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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

David DeRose

The Call

It's good to see so many familiar faces, as well as a lot of faces I'm not familiar with.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm David D.

Currently, I spend my time up with Weimar and Amazing Facts.

I spend roughly half my time practicing medicine with the Weimar New Start program and the other half time teaching at Weimar College.

And somewhere in that mix, I also do some work with AFCO and Amazing Facts.

So it's good to be here in Loma Linda among friends, and it's good to be able to study together from the Lord's counsel.

I invite you just to bow your heads with me as we seek Him in prayer.

Father, we bow our heads right now, not because we haven't prayed enough.

But it's not because we think you haven't heard us already, but it's because we want to acknowledge you.

We realize that the only benefit that will come to us this morning is if you're the 1 who speaks.

Give not only my mind clarity, but each 1 here, so that Jesus will be glorified.

I don't know how it was that particular day.

I don't know if it was a routine day or if it was an unusual day.

I don't know how business was, if things were going great and he was just so engaged with what was happening or if there was something captivating his mind.

But I do know 1 thing, that his whole life changed when Jesus spoke those words.

Yes, unanswered questions about the background, but no question about the result of Jesus' words recorded here in Luke chapter 5.

Because Jesus comes to Matthew, to Levi, at the post of customs, And he speaks these words, follow me, follow me.

2 short words and the scripture tells us that as Levi hears that call, he gets up, he leaves everything, and he follows Jesus.

So impressive is the call that Levi's whole life has changed, and everyone knows about it, Because Levi makes sure that all his friends come to a party expressing his appreciation for the 1 who saw in him potential that perhaps he himself doubted.

You know, in the Bible, there are many examples of specific calls.

We could spend a whole week together or months together looking at some of the many people who receive very definite specific calls in the Bible, I've just put a few of their names up here before us.

And your mind may go to some of these individuals who God spoke to in very clear ways, whether it was through an audible voice, whether it was through a vision, whether it was through Jesus inviting them when he was on this earth.

When we think about some of these Bible examples, I wonder if some of us don't have our own unanswered questions.

Have you ever wished that God would just give you a clearer call?

I don't know what you're dealing with today.

I mean, some of you, you may be on the verge of waiting to hear back from the match.

And you are waiting that God would just maybe have made it perfectly clear already, but at least when that momentous day comes out, what is it, the 17th of March?

To know really that it's the call of God and not just some mistake you made in filling out some list.

Others of you are praying about your social situation.

You might be wondering about that person next to you.

Is God really leading in that friendship or that relationship or that Bible study that you're planning to lead out and you're wanting some kind of definite call.

I mean, isn't this part of our human predicament in the Christian life?

We're often looking for more direction than it seems that God is giving us.

I want to look with you at an amazing statement that builds on the experience of Levi.

It's somewhat tangential to our direction as to where we're going, but it also gives you a preview of where we will go by God's grace in our time this morning.

In Review and Herald, August 15th, 1899, we have this account, scriptural account, repeated, where Jesus gives this invitation to Levi, and then Levi gets up and follows him.

But the words that follow, I think, are especially remarkable and relevant to us.

Because it says, just such invitations must be given by Christ's ambassadors.

General invitations are given, but not enough definite and personal invitations.

If more personal calls were made, more decided movements would be made to follow Christ.

Now granted this seems to be speaking about appeals to give our lives to Jesus and what I'm putting this up for is just to bring our minds to 1 direction that we'll pick up in on this presentation.

And that is simply this, you may be longing for God to give you more definite direction, but there's a flip side to the whole dialogue this morning.

And that is God is wanting you to give specific direction to individuals in your sphere of influence.

Some of them it is a call to follow Jesus.

For some it may be counsel that we wouldn't say is a call, we're not trying to say that we need to look to 1 another to be the spokespeople for God's voice, but at the same time we are saying that God has a bigger plan and you are part of that plan.

So while you're asking God to give you clearer direction, while you may be in somewhat of a state of turmoil this morning, don't fail to realize that there are ministry opportunities all around you.

And whether it's not right here in this very room, as you leave today, you're going out into a mission field, Are you not?

Now this morning, many of you were wrestling with a text, and that text really gives us a personal call in the context of a corporate call.

Let's look at it together again this morning.

They're saying I'm getting too enthusiastic.

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

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Is there a call in this general epistle of Peter?

What kind of calls do you see in this verse?

You're called as a people, you're called to be part of God's family.

That's the first dimension that Peter is speaking about.

So there is a call, it's a general call, but it's a specific call to each of us individually.

In Galatians 4, the same Apostle wrote these words that focus us on this general call that every 1 of us has been given and has received if we're believers.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because you are sons and daughters, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, and we call him Abba, or Daddy, or Father.

We're a chosen nation, but we're more than that, according to Peter.

And I would like to suggest to you that as I interface with people, whether it's at Weimar College, whether it's in presentations that I make, I am surprised to sense that in spite of this repeated call in the New Testament that we are called as priests, most of us haven't really struggled with what that call entails.

Most of us struggle with direction in areas of our lives.

And if God has called us to be something, don't you think that understanding what we were called to be might help make some of those other decisions a bit easier?

Some of you who know me realize I do a lot of work with Native Americans.

I lived for many years in Oklahoma and still host a weekly health radio show targeting Native Americans.

When some of my Native American friends hear of a priest, they think of someone like this.

If you know my background, my first thoughts of a priest when I was growing up was someone who dressed like this.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word priest?

Is it something that brings up warm thoughts in your mind?

Or are they distancing thoughts, like maybe some of these images that are projected here?

I would like to suggest to you though, that when you hear the term priest you would be better off thinking about what you see in the mirror.

Now that may be somewhat unsettling too, but really in the biblical context we are called as priests And so when I look in the mirror, hopefully I'm starting to glimpse part of the call of God.

Not that I feel capable of fulfilling that, because if we understand what the priesthood is all about, we shouldn't leave here today feeling proud of our call, but rather humbled of what God has called us to be.

Look at how Peter put it a few verses earlier than the text that we looked at, you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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The Call

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