The other one will govern the night, and it will have a supporting cast of stars. In other words, he made the sun, he made the moon, and he made the stars for a reason, not just to do it, not because he had nothing better to do. It was an intelligent thought through reason. Verse 20, let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, let birds fly above the earth, an open expanse of the heavens. Well, if he's going to create waters, it's natural that he's going to create sea monsters, he says in verse 21. That is the fish of the sea, the big ones. If you didn't know it, fish were made to swim. You show me a fish that's not in the swimming, and I'll show you a depressed beast, because it was made to swim. The beast on the field, in the field, they weren't made to swim. And if they try to live in the water, they live dead sea lives because they're not fulfilling their purpose. That's not their sphere of operation.

That's not what they were called to do. He says about man, in verse 26, let us make man our own image, according to likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, birds of the sky, the cattle of the earth, and all the creeping things, and God created man in his own image. He says in verse 28, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. He doesn't just say, let us make man. He says, let us make man because we have something for him to do.

Not just be there, not just meander around, not just go around and notice how beautiful the animals are and how wonderful it is to float on the water. There has got to be more to life than this. Most of us spend a lot of time making a living, not a lot of time making a life. And so we suffer from what I call the same old, same old disease. Every day you get up out of that same old bed and you go to that same old bathroom to look in the same old mirror at that same old face, go to that same old closet to look at those same old clothes to put it on that same old body to go to that same old breakfast table, eat that same old breakfast cooked by that same old wife. You know, you get in the same old car and go to the same old work, down that same old road, work next to them same old people for that same old pay, doing that same old job, and you go back down that same old road, into that same old house, hear that same old noise from those same old kids?

Pick up that same old remote, sit down there and go over those same old programs, go to the dinner table and eat that same old dinner from that same old cook. You know, and go to bed and wake up the next day to rehearse that same old routine. And there's nothing wrong with routine if it's tied to purpose.

But if it's routine tied to nothing, you wind up like Dionne Warwick raising the question, What's it all about, Alfie? No manufacturer designs and markets a product until he's determined what it's for. You don't go make something and market it and not be able to answer the question what you do with it. But when you live your life raising the question, Why am I here? That question, however you phrase it, that's a question of purpose.

It's a question of calling. When God created, he created with a purpose. Now let me tell you a secret. The created thing cannot tell you, watch this, its purpose, until its creator tells the created thing what its purpose is. Come on, let's do an exercise. Everybody here is sitting on a pew, right? Ask that pew what it's here for.

Don't look at me. Ask the pew what it's here for. That pew has no knowledge of its reason for being.

That's determined by somebody else. I'm talking to you over a microphone right now. If I were to ask the mic, Mike, why are you here? The mic couldn't tell me. It was the creator of the mic that said why the mic is here. One of the reasons we can't find our calling is because we're trying to tell ourselves why we were called.

That was deep, man, I think about that. We're trying to self-define our calling. A calling assumes a caller. If the phone is ringing, somebody else is calling you. God is the caller, you are the callee.

He is the manufacturer, you are the product. That's why you can never discover your calling apart from God. It's impossible to discover your calling apart from God. But far too many of us are functioning outside of our divinely ordained reason for being, or we're not functioning in it at all, which means we are existing. And when you exist, you have to create callings.

You have to make stuff up. Now, when you get a bunch of folk who don't know their calling living in the same house, you've got a miserable place to live. Because he don't know why he's there, she don't know why she's there, so that already in a frustration, you put on top of that just the regular trials and tribulations of life. There is nothing that is calling them that is bigger than who they are. The successful single versus the defeated single is the distinction between the called one and the one who does not know their calling. The one who does not know their calling thinks all of life is wrapped up in that man or woman they have not yet found and God has not yet supplied. The one who is not frustrated, still desiring but not frustrated, is because they have been called to something bigger that no other person can fix for them.

They are into something so much bigger. Dr. Evans will return in just a moment to wrap up today's message. First though, I'd like to tell you about the perfect book that goes along with the series we've begun today. It's called Discover Your Destiny, Let God Use You Like He Made You. This book from Dr. Evans builds on what we've been learning, that God has an agenda not just for the world but for each and every one of us, custom designed to give us the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from making a real difference. You learn how to find your one-of-a-kind special assignment from God and discover how the Lord will give you everything you need to carry it out. Best of all, for a limited time we're bundling this book along with two volumes containing all 12 full-length audio lessons from Tony's current message series, Called for a Purpose. You can get the Destiny book and the Called for a Purpose audio series on CD or digital download as our gift when you assist Tony's ministry with a donation to help us keep this program on the air. We depend completely on your support and this is one way we can show our appreciation for your faithfulness. All the details are waiting for you online at TonyEvans.org or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members assist with your request.

I'll have that information for you again after part two of today's message and this. God has big plans for you, bigger than you've ever imagined. You're a man of influence, strength and great purpose. Are you ready to live up to your highest potential? Tony Evans' brand new and long-awaited book, Kingdom Men Rising. A follow-up to his bestseller, Kingdom Man, which has sold over 400,000 copies, challenges men to sharpen their spiritual and relational skills to intentionally live with an influencer mindset in all areas of life. Filled with authentic stories of struggle and heartfelt personal loss, Tony takes us to God's Word to show men how to clear all obstacles in the journey that leads to living a life of influence and impact. As you read each page, you will find your soul stirred to reach for more of what God says is possible, no longer settling for a faith that just goes through the motions. Replace helplessness, boredom and regret with power, significance and influence. Get Kingdom Men Rising for yourself or for someone you love. Grab yours at tonyevans.org or at your nearest bookstore or online retailer.

The time is now. Together we rise. Let me show you a great verse, Acts chapter 13, verse 36. What a wonderful verse.

The book of Acts. For David, after he had served the purpose of God, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay. What a great verse.

You say, I don't see nothing great about that verse. That verse says a man died. He didn't die until he had completed his purpose. What a horrible way to die, never knowing why you showed up in the first place. What a horrible thing to do to live 75, 80, 85 years and all you can talk about is your job. Proverbs 29, 18 says that without a vision, without a word from God, people perish. What he's saying is that when people have no direction in life, they wither.

They die. So this is not a small subject. This is not an insignificant subject. God said of Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 1.5, while you were in your mama's womb, I called you. Boy, that's great news that God calls in advance. So calling is critical, but it's tied to your creation. You were created with a calling. Everybody in here who is saved, who has accepted Jesus Christ by faith alone, who has been born into God's family has been called. Once you receive the call to salvation, God now gives you the call to life's purpose. Secondly, it's not only a created purpose, it is a customized purpose. Nobody has your call but you.

It's calling with your name on it. Jesus says, I finished the work which my father gave me to do. He gave me my own job, my own special reason for being, and I completed that task. That is, I fulfilled my purpose for being. Proverbs 20 verse 5 says, the purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but the man of understanding draws them out. In other words, a person who's serious searches for their calling, wants to know their calling. They're not satisfied to exist. They want to know why they're existing.

Thirdly, finally, it is a comprehensive purpose. It's a created purpose. You were created for your calling. It's customized. It's yours and yours and nobody else's.

You are unique as you are. You don't have to be somebody else. Here's why many people don't find their calling. Because their calling is not linked into anything bigger than themselves. What is this bigger thing God has called all of us to?

All of us to. I put it in the definition. It is the maximizing of God's glory and the expansion of his kingdom. That's it.

That's it. If you are a Christian, whatever God calls you to do will give him greater glory and will expand his kingdom in history. Colossians 1 13 says you have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear Son. Every Christian is part of the kingdom. That means all work becomes kingdom activity, even if it's quote-unquote secular. In fact, it's technically incorrect to make the distinction between secular and sacred because if you're a kingdom person, it is sacred. Even if you're washing dishes, you wash them sacredly. Even if you're producing a widget, you do it sacredly because you're fulfilling a calling, if that happens to be your calling. And we'll talk about that because calling may not necessarily be your occupation.

I was talking to a young lady a couple of years ago, and she works for Billy Graham, world-famous evangelist, Dr. Billy Graham, and she inputs data. I've been doing it for years. She said, oh, I love what I do. You like sitting there?

I love it. Why? She said, because this is my calling. How is that your calling? God called me, she said, to help expand the ministry of Dr. Billy Graham using my computer background and skills.

So I don't just sit down and input. I know that a name I put in to that computer bank has just been led to Christ in one of those crusades, and I understand that the letter and the book that I'm sending out to them has eternal value, and that gives me purpose, not because she was called to input in the computer. That's not her calling.

That was her job. Her calling was to support the ministry of Billy Graham, and in that calling, she does that job. The calling is always bigger than you because it's always expanding God's kingdom and bringing God glory, whether it's in a medical field, whether it's as a lawyer, whether it's as a doctor, whether it's as a janitor. If you are called, it has eternal repercussions, and God will always be seen in it and through it, and it'll be so natural. Most of you know your calling but don't know you know it, and I'll give you a little down payment right now.

Here it is. One of the ways you know your calling is that you would do it anyway if nobody paid you. If nobody ever gave you a dime to do it, you'd still do it, because it's like Paul, woe is me if I don't, or like Jeremiah, it's like fire shut up in my bones, and I can't shake it. It burns me.

It sets me aflame. Now watch this now. Watch this.

My time is running out. Watch this now. Because it's kingdom, it always involves discipleship. The kingdom of God is God's comprehensive rule. The process of discipleship is bringing people in line with that comprehensive rule. So therefore, if you are a kingdom person fulfilling your calling, those around you who you affect, you will infect with this kingdom worldview, because it's going to rub off on them to some degree.

Now watch this. When this happens, you will be part of the greatest coup d'etat in history, and the reason you will be part of the greatest coup d'etat in history is that when you fulfill your calling in the kingdom, rubbing off on other people so that they are investigating this kingdom too, you are now confiscating the goods of hell and bringing them into the realm of heaven. Your job is to go out there into the world with your calling, representing the kingdom and confiscating that which has been stolen by Satan so it can be used by the kingdom of God.

That is what your job is. Do you know why the kingdom doesn't have more? Because we have people who leave the kingdom with no calling and therefore do whatever they do out there, and it stays out there.

It never is honest for the kingdom of God. That's why Paul says in chapter 1 of Ephesians that God has done this, that He might bring all things, the sum of all things, under the authority of Jesus Christ. We are His body, and we are sent to be the fulfillment of all things that is everywhere. He calls people in every direction. You don't have to feel bad if you're not called to be a preacher, if you're not called to be a missionary.

Certain people should be called, and you won't be fulfilled unless you respond to that call. But God is also calling people to be entrepreneurs, and He's calling people to be doctors and lawyers and engineers, and He's calling people to be politicians and actors and actresses, and He's calling people to invade hell with the kingdom so that heaven grows. That's what the Lord's Prayer is all about. You know, we went over there. Our Father, who art in heaven, I know who You are.

You're my Father, and I know where You live, way up there. And so because I know who You are and where You live, hallowed be Thy name. So since Your name is going to be hallowed, I've got to reverse my plans so that Thy kingdom comes, which means I've got to redo my life's plans so that Thy will is done. Now if I'm going to holler Your name, serve as Your kingdom, and do Your will, then I'm going to need You to supply me the goods, the carbohydrates, the starches, and the fats so that I have enough physiological energy to holler Your name, serve as Your kingdom, and do Your will.

So why don't You give me the day to daily bread I need to pull that off? And then because You won a pure vessel, forgive me for the things I've done against You as I forgive those who've done things against me, because if I don't forgive those who've done things against me, You won't forgive me who's done things against You. And if You don't forgive me who's done things against You, You will not accept me hallowing Your name, serve as Your kingdom, or doing Your will. Then lead me not into temptation, because if You lead me into anything I can't handle, I'm going to embarrass Your name, embarrass Your kingdom, and embarrass Your will.

And the only reason I'm praying any of this anyway is because it has absolutely nothing to do with me. Thine is the kingdom, Thine is the power, Thine is the glory, forever and ever. Amen. You're part of something bigger.

Something bigger. Every few months we ordain a minister here at Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. We have an ordination meeting and the young man who's gone to seminary or studied comes up and he sits down ready to be bombarded with all manner of theological, biblical, practical, ministerial questions.

He's nervous, he's sweating, he's wondering whether he will make the ordinating cut. But that's never where the process starts. I always open it up with one simple phrase. Tell me about your call. Because I don't care how much Bible you know, if you haven't been called, them folk are going to run you about it then.

Them folk are going to run you out. If you haven't been called, if I wasn't called, I wouldn't be here. You've got to be called to deal with folk. You've got to know this is the work God wants you to do. Because when the hard time comes, sometimes all you have is your call.

All you have is your call. And when they pass the exam, they get the title Reverend. They are now identifiable as duly appointed, duly called ministers. While the reverends are not the only ordained folk around. Every person who names the name of Jesus Christ has been ordained. And you have the call of God on your life.

Or as the old folks put it, a charge to keep our hand and a God to glory. Dr. Tony Evans, with the first from his encouraging message series, Called for a Purpose. As I mentioned earlier, this entire collection is available for you to own as digital files for playback on your audio device or in a two-volume 12-lesson CD set.

As usual, the set contains a lot of bonus material we won't have time to present here on the broadcast. And for a limited time, when you make a donation to help support Tony's work, we'll say thanks by sending you the entire Called for a Purpose audio collection, along with a copy of Tony's popular book, Discover Your Destiny, Let God Use You Like He Made You. Make the arrangements today by visiting TonyEvans.org or reach out to one of our helpful team members by phone. They're available 24-7 to help with your resource requests. Just call 1-800-800-3222.

That's 1-800-800-3222. Or visit us online at TonyEvans.org. It often seems like those who've accomplished the most for God have been through the worst life has to offer. Well, next time, Dr. Evans will explain how your painful experiences can be used to bless and build up the body of Christ. Be sure to join us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.