07.31.2022 | CALLING
CALLING
Ephesians 1:18 – “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”
Ephesians 1:18 (TPT) – “I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of His calling—that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that He finds in us, His holy ones!”
1. Calling Is in Jesus
Calling is less about doing something big and more about being faithful to Someone bigger!
Ephesians 1:17 (NIV) – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.”
“We have to embrace the truth that calling is about who you are, before what you do”. – Craig Groeschel
2 Timothy 1:9 – “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
Psalm 32:8 – “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.”
2. Calling Is Now, Not Just Later
Calling is less about a big thing in the future and more about what may appear to be small things now.
You may want to be on a huge platform one day, but God is calling you to serve your sibling today.
“Calling, as we typically think of it, is the fruit of us walking out our actual calling.” – Mikey McGinn
“Outcome: they did not obey fully, so they did not get the fullness of God.” – Sadie Robertson
Calling is less about a big thing in the future and more about what may appear to be small things now.
Isaiah 43:18a, 19a – “Do not remember the former things…behold, I will do a new thing.”
“The Lord has a new thing for you now, in this season and age of your life.” – Jack Hayford
3. Don’t Compare Your Calling
Galatians 6:4 (TPT) – “Let everyone be devoted to fulfill the work God has given them to do with excellence, and their joy will be in doing what’s right and being themselves, and not in being affirmed by others.”
Galatians 6:4b (NIV) – “…without comparing themselves to someone else.”
Galatians 1:10 (NLT) – “Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.”
If calling starts to be about us, then it’s no longer a calling; it’s become selfish ambition.
Psalm 119:18 (NLT) – “Open my eyes to see the wonderful truths in your instructions.”
Discussion Questions:
1. Share your thoughts and experiences around the idea of calling.
2. Is there anything you have ever felt “called” to do?
3. Thinking about calling as becoming instead of doing, what do you think God is calling you to become? (Think about internal change rather than external action.)
4. Share of a time when you or someone else may have stepped slightly away from Jesus in the name of calling?
5. Have you ever been distracted from what God has for you today, by thinking about something you want to see in the future?
6. What helps you overcome comparison when it comes to calling?
7. What does calling look like for you today?