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welcome my name is laurie stores i serve as a prayer partner at passionate life church and today is day 16 of our 21 days of prayer and fasting i encourage you to continue praying for the five areas pastor has asked us to pray for during the fast our nation family finances career church revival and for wisdom and direction in our lives today we will be talking about our purpose and calling as christians when i first saw the topic i was going to be speaking about today i chuckled inside as this has been something i have been seeking god about in my life since i became a believer in 2013. as someone who has been seeking the lord about my purpose and calling i'm excited to share what the lord has revealed to me over the years and put on my heart regarding this subject but first let's go to the lord in prayer heavenly father i thank you so much for this time where we can just come to you as believers and faithful followers of christ to seek your will and your direction for our lives jesus i pray for every single person at passionate life church who is engaging during this very special time that you would reveal yourself to them in a new and exciting way father i pray that all of us would live out our purpose and our callings as committed and obedient followers of jesus and father i pray for everyone who is listening that you would just impress upon their hearts their purpose as your son or daughter and i also pray that you would reveal to each of us the special calling that you have placed upon our lives jesus we give this time to you and we ask that you would bless it in your holy name amen so there's a book that i began to think about as i began to think about this topic and it's a book that you've probably heard of it was by a very famous pastor his name is rick warren of saddleback church in lake forest california and he wrote a book called the purpose driven life that book has struck a chord in the hearts of millions of people across the world this book went on to sell over 35 million copies it was a number one selling book on the new york times bestseller list and it's been translated into 70 languages that all just indicates that the incredible popularity of this book speaks to the heart that we as human beings have a need to know that our lives have purpose that we are not random that we're not accidents but that we actually have a purpose for why we are on this earth the fact that we're that we're not here by accident but that we were created and placed specifically on this earth as it is written in esther for such a time as this the bible speaks of purpose and calling of every person and that just speaks to the fact that you are not an accident i am not an accident but god has a plan and a purpose and a calling on your life and on mine our duty is to seek god discover his good plan for our lives and then live out our calling there's a few passages of scripture that i want to take us to first is psalms 139 14-18 this passage of scripture speaks to purpose it says i praise you because i am fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful i know that full well my frame was not hidden from you when i was made in the secret place when i was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be how precious to me are your thoughts god how vast is the sum of them were i to count them they would outnumber the grains of sand when i awake i am so with you the next passage i want to read is jeremiah 29 11 11. it speaks of god's plans for us and it says for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future these two passages of scripture speak to god's purpose and plans for our lives finally jeremiah 1 4-5 it speaks of calling in fact the subtitle in the niv word study bible calls this passage of scripture the call of jeremiah it says the word of the lord came to me saying before i formed you in the womb i knew you before you were born i set you apart i appointed you as a prophet to the nations so that passage of scripture while it was specifically talking about jeremiah god knew each and every one of us before we were formed in the womb he set us apart to live a life of purpose and calling that is what i want to talk about for the remainder of our time today is what is our purpose as christians how do we determine what god is calling us to do with this life that he has given us so the difference between purpose and calling as christians our purpose is the same as christians the purpose of our life is to honor god with our lives what does it look like to honor god with our lives i want to go back to the old testament and take a look at what god spoke through moses in deuteronomy 6 4-6 says hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength these commandments that i give you today are to be on your hearts and then let's fast forward to the book of mark in the new testament jesus is confronted with a teacher of the law and the teacher of the law asks jesus which commandment was the greatest and jesus recited deuteronomy 6 4-6 back to this teacher of the law and he added one more commandment to it and in mark 12 29 31-31 this is what jesus says he responds to the teacher of the law and he says the most important one answered jesus is this hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all of your strength the second is this love your neighbor as yourself there is no commandment greater than these these verses speak to god's purpose for our lives these words speak of supreme love obedience adoration and devotion to the only true god that we are to disavow idolatry in all of its forms and be committed to god alone as our source jesus adds to the commandment that we are to love others as ourselves so our purpose is to love god and to love other people to expound on that our purpose as christians is to live a life of humble obedience to god by putting god first in our lives placing our faith and trust in christ and then pointing others to christ by the way we live that is our purpose but our calling is a little bit different because the way i think about it is our calling is how we live out our purpose while our purpose is the same our is the same our callings are going to be unique to each of us some christians get scared of the term calling because when we hear that word we've often maybe heard stories associated with calling that a christian was called by god to start a ministry or to go to another country and proclaim jesus to people who have yet to hear about jesus um or to leave their career and go into full-time vocational ministry and things like that and as a person who's just kind of living their life i understand that that can be a scary thought that god might call us to something totally foreign to us but i want to tell you and encourage you today that god is probably not calling to you to something that extreme right now in this moment i say that to say if he is i pray that you would follow the promptings of the holy spirit whatever it is that god is calling you to but don't be afraid to seek god and to ask him to reveal his calling for your life out of fear that it might take you into territory where you feel uncomfortable or that you are being stretched because chances are very good that god is not going to call you to something extreme right now in this moment but it may be something smaller but very significant that god wants you to do to further the kingdom of god i want you to consider the example of christ who up until the age of 30 was working in the family business here we have jesus christ god in the flesh on this earth and for the first 30 years of his life he wasn't necessarily out preaching and healing and going into his public ministry yet he was just going in his earthly father's footsteps of learning a trade jesus was a carpenter as what most scholars believe up until about the age of 30. he worked with his hands he was in the family business he learned a trade and he was faithful to god and loving god while doing that trade just like you might be in your career or whatever stage of life you're in right now jesus was just doing his work providing for his family and being faithful to god the calling that god might have on your life and you need to pray through and ask god to reveal to you but it could be to mend fences with a family member or a friend forgiving somebody who hurt you maybe it's god's put on your hearts to start a small group here at plc and you need to take that first step of getting together with one of our pastors or matt and talk about what it would look like for you to serve plc in that way or maybe it's not to start a group but just to sign up and be a part of a group contribute and start having community with other believers if you're a stay-at-home mom your calling is could be just raising your children in a godly home to start a prayer walk for your neighbors or to give and sow financial seeds into specific ministries and outreaches of plc i don't know what your calling looks like but whatever it is god is going to equip you to live out that calling and to further the kingdom of god for the glory of jesus christ so don't be afraid to seek god in your calling and to make those steps of obedience today the other thing i want to encourage you with too is that at different times in your life there will be different seasons and calling on your life could change so just because god had called you to do something years ago and you think oh okay i did that i was faithful to the lord and i've completed that seek the calling of god on your life for this season right now and you might be amazed at what god reveals to you that he is wanting you to do in this moment in 2021 to further the kingdom of god through you so my final encouragement for you today is to pray that's what you're already doing during this 21 days of prayer and fasting you're praying you're seeking god you're in his word you're reading it you're studying it you're meditating on it be obedient to whatever the holy spirit is putting onto your heart and then step out in faith and trust that god is going to meet you exactly where you are today so god bless you brothers and sisters in christ thank you for this opportunity to speak to you i'm going to close us out in prayer heavenly father thank you so much that our lives are not accidents but they have divine purpose and you have a calling for each and every one of us and god i just pray that during the remainder of this 21 days that we would seek you like never before and that for each and every one of us god that you would reveal to us the calling you have placed upon our lives and that by the power of the holy spirit we would step out in faith and obedience to whatever you have called us to we love you lord we praise you in jesus name amen you