Sermon Central
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Romans Chapter 1(A) What Is This Call Of God? Series
Contributed by Dan Cormie on Mar 2, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: What is the call of God and who are the called?
Dakota Community Church
January 18, 2009 pm
Romans – Chapter 1(a)
Read Romans 1
Romans 1:1, 5-7
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—…5Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. 6And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
1. What is this “call of God”?
We spend a lot of time these days talking about, analyzing, defining, and trying to determine who has the “call of God” on their life.
Paul mentions that he is called to be an apostle, and we tend to think of pastors and teachers and evangelists as having a “call” of God to their offices which is the case but we then think of people not holding an office in the church as “not called”.
Every believer is called of God. When Paul says he is a “servant” of Jesus Christ the Greek word here is: Doulos which literally means “slave” and the opposite of a slave is the Greek word: Kurios which is translated “LORD” and indicates one who has “undisputed possession of” or is “master” or “owner” of another or a thing.
Paul sees himself as called to be the doulos of his kurios Jesus Christ; and further to that he sees every believer as sharing in this call.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul sees himself as a slave, as a dead man, as one entirely owned by the Lord.
Slaves and dead men have no agendas.
Slaves and dead men have no concern for their rights or their personal comfort.
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
Jesus echoes this call to a servant attitude:
Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ’I repent,’ forgive him."
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" {Hey this is HARD}
He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ’Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ’Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ’Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ’We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ "
Jesus doesn’t just talk the talk either:
For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
The point I am trying to make here is that as Christians we are all “called” and that the calling has nothing to do with our personal gain, in fact I would say that we are only great to the extent that we really grasp that we are slaves and our greatness is in Christ.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
