Discovering The Call Of God Series

Illustration – This past week…Dodger Baseball game with my two older sons and a

friend of theirs. My oldest, Travis, wants to take his glove… to catch a ball. I try to

reset the expectations in reality. As the game ends.. the players leave the field… he

goes down to the lowest railing near the dugout. I beginning to press that it’s time to

go. Out walks a figure in uniform… holding a g

Baseball… a game ball. Those left in the stand begin waving to get his attention. He’s

panning the small crowd remaining… and then gives it a throw… right into Travis’

glove.

> Reminded me of how God finds us… how he wants to toss each one of us a ball.

But I was also struck by the fact that he had his glove on… and it was open.

> There is a call to every life that seeks to break us out of our isolation and

independence. Apart from God we are like actors without a story…and this series

is about rediscovering the story that defines our lives.

Last week… significance of knowing our purpose… and finding confidence in God’s

intent.

We were created to be loved by God and live with Him forever.

This morning… I invite us to consider how the Call of God engages us.

The story begins in a poetic fashion…

The Creation story given to us in the very first chapters of Genesis in the Old

Testament… has never ceased to speak deeply to the questions of life. There is a

poetic quality and brevity that I believe rightfully allows for various interpretations in

terms of the details… but however we interpret the details, the Genesis record is

clear…. God is the Creator and he breathed His Spirit into that which was uniquely

created to reflect His image… but creatures who possess the freedom that is inherent

to a relationship of love.

The essence of creation is good… life is given the security of belonging to God…and

the significance of our role in His Creation.

But we accept and choose an alternative… that of trying to be like God… they choose

to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…

Genesis 3:7-10

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so

they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in

the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of

the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so

I hid."

2

Having lost their innocence, our first ancestors become ashamed of their

nakedness. They hide from each other behind fig leaves… and they hide from God

behind bushes.

God’s presence comes with the first question…

So what God did say…‘Where are you?’

> not referring to coordinates but condition. God isn’t asking for an

evaluation of our coordinates… but an evaluation of our condition.

“Where are you?”

That question, so simple and direct, had and continues to have enormous implications.

It may be the first question God asks anyone when He gets his or her attention.

We were intended to live within the only realm that such finite created beings

could live in… the innocence of a world that was only good. God was good and all

that God had created was good. Only God in His infinite nature could understand that

good can be negated by creatures of free will and thus allow something evil. Such was

the tree that humans were never to eat of…the tree that represented such an

experience … knowledge… of good and evil.

Such knowledge would construe the very image true goodness…and would

place human existence outside our natural realm.

Apart from the God as the Writer-Director…we have become actors without a

story and without a director. Apart from God we have been trying to write our

own story ever since… or are drawn into many false stories.

• When the top intelligence agencies want to subvert the power and plans of

an enemy, they feed them info that appears credible… but will cause them to

frame their plans wrong.

Our true condition is that of living out both a false pursuit to be gods (pride)

…and that of painfully knowing we are tragically flawed (shame.)

The answer given says it all…

“I was afraid… so I hid.”

We are still sowing fig leaves to deal with our loss of innocence. We

can develop many forms of defending ourselves… and our defenses

become our distance…