Call To Commitment

Call to Commitment

I don’t know about you, but when someone calls, I have a lot of choices to make. Will I pick up my phone, if I do pick it up, what will I say? How should I respond to the person on the other end? What if it’s a telemarketer? What if it’s my mother, and I just don’t have time to talk to her right now. What if someone has been hurt, and there calling to let me know. As you can see I have a lot of choices and things to think about, in relation to a simple phone call, and you know what, so do you! Not talking about a phone call, but rather a Call to Commitment in your life. This morning we will be looking at some calls and how they apply to commitment in our lives.

I. THE UNIMPORTANT CALL

Some times while sitting at home, I’ll get a call, and the call will go something like this. “Hey Chris, it’s Jeff. How’s it going”. I’ll answer fine. “Did you see the Husker game last night?” I’ll answer, yeah. “Do you maybe want to do something this week?” I’ll answer, that sounds good. “Well when I get to plans together, I’ll give you a call.” I’ll answer, well talk to you later. The conversation I just had could be classified as a unimportant call. I don’t know about you, but sometimes late at night, I get a call deep down in my soul, a call that wakes me from a deep sleep, a call that seems to be telling me what to do and how to live. A call that tells me about failures I had though out the day. A call that is leading to commitment. Sometimes I can take this call and push it out of my mind, I can tell myself it’s not important, it’s a unimportant call and go back to sleep. However, God’s call is never unimportant! Because His call, challenges us to be better than we are, His call changes our way of thinking and His call conforms us to the likeness of His Son! (Rom.12:1 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will.”) You see God’s call is never unimportant! (1 Thess. 4:7 states, For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.) I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty important!

II. THE UNANSWERED CALL

How many times, have you sat down to the dinner table, your wife or husband has made a great meal, and then the phone rings. You have a feeling that it’s an unimportant call or better yet a telemarketer, so you decide you let the phone ring. It rings 5,6,7 times and then there is silence. You have just successfully missed the call. I wonder how many times in our lives as Christian we end up missing the call? I wonder how many times we miss the call, because we won’t pick up the phone. You see, God wants to be near you, He wants to have a relationship with you, He wants to love and care for you! But, you have to want to be with Him! (Ps.145:18 says, The Lord is near all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.) The question I have is, Are you listening to His call? Maybe your saying, Chris I have been listening, I have been calling, but nothing seems to be happening? Maybe God is the one not answering? To that look at (Jeremiah 33:3 where God says, Call to me and I will answer you...) Even if your worn out and your commitment is suffering, you can take comfort in the words of the Hebrew writer where it states, “Never will I leave you, Never will I forsake you!” You see our God is not a God of unanswered calls!

III. THE INTERRUPTED CALL

At our house we have a little device on our phone named “call waiting”. What that allows us to do, is to check and see who is on the other line, and if the person on the other line is more important than you, I’ll click back over and say, “could I call you right back”. This happens more than you know, and you know what? Sometimes I forget who I was talking to, and they don’t get a call back. I wonder, now this is just me wondering, how many times we do that to God? How many times are we walking totally committed, hand in hand with our heavenly Father, when we get side tracked. You may be asking, How do we get side tracked? We get side tracked when we fall into sin, when we grumble and fight about things that don’t matter, when we tell God, “I’ll call you right back”! Paul writing to Timothy in (2 Tim.2:22-23 says, Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.) You see God has called you, to be committed to Him. And once your called there is no turning back (Rom. 11:29 states, for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable). When God calls, we need to listen!