Everyone wants to know what their calling is in life. Why am I here? What’s the purpose for my life? Why am I wired the way I am. What’s God’s plan for my life? Some time ago in Schenectady, N. Y., before an audience which included many young engineers from General Electric, Donald Grey Barnhouse spoke of feeding upon Christ, pointing out that the physical action of today was the result of last week’s food, and that the spiritual action in any life is the result of previous feeding upon Christ. I said, “For example, a young man trained as an engineer, with bright prospect before him, hears the call of God to go out to Africa as a missionary, leaves his position, and faces the Dark Continent. He has been feeding on Christ.” I had not more than pronounced the benediction that a young man came up to me and asked, “Why did you say what you did about an engineer going to Africa?” I answered that, as I was preaching, the Holy Spirit had led me. And the young man replied, “I am an engineer and God is calling me to Africa, and I must leave my career and go there as a missionary.” It was a “word fitly spoken” which reached his particular case.¹ You see most everyone wants to know. Some might hide from it because they’re concerned that God might send them to Africa. Well, you don’t have to worry about that. God is totally intelligent and the most able communicator who ever existed. If He wants you to go to Africa, He will surely get that information to you. We’re talking about God’s call on your life and how to find it. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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How to Locate the Essential Will of God for Your Everyday Life

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Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

The One God who can be totally trusted to do what He has promised has called you.  He can be completely relied upon to the very end.

Join the Conversation

Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
This week’s question is:

Question: Share a testimony of how you came to understand what the call of God is in your life. Share your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

If you would like to know more about growing in faith, see the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. Why Possessing Patience Is A Powerful Step to A Faith Filled Life [Podcast]
2. Why Praying in Faith Means to Believe You Receive [Encore Podcast]
3. How You Can Demonstrate Powerful Faith in God [Podcast]
4. Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God [Podcast]
5. Faith and Prayer: Important Lessons to Know [Podcast]
6. Why It’s Important to Flow in Faith’s Domain [Podcast]
7. Scriptures to Feed Your Faith and Combat Fear [Podcast]

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

1. #S11-009:How to Live a Sustained and Guilt-Free Life [Podcast]
2. #S11-008: What It Means to Be Really Mature in God [Podcast]
3. #S11-007: What You Need to Know about Knowing God [Podcast]
4. #S11-006: How to Impact an Immoral City: Lessons from Corinth [Podcast]
5. #S11-005: Why You Can Overcome Weariness With God’s Amazing Grace [Podcast]
6. #S11-004: Why God’s Thoughts On Discipline Are Superior To Yours [Podcast]
7. #S11-003: Why God’s Love and Direction Are a Match Made in Heaven [Podcast]
8. #S11-002:Why You Need God’s Protection in a World Gone Nuts [Podcast]
9. #S11-001: Why Growing in Faith Brings Amazing Results [Podcast]
10. #S10-052: Why Powerful Prayer to Advance the Gospel Is Right [Podcast]
11. #S10-51: Reasons Why People Fail to Receive From God [Podcast]
12. #S10-50: Why You Shouldn’t Be Quickly Shaken by Prophetic Happenings [Podcast]
13. #S10-049: Why Jesus Proven Second Coming Produces Ironclad Hope
14. #S10-048: Why God’s Amazing Dynamic Deliverance Is Coming Your Way [Podcast]
15. #S10-047: What Does a Spiritually Healthy Jesus Follower Look Like to God? [Podcast]
16. #S10-046: Why Repetition Is a Vital Need for Godly Spiritual Growth [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 47 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 42 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic, you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

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Prayer

Podcast Notes

• Well again, welcome.
• Let’s pray

Father God thank you for the calling — your calling in our lives. Thank you for opening that to us and making that plain and clear for us to know. We thank you for that revelation in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Find Your Calling: Three Tremendous Truths

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 (ESV) — 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

• Verse nine is packed with three tremendous truths.
• I say tremendous because everything that comes from God is tremendous.
• There’s nothing inferior that comes from Him.
• Verse nine — three truths for your life.

1. God is faithful.
2. You are called.
3. Fellowship with Jesus is available for every child of God.

• Let’s take these up individually first so we can understand what God is saying as a whole.

Finding Your Calling: God is Faithful

• First, God is faithful.
• We’ve talked about this before in previous podcasts.
• But what here’s what we can additioanlly see — God’s faithfulness is linked to our calling and to our fellowship with Jesus.
• The Spirit of God wants you to know that God’s faithfulness has something to do with your calling and your fellowship.
• You could also see that God’s faithfulness links to other things that Paul has already said in the previous eight verses before we ever get to verse nine.
• Not only that but you can look forward past verse nine on to the rest of the sixteen chapters in First Corinthians and see that God’s faithful links to all the other issues and aspects that He talks about.
• So, God’s faithfulness is center stage.
• You know it’s kind of like an octupus head — one center, lots of arms that reach out.
• The two arms we are looking at today is your calling in God and your fellowship with Jesus.
• God is faithful to your calling — He is faithful to help you find it.
• Your calling is really no big secret.
• The Lord wants you to know.
• ‘Well, if that’a true,’ you might say, ‘how come I don’t know it.’
• Have you asked Him?
• If the answer is no, then you know what to do.

Matthew 7:7–8 (ESV) — 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

• If the answer is yes, then faith and patience are your friends.
• The Word of God says:

Hebrews 6:11–12 (ESV) — 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

• So, you must be convinced that God is faithful to what He has already spoken.
• That the thing God said will come to pass — one hundred times out of 100 hundred.
• No word from God’s lips will ever fall to the ground.

1 Peter 1:24–25 (ESV) — 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

• Peter is quoting from Isaiah chapter 40.
• So, the Word of the Lord remains — He is faithful to it.

Psalm 145:13 (ESV) — 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.

• The Lord is faithful in all his words.
• Is there any part of the word ‘all’ that’s not included?
• All His words — not some — not those contradicted by the six o’clock news — or some uninformed person who says the Bible contradicts itself and can’t be trusted — bologna!
• God is faithful to every word that has ever come from His lips.
• It’s utterly remarkable!
• While we are here in the 145th Psalm, look at this thought – The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.
• Faithful and kind are linked in this verse.
• The kindness that is part and parcel of God finds its home in God’s faithfulness.
• Why is God faithful? — because He is kind.
• Why is God kind? — because He is faithful.
• Oh, I just love Him so!
• God is faithful, but, when we say God is faithful, what do we really mean?
• And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.
• This quote is taken out of the UBS Handbook on First Corinthians.
• Here it is.

The word faithful, often means the attitude of an inferior to a superior, as in the phrase “faithful servant,” “faithful hound.” That is not the meaning in this verse. TEV’s “trusted” is a better translation. Another way to render this phrase [God is faithful] is “You can trust God.” In languages that must show the reason for “trusting,” one may say “You can trust God that he will do these things.”²

• BDAG says the word pertains to being worthy of belief or trust, trustworthy, faithful, dependable, inspiring trust/faith³
• Other commentators and translators weigh in on the meaning of this word faithful.
• How about ‘To always do just what one says’ — that’s the Living Bible.
• According to the International Critical Commentary, the term ‘faithful’ means ‘to be incapable of being proven false.’
• The New Jerusalem Bible has it as to rely on.’
• Because I am a bottom line kind of person, the key point here to all of this is that God will do what he promised and he will complete the work he has begun. ⁴

Finding Your Calling: Faithfulness Emphasized

• The word ‘faithful’ is a vital to what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 1:8, the passage we are studying today.
• Now, I don’t know if you know this about the Greek written language but, it doesn’t layout like the English language.
• Typical English is noun first followed by the verb and then the direct object.
• But in Greek, none of these positional guidelines apply.
• The noun can be first but it also can be last.
• In Greek, the forward position of the word can mean emphasis.
• So look at the first word in a Greek sentence.
• That’s the thought that’s given prominence.
• So, if we look at nine eight, what’s the first word?
• Well, you will need an interlinear Bible to see this — you know Greek with the English translation underneath.
• In English we would write out the words ‘God is faithful,’ just like you have it in verse nine.
• This is the classic English noun followed by the verb, followed by the direct object.
• But, the way Paul wrote this in Greek, the word faithful is first ahead of God.
• ‘Is faithful God’ is how the Greek reads.
• God’s faithful attribute carries emphasis and because of that, it should weigh large in your mind as you read this.
• In other words, if God puts weight on this, you should to.
• The faithful God has called you.
• Glory!
• The one who can be totally trusted has called you.
• He, the one who has promised, has called you.
• The only One who can be completely relied upon to the very end has called you.
• That God is the God we are talking about today.

Finding Your Calling: What’s on Paul’s Mind?

• Let’s take a look at this.
• God’s calling is a focus point in this verse that Paul wrote.
• By the time he gets to this verse, he’s already mentioned this twice.

1 Corinthians 1:1–2 (ESV) Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:

• Paul is ‘called’ in verse one as an apostle.
• The Corinthians are ‘called’ to be saints in verse two.
• We all have that calling — every single solitary child of God is called as a saint.
• Saints are not Catholic — they are Protestant, they are Presbyterian; they are Methodist — they are Church of God in Christ.
• If you call upon the Name of Jesus, this is you!
• Now, keep reading this letter.
• You will find that sixteen times the concept of God’s calling appears.

Finding Your Calling: Who Does God Call?

• Here’s another example.

1 Corinthians 1:26 (ESV) — For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

• Consider your calling — that’s expert advice.
• Well, it’s more than advice — it’s God’s command to you.
• It is an imperative in the Greek.
• From a definition standpoint, the word ‘consider’ means to perceive with the eye, or to see.
• So, what this is saying is that there are some things that we have standing command in place to notice about the call of God.
• Specifically, according to verse 26, we should see and know whom He calls.
• What kind of person does God call — what kind of person does He pass by?
• The first person whom God does not call — that is He does a drive by past that person, is the one who feels they are somekind of smart.
• They have an most elite mentality.
• In their high opinion, they are the ones who are wise.
• But, that’s in comparison to worldly standards.
• The world has a definition of smart — you know IQ rating — university degrees, etc.
• The Greek word ‘wise’ pertains to understanding that results in wise attitudes and conduct.
• It’s a good word.
• It’s the standard that’s bad.
• So, here’s a Bible principle that will help you in your everyday life before God.
• Do you remember what the Lord told Abraham in Genesis seventeen?

Genesis 17:1 (ESV) — 1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,

• The KJV says ‘walk before me and be perfect.’
• Blameless, perfect — how do you do that?
• Well, for one, you must agree with God.

Amos 3:3 (ESV) — 3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

• To walk together there must be agreement.
• Now, God’s not going to agree with your wisdom, you must agree with His.
• Just think about this for a moment.
• The godly wisdom that you possess today, how did come by it?
• Didn’t you receive what you understand from someone else?
• Someone taught you — someone showed you — others were a part of the process.
• Now, where did the person who taught you get their understanding from?
• You see, when you walk the chain back all the way to its source, you’ll find that the wisdom you are so proud to say is yours is in fact Gods.
• He stands at the head.
• So all wisdom starts in God.
• Now there’s another kind of wisdom.
• It’s what we read in verse twenty-six of First Corinthians: ‘wisdom according to worldly standards.’
• The Greek for ‘wordly standards’ is one word: it’s sarx – which is translated flesh.
• The flesh is humankind from a sin perspective.
• That is humanity especially understood according to their physical nature (which is often understood as the seat of sin and rebellion to God).
• So you have God’s wisdom from above and you have humankind’s wisdom which is from beneath.
• Or, God’s wisdom versus the world’s wisdom.
• People who possess wisdom of the flesh are genuinely smart people after a human sort.
• But, let’s examine that for a moment.
• How smart are you really if your intelligence takes you away from God?
• What wisdom do you really possess if your conclusions counteract God’s Word?
• How wise are you really to say God is in error?
• Some have gone so far to cook together a meal of scientific data with their wisdom that concludes that God does not even exist.
• You must admit that people are showing their complete ignorance to say there is not God.
• Only a fool says in his heart there is no God.
• That phraseology occurs in two places — Psalms 14:1 and Psalms 53:1.
• To say there is no God, to live your life like there is no God is the definition of dumb.
• To even think that your understanding is greater than the God that created you — that’s imbecility at an ignoramus level.
• There have been people in history that had IQ’s in the 200 range.
• That doesn’t even put you on the zero mark of God’s scale.
• And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

In July 2006, authorities convicted William French Anderson, the world-famous geneticist, of child molestation. In a press conference, Anderson’s attorney said, “Nothing about having a 176 IQ means you have good judgment.”⁵

• Let’s go on — I think you get the point.
• God does not call people who are wise after the flesh — who choose to operate in this zone and not trust that God’s wisdom is greater.
• It’s simple to understand, really.
• You won’t be able to fulfill the heavenly plan of God with earthly wisdom.
• Whom does God call, we already have the list of whom He doesn’t.

not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth…

• God chose people whom the world deemed as foolish.
• They didn’t have the stuff, the charisma, the power, the money, the influence, the SAT scores that would make the world say, ‘Wow, let’s throw a lot of money at this guy.’
• ‘Let’s use his influence to sell other people stuff they don’t need.’
• The people God calls are the smartest people on the Planet because they made the right choice — they have chosen to walk with God — they have chosen to fellowship with Jesus.
• So, stop feeling bad that you don’t measure up!
• You’re not supposed to.
• Stop comparing yourself with others.
• You’re the example to follow.
• You set the standard.
• In choosing Jesus, you are the superior one because you are in Him.
• God chose you — He intentionally called you because you fit the qualifications.
• You were, per the world, weak, but you’re in fact strong because you are in Him.
• Rejoice in your weakness.
• You are low on the totem pole, passed over, pushed down because the world can’t even stand your guts, but in fact, you are high and lifted because you are seated with Jesus in heavenly places.
• You are despised – the world would rather not even have you around.
• ‘Get rid of those Christians — they cramp our style — they are nothing but bigots,’ declares the ungodly of this world, yet you’re a prized possession in the Father’s eyes.
• You are the apple of His eyes and He made the tree!
• So don’t run and hide from these hateful folk.
• He called you to send a message to them.
• God called you so that His purpose can flow through your life.
• You know the devil has been trying to conquer the planet since the beginning.
• He’ll never get there.
• God is using you to build something that the world can never attain, a kingdom that rules over all.
• Day by day, His love, His power, His wisdom flows through your life as the clock ticks down.
• The Great Plan of the Ages is coming to culmination.
• Jesus will return.
• When He does, who are the wise ones?
• The ones that God called — the ones that are following behind Him in while robes of righteousness.
• The world will one day see who Satan really was and how dumb they were to follow Him.
• And on that day, people will know and see who the wise ones really were all along.
• They’re going to see who the successful people really were.
• The world will understand that those whom they labeled weak were the strongest people on Planet Earth.
• Glory to God!
• God is faithful.
• He called you.
• Fellowship with Jesus.
• Walk before Him blameless.
• Andrew Murray said these words as we get ready to close.

This is the one purpose of God, the great worker in heaven, the source and master of all work, that the glory of His love and power and blessing may be shown.

• And I’m cutting in here by saying — show it.

This is the one purpose of Christ, the great worker on earth in human nature, the example and leader of all our work. This is the great purpose of the Holy Spirit, the power that works in us.

• And I’m cutting in here again by saying — let the power flow.

As this becomes our deliberate, intelligent purpose, our work will rise to its true level, and lift us into living fellowship with God.⁶

• That’s game, set, and match.
• The Holy Spirit is working in you now as you have heard these words.

Father God, thank you for your great goodness and plan. Thank you for your gifts and calling, for we know that you don’t change your mind about these things. We may have messed up, but you have already factored that in your Great Plan. So, we pick ourselves up in Jesus’ Name and by the Blood of the Lamb, we press toward the mark and look to you to use us to establish your kingdom and your way.

• How To Find Your Ultimate Calling for Your Life.
• You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

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