Running on Empty: Recall Your Call

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Genesis 12 NIV84

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.” When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that she was a very beautiful woman. And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels. But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

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PRAY

How many of us love our work?

How many of us would say our work is exhausting?

DYK that work is a gift from God? Our ability to produce, lead, and accomplish are gifts from God that were intended to make life rewarding.

In the beginning of Genesis, Adam and Eve were placed in the garden to tend it and reap it’s harvest, work that was a blessing. But as part of Adam’s curse, we have been left to struggle in our work to produce. So today in our work, we experience forces at work against us. Realities that take our work, what was to be a blessing, and turns it around and now drives us toward emptiness.

What empties us?

What empties you at work?

Distractions - Distractions from our work take us off track all the time. Not all the distractions are bad, in fact most times they tend to be just more good things - more things that need to be done, more things that others want us to do, more things that others aren’t doing that we need them to do, more than we can do, so they become a distraction.

Right after Abram sets out to follow God, he runs into a famine. He has to take a different path.

Distractions from our work take us off track as well.

Disapproval, particularly when it comes from people who are vested in our work, our stake holders - empties us. When the people - we are trying to help - disapprove of what we are seeking to do, we have to stop, listen, and answer their objections and adjust our work accordingly.

These detractors take the energy and passion out of our work.

Doubts - are another thing. We normally have all sorts of opportunities to doubt ourselves, and they are draining to our work, but even more so when the doubts and concerns come from those who are our normal support system. Our family for example.

Doubts - She’s my sister

When it seems like we are pulling rocks up hill, we go home hoping our spouse will hear us, and maybe even encourage us. But instead of hearing how they believe in us, all we hear is how they doubt our work, our abilitites…leading us to doubt ourselves.

Of yourself and from your support system

When those you expect to believe in you don’t, it’s draining…you question yourself even more.

Delays - are the last one I’ll touch on, when our plans don’t work out on the time line we have set out, we lose passion, momentum; work gets hard when the timeline gets stretched. Or worse, when we don’t even get to see the job through. When we have to turn over our work to someone else to finish.

These aren’t the only things that empty us at work, but they are some of the most common. If we don’t address these we are begging for burnout, so today we are going to look at the alternative God has for us, that is to recall our calling.

When you do everything you are supposed to do, you see ti getting closer, but it’s not realized, you never reach the goal.

In fact, someone else gets to see your project through

Recall our calling or we are are begging for burnout.

These aren’t the only things that empty us at work, but they are some of the most common

In the Digging deeper this week, there re some questions that will help you work through these emptying forces in your life in relationship to another famous worker in the bible, David as he went to fight Goliath. I encourage you to take our message today further.

All of this is to answer the question, SO WHAT does the resurrection matter to my life? How does Jesus change things. I’ve said having faith in Jesus changes our whole life, and work is part of that life, a big part of it. SO when Jesus promised in , that he came that we may have life and have it to the full, this means for our work to be something more than a job.

This full life is a result of the call that God has for our lives through faith in Jesus.

Jesus has called us to live our lives differently.

1 Peter 2:9 NIV84

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This is the calling of every believer.

The bible is full of people who worked, loved their work, yet found themselves running on empty. I want to look at one of them today, Abram.

Which is it? Job, Career, or Vocation?

What’s the difference between a job, a career, and a vocation?

Let’s try to understand the difference between these ways of looking at work.

A job is when you just perform a task for pay. Your heart isn’t in it, it’s just a means to an end. IN fact you hope to get a better job, because this one doesn’t really challenge you or really meet all your needs.

That’s how a job turns into a career, as it is made up of a series of jobs. One building on another as you save for retirement, pursue promotions, gain greater responsibility and influence.

Jobs and career form your vocation....what you do.

But your call isn’t just different, Understanding our Calling makes all the difference.

We see this played out in people again and again in scripture. I want to look at one of them today, Abram.

It all starts in

Genesis 12:1–4 NIV84

This story of Abram and Sarai is is one of the greatest stories in scripture. “Go from where you live and whom you know to a place I won’t reveal yet.” God says that if Abram does that, he’ll bless him deeply. Barrenness will turn into family. Family will turn into nation. Worldwide legacy and impact will result. We can reduce Abram’s calling into a mission statement for us today: Follow God. Be blessed by God. Bless others.

Now fast forward later into Abraham’s journey.

Abram, is distracted when right out of the gate in Ch 12 he and his wife have to deal with the difficulties of a famine forcing him to move again.

But God has called him.

In ch 13 He has to deal with disapproval from those he is traveling with and the lands he travels through. You would read about his dealings with Lot and the kings of foreign lands.

But God has called him.

In Ch 16, His wife calls into question his ability to see this through and even convinces him to take a different path, but he remembers that. In Ch 17, he is called to circumcision…to WHAT? Then in Ch 22 God calls him to sacrifice his only son.

God has called him.

He travels and waits for a child. It isn’t until Ch 20, 25 years for the first child that was promised, the seed of a nation, and another 400 years for it to become a reality, but he is convinced,

God has called him.

With both successes and setbacks, Abraham navigates some major-league challenges.

But for us, today, back to Abram...

How? Why didn’t he just check out on God after years of empty promises concerning a possible child? What kept Abraham from moving back to family and what he knew? How did he go through with circumcision and the potential sacrifice of Isaac?

What empties you at work?

Abraham must have stayed true to that call. “I follow God. I’ll be blessed by God. I bless others.” must have been so spiritually and vocationally formative that it served as a compass in some of the torrential life-storms that came his way.

What empties us?

What empties us at work?

Distractions - Famine

Right after Abram sets out to follow God, he runs into a famine. He has to take a different path.

Distractions from our work take us off track as well.

Disapproval - Lot

The stake holders. People you are trying to help don’t think you are doing it the right way so you have to take time away from the mission to hear their questions, answer their concerns, and adjust the plan accordingly.

Doubts - She’s my sister

1 Samuel 16:1 NIV84

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

Of yourself and from your support system

When those you expect to believe in you don’t, it’s draining…you question yourself even more.

Delays - travels - 400 years

When you do everything you are supposed to do, you see ti getting closer, but it’s not realized, you never reach the goal.

In fact, someone else gets to see your project through

These aren’t the only things that empty us at work, but they are some of the most common

Abram wasn’t perfect, God had to remind him over and over again. Like in Genesis 15

1 Samuel 16:10–13 NIV84

Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered, “but he is tending the sheep.” Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.” So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; he is the one.” So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.

Genesis 15:1 NLT

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

Genesis 15:

Abram had to be reminded that he had been called by God. That God had a purpose for his work, it wasn’t just a job, he wasn’t building a career, no he had a calling.

What’s the difference between a job, a career, and a vocation?

A job is Understanding our Calling makes all the difference.

Let’s try to understand the difference between these ways of looking at work.

That’s how a job turns into a career, as it is made up of a series of jobs. One building on another as you save for retirement, pursue promotions, gain greater responsibility and influence.

Jobs and career form your vocation....what you do.

But your call isn’t just different, Understanding our Calling makes all the difference.

Now jump later into Abraham’s journey. Disagreement with his nephew Lot — the only family he had left (). Continued barrenness (). Circumcision: “The sign of the covenant will be what?!” (). A king hits on his wife (). God wants Abraham to sacrifice his only son ().

And if Abraham didn’t recall the call, he’d have hit the wall.

Is that kind of calling available to the rest of us? The answer is yes.

What is my call?

What empties us at work?

Delays

Detractors

Disapproval

Doubts

When I was first aware of my calling was on Tuesday April 20, 1999. It was the day of the columbine shootings in Colorado. I felt an unquestionable call from God to do something. Later I would come to be convinced it was to lead the church to again reach out to people with God’s love. To move out into the world again so that our neighbors would not die without the opportunity of a relationship with him through Jesus.

This call shaped my vocation. I started teaching school and working in youth minstry. Then I began youth ministry completely, reminding the church to reach out to the youth who were lost around us. Then I began pastoring a church in order to lead the whole church toward ministry for our community.

Every Christian is called and every christian is uniquely blessed, gifted, and inspired for unique vocations. No calling is better than another,

Every Christian is called to a vocation.

It begins with the same DNA of Abraham’s call:

We follow God, we are blessed, we bless others.

But then the Holy Spirit gifts each of us individually, empowering us to live out our own calling. This makes sacred work of being a jeweler, a teacher, a farmer, business owner, builder, musician, mother or electrician.

For the Christian, there is no separation between the sacred and the worldly.

What is my call?

What is our call? Our calling is how we do what we do

It’s all sacred because we respond to and engage God in our daily activity. In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence famously said,

“Our sanctification does not depend as much on changing our activities as it does on doing them for God rather than for ourselves.”

That’s where “work” and “calling” collide.

But let’s not be naïve about this. We still live out our calling through some deeply challenging experiences. Abraham had his own crises to deal with. We have ours.

• The teacher has to deal with increasing classroom size, low pay, parental complaints and pressure to produce high test scores.

• The businessperson has to lay off two more people. Her or his passion for innovation is trumped by cost-cutting measures. The office worker who labors in a cubicle feels stale and lifeless.

• The stay-at-home mom never feels ahead of the slave-driving to-do list and must battle a tantrum-throwing toddler. She’s always a mom and a wife but doesn’t have time to be her own woman.

• Dad feels suffocated when kids and chaos greet him at the front door. The lawn needs mowing. The church needs volunteers. The daughter hates her body, and the son is scared to ask a girl to go to the prom.

Perhaps these don’t stack up to Abram’s crises: circumcision, childlessness and then the call to sacrifice the one child he finally has. But whatever our crises — even if they don’t match the magnitude of Abram’s crises — they’re ours, and no one gets to tell us they’re insignificant. Truth is, we feel deep opposition to our calling. Like Abram, life isn’t roses just because God calls us to something.

What is our call?

What is work?

And if we aren’t careful, we’ll die in the details. We’ll hit the wall. We’ll burn out on what we do because we’ve lost sight of why we do it.

Everybody has a calling that needs to be recalled. Otherwise, like you, they’re begging for burnout.

How to recall the call

First, we must recall our call in our work. How has God wired us to do what we do?

Third, how can recalling our calling change the way we look at challenges and problems? How can we lead a life that’s “on mission” in whatever we do? Our calling must always reorient us to God, ourselves and others.

God calls us into specific roles, with unique vision, to boldly act toward his mission, fulfilling His purpose for our lives.

How do I recall my call?

God calls us into specific roles, with unique vision, to boldly act toward his mission, fulfilling His purpose for our lives.

How do I recall my call? Roles, Vision, Actions, Mission:

Vision:

Actions:

Mission:

Roles: What roles do they serve in life? (Husband, Father, Pastor)

Vision: What would the world have more when I am living at my unhindered best? (reproducing disciples, compassionate servants, principled champions)

Vision:

Actions: What are their strengths and passions? (serving, leading, teambuilding, and encouraging)

Actions:

Now have people pull all that together into a first-draft mission statement: As a (list your roles), I partner with God to make a world of (list your visions) by or through (list your actions).

As a Husband, Father, and Pastor, I partner with God to make a world of reproducing disciples, compassionate servants, and principled champions through serving, leading, and equipping others in love.

That’s a calling. It’s a compass when the storms hit.

Now...Think for a minute about the challenges in your vocations. What triggers us to wonder what in the heck we’re doing and why? For me, it is when I find myself cutting people out of my life, when I isolate myself from people and toward tasks. When I become task oriented, I am off track. My call is to love people…not tasks.

Recalling our calling change the way we look at challenges and problems? How can we lead a life that’s “on mission” in whatever we do? Our calling must always reorient us to God, ourselves and others.

If God didn’t love Abraham, he’d have left him as Abram. If God didn’t love his followers, he’d let us die in the details of purposeless lives.

But Abram’s God and our God is the same. Because God loves us all deeply, he calls us all purposely.

Third, how can

Running on Empty? Recall Your Call

What is work?

Pray for those needing to know their call

A place to build

Pray for those needing to recall their call

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COMMUNION

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you,

Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.

You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, and set before us the way of life.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

By your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of your Son from the dead and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Once we were no people, but now we are your people, declaring your wonderful deeds in Christ, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.

When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

On the day you raised him from the dead he was recognized by his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and in the power of your Holy Spirit your Church has continued in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us,

as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father (God ), now and for ever.

Amen.

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Digging Deeper

“But David was held back to care for the sheep in Bethlehem.”

When God gives you a dream, there is always a delay. Have you ever had to wait on God? What did God teach you while you waited on him to make your dream happen? How can remembering how God helped you in the past assist you when dream fulfillment is delayed?

“As David talked with his brothers on the front line, he saw Goliath start shouting his usual threats to Israel’s army. When the army heard Goliath, they all ran away in terror.”

Goliath berated the Israelite army and they were afraid. What negative voices are you listening to in your life that create fear? How can surrounding yourself with people filled with faith help conquer those dream-busters? What changes do you need to make in your life to build a stronger faith in God?

“According to your faith it will be done to you.”

Disapproval can be a powerful dream killer, but if God is the one who gives the dream, you can have confidence as David did when he faced Goliath. Consider for a moment a dream that you are confident God has given you? How do you think you might maintain your confidence in the face of disapproval of siblings, other family members or trusted friends?

“Then Saul dressed David in his own armor…But David said, ‘I cannot go out in these, because I’m not used to them.’ So he took them off…instead he chose five smooth stones for his sling.”

Doubt. If God has called you to fulfill a dream, then he doesn’t expect you to doubt him and wait to take the first step. He wants you to trust him. Often people will try to persuade you to do it their way instead of the way that God has prepared you to move ahead. David didn’t use the armor Saul had used but instead chose the tools he understood and was skilled in using. How can you discern when the dream you have is from God, and the tools you have are the right ones? How can you trust God and relax in fulfilling what God has called you to do?

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Running on Empty: Recall Your Call

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But for us, today, back to Abram...

What empties us?

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What is my call?

What is our call? Our calling is how we do what we do

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Running on Empty? Recall Your Call