GOD IS CALLING — WILL YOU ANSWER?

0:15 After I finish this sentence, over 1 million calls will be made. In fact, today, over 13.5 billion calls will occur around the world. What do you do, though, when you get a call? If you're like me, and I know you're like me, you look at your phone and see who's calling, okay? Most of the time, I think we push the green button and answer the call. Most of the time. Now and then, we decline the call. and sometimes I do this some, and I really don't like it when people do this. This is just kind of a pet peeve of mine. You text back, like, I'll talk to you later, or I'm in a meeting, like I'm important, you know. I do that some, I'll admit it.

1:11 And then, now and then, I don't do this a lot, but sometimes I do. I'll just block the caller. our responses to calls. Today, I'm going to tell you something. And this is the message in like one sentence, God is calling you. I'll say it again. The God of the universe is calling you. And the question is obvious. The answer though, maybe it's not so obvious. What is your response? Again, God is calling. It's throughout scripture. God calls every single person. The question is, what is your response? God is calling. What is your response? Do you say, okay, God, I'm available, I'm ready.

2:07 Do you push the green button? Do you go, you know, no, and decline the call and let it go to voicemail? What do you do? Do you text back, God, not right now? Or do you just block the caller? There was a guy in the Bible, you've probably heard of him. His name was Moses. You ever know Moses before? Moses was the guy that delivered, God used to deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. God's people, they were in a brutal state. God appointed a man because when God has a plan, he picks a man or a woman. And Moses was the man to lead all of those people, millions of them out of Egyptian slavery to the brink of the promised land. Moses is a great example of what to do when you're called. Hey kids, Moses was popular. Ask someone who's younger, hey, what do you want to be when you grow up?

3:15 Or what do you want to do? Oftentimes the response is, I want to be famous. Moses was famous. Let me say it again. He was blowing up. He was trending. Everyone was talking about Moses. His background is absolutely incredible. He was the Hebrew adopted into the most prominent family in the world, Pharaoh's family. Egypt, again, had the Hebrews enslaved and through just a supernatural turn of events, Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses and they were killing all of the Hebrew kids into this family. Moses was talented. He was a leader. He had the best education. He had the best food, the best training.

4:09 He learned military tactics. He learned about history. He learned the ABCDs of leadership. He had it going on. and people were saying this about him. This Hebrew who's turned Egyptian will probably be the next Pharaoh. I mean, he probably will be. That was the talk of the town. You know you're popular. If they're talking about you in Egypt as the next Pharaoh, wow. That's what was going on. you can outline Moses's life in, in this way. The first 40 years, he was a somebody. Say somebody with me. The next 40 years, we're going to find out he was a nobody say nobody. And then we're going to discover the last 40 years. God, we're going to discover can use anybody. Say anybody. That's you. That's me. Again, God is calling you, number one. Number two, God has equipped you for your calling. And number three, you can make, and God wants you to make, a difference in this one and only life. So what I'm talking about today, when I talk about the call of God, the call of God transcends everything we're about. You might say, well, Ed, I drive trucks. It transcends that. Or I'm a professional football player. It transcends that. I'm a coach.

5:49 It transcends that. I'm a teacher. It transcends that. I'm a doctor, a surgeon, a lawyer, a pastor. It transcends that. God is calling you and he will equip you with the calling to do great things. The question is, it goes back, what is your response? Moses is 40 years old. Again, he's the talk of the town. He's famous. He's popular. And I'm sure he, you know, when you're popular, you're, you're, you're thinking about the crowd. You know, you're, you're thinking about what people think about you. That's part of popularity. And really Moses during the first 40 years was probably thinking more about what other people thought of him than God. Moses made a serious error in judgment. He saw one of his his boys, his Hebrews being taken advantage of by an Egyptian. And he, I mean, Moses was a real emotional guy. You know, I love how football announcers will say, look at him. He's the emotional leader of the team. I don't know what that means, but Moses was the emotional leader of Egypt. He killed the Egyptian for taking advantage of his boy. And he buried him in the sand. And he looked all around. He thought, man, I've gotten away with this. But the toes started sticking out of the sand. This could be a Netflix documentary, couldn't it? They caught Moses.

7:27 and Moses turned and ran. Are you ready for this? God's man moved from being famous to a fugitive. From the palace, you could say, to the pasture. And he finds himself moving from somebody to nobody. Working in the desert. Are you ready for this? For his father-in-law. Sam? Sam is my son in love. He was up there. You know, the cool guy, cool shirt on. Yeah, Sam.

8:08 He loved his father-in-law, Sam. Moses did. His father-in-law was the priest of Midian. He loved him and they had a good relationship. And if you read about his father-in-law, his father-in-law really spoke into his life. His father-in-law taught and trained him as well. So Moses was a somebody and God had him there in Egypt. Think about it. Educated. He knew the laws and the loopholes. He knew how to talk with the Pharaohs, with all the politicians and all the lawyers and all the power players. He knew that God had him there. And now he's moved from being a somebody to a nobody. He's in the desert. You realize when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery, he led them through the same desert he lived in for 40 years. He knew that desert like he knew the back of his hand. He knew where the rattlesnake dens were. He knew where the hyenas hung out. He knew the watering holes. You see, God was preparing him for what he's prepared for him. Think about Egypt. How was he able to walk into Pharaoh's office and go, let my people go? Because of his background. God has formed you. He's made you. He's fashioned you. He's used everything in your background, good, bad, and ugly, to bring you to where you are today.

9:41 Obviously, God didn't cause the bad stuff. I mean, we live in a fallen world, you know, a jacked up place. We all understand that. I'm just telling you that God has prepared you and me for what he's prepared for us. Isn't that great to think about that? It's amazing. So here's Moses working with his father-in-law. and he finds himself as a sheep herder.

10:14 Sheep are not the smartest creatures around. A sheep herder in the sand, the desert. Think about the sun. Think about all the elements he had to deal with. One day he's walking down this trail. He'd been down, I'm sure, a squillion times. He sees something that catches his attention. Would you say that word with me? Attention. God will get our attention. He sees a bush on fire. The fire did not burn the bush. So obviously he's like, this is strange. This is weird. So he walks over to it. And here is what the scripture says. Join me in the Midian desert in Exodus chapter three, verse four. When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, to check it out, to investigate, to do this covert and overt operation, God called to him from within the bush, Moses, Moses.

11:28 God uses the ordinary to speak in extraordinary ways. Oftentimes, God uses common ground and makes it holy ground. It's because of the presence of God. So God's just using this. So what kind of situation is God using in your life right now to speak to you?

11:56 It's going to be something common. more often than not. Sometimes it's spectacular. But what is God using? Maybe you're going through a high point in your life. Maybe life is kind of like, eh, ho-hum. Maybe you're somebody. Maybe you've figured out you're kind of a nobody where you are. I promise you, God, if we're sensitive, if we listen to his call, God is calling you and me through the normal. just through the everyday activity. So it's interesting how God gets our attention, isn't it? Well, look at the next thing in this whole calling scenario, the next movement we could say. Yes, we have God getting his attention, but look at the awareness that was going on. Exodus chapter three, verse five.

12:50 Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals. Let me stop. Whenever we're in the presence of God, whenever we're on holy ground, we have to take off something that could be hindering us. That's the picture here. Don't come any closer. Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is, say it with me, holy ground. Now, holy ground is ordinary ground invaded by an extraordinary God. That's what it is. Holy ground. Holy ground. It's the presence of God. Ground in and of itself is not holy, but as believers, because we walk in the presence of God, because God has infiltrated our lives wherever we walk, wherever we tread, it's holy ground. This room is holy ground. Where you are sitting is holy ground because the Bible says where two or more are gathered.

13:53 It's holy ground. This is not common ground. It's not. It's not common ground. It's not some theater. It's not some arena. It is holy ground. And the building that I'm so excited that we're breaking ground on today is holy ground. It's not common ground. It's holy ground because the presence of God is there and God will call and call and call and call and call and call and call and call who knows how many people through that holy ground called the anchor center. So when it comes to holy ground, we either believe it's holy ground or we think it's common ground. We have some common ground people and that's okay. you'll discover one day this is holy ground, but you're like, this is just common, man.

14:50 You know, this is common ground. Common steps, common stage, common seats, common square footage. No, it's not. It's holy ground. Some of us know it's holy ground. So if we know it's holy ground, we should be here on time. we shouldn't be scrolling or texting we should actually engage in worship it's holy ground we're in the presence of the king of kings and lord of lords the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end our sovereign lord and we should pay attention to messages and worship. And God speaks to us through ordinary human beings.

15:48 God draws straight lines with crooked sticks. I'm a crooked stick, so are you. Isn't that awesome? Moses was a crooked stick. He didn't have it all together. And what's so funny is God called him And Moses spent two chapters trying to get off the phone. Have you ever been locked into someone you just cannot get out of the conversation? You know those over-talkers? Here's the thing about over-talkers. Over-talkers don't even realize they're over-talking. You don't. That's okay. We love you. And I sometimes over-talk myself. But that's kind of the situation. He's trying to evade God. He's over-talking him. Check out his excuses. So we have the attention. We have the awareness. and the assignment. Here's what God said. Exodus chapter three, verse 10. He goes, Moses, I am sending you. Drop the mic. I'm sending you. You're standing on holy ground. Take your sandals off. I am sending you. And that's what he's saying to you and me. He's sending us. He's sending us.

16:53 Now here's where Moses just gets into this, this, this long, long diatribe of excuses and he over talks to God. Now, the good part is when, when, when, when God said, Moses, Moses, Moses said, here I am. And that pretty much is what we should say. That's, that's all we got. Cause God's not concerned about our ability, but our availability. He'll give us the ability. I mean, if I'd thought about my ability, I would have never, ever, ever done what God has allowed me to do. It's because of my availability. It's not my ability, but I've discovered that when we're available, God will give us the aptitudes and gifts and abilities to do what he wants us to do. But look at these excuses very, very quickly and run through them. This is God calling and check out what he's saying. Who am I? God, Exodus chapter three, verse 11. Well, that was really the wrong question. You should have thought, man, God, who are you? Exodus 4.1. What if they don't believe me or listen to me? This is scenario sickness, isn't it? Exodus chapter four, verse 10. I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and tongue. Oh Lord. And God just let him talk. He let him, you know, sometimes you have to let those over talkers go.

18:24 Exodus chapter four, verse 13. Oh Lord, please send someone else to do it. I love God's answer. Verse 12. I'll be with you. that's the sermon God is calling you yeah but God I'll be with you you're called by God and I'm called by God I remember being called to pastor fellowship church called and I've never shared this story I'm going to share it but just listen to me just for a second I was working on a church staff where my father pastored.

19:23 It was the largest church in America at the time. tens of thousands of people. I think they have now 95,000 members, I believe. And it was the most financially stable church in America as well. I worked in that environment. I felt a calling from God to pastor my own church. I was in my mid-twenties.

19:54 I wanted to pastor. And so I began to pray about that and think about that and turn it over and over in my mind. And I heard about a church through a unique set of circumstances, just ordinary circumstances that happened to turn into something extraordinary. I heard about this church that was starting in Dallas-Fort Worth. let me press the pause button. I told all of my friends when I felt this calling into the ministry, I said, you know what? There's one place I'll never go. Dallas, Fort Worth. Too many preachers. I mean, you go into any coffee shop, there's 10 Bible studies going on. Too many seminaries, too many televangelists, too many churches, too many big steeple few people churches.

20:49 I'm not going to Dallas. It's where the professional Christians are. I mean, I want to go like to Southern California or South Florida or maybe Canada. That's what I was thinking. don't ever say that to God. God has a unique sense of humor, doesn't he? Because now I always loved Dallas. No, no, I loved it before I moved up here. But that was where I was. Well, I was speaking at a chapel service in a small school here. One of the 30 families heard me speak and they really felt a leading to talk to Lisa and I about coming up here. to pastor Fellowship Church. 30 families.

21:37 And rented facilities. We had never met or never seen the church, Lisa and I. So we come up here and they said, hey, we want to have a night where we question you. Are you ready for that? Three hours under the spotlight. My hand lifted up. You can ask me any question. Ask Lisa any question. And we answered those questions. I'll never do it again, but we did. when I walked into, now remember where I'm coming from. Context is king.

22:11 Okay. I'm coming from a church, the worship center. There's not a church like it here in Dallas, Fort Worth. None of them are the size of what I'm talking about. Okay. I'm going from that to a little office complex and I'm open. I'm like, okay, God, because I really believed God was speaking to my spirit. I've never heard God's audible voice, but I've come close. I felt him saying, okay, I want you to do this. But when I walked in the door with my lovely bride by my side, I looked around at these people and everything in my being said, get out.

23:00 Run. you don't want to do this. Everything. But I heard this still small voice and here's what I heard. Not audibly but sometimes as God speaks to your spirit it's better than hearing the audible voice. God just said stay with me. I've called you here. I'm thinking, God, these people, the average age is 73.

23:37 They're Southern Baptists, you know? And I come from a Southern Baptist background, but you know what I'm saying, too. And in this area, in the area of Irving, where we started Fellowship Church at the time, was kind of a dead area. And any time you have a growing church, it's around a growing community. You look around, oh, this church is blowing up. Well, the community is blowing up. I mean, who would start a church in a dead area? Yet, this is so God, there were a group of faithful families in the midst of those 30 families and they're still here at Fellowship Church. Isn't that amazing? And if it weren't for them, I would have bolted.

24:29 So Lisa and I accepted the call. That's what the church called it. We're calling you. Isn't that funny? And we said yes. And I felt some holy tension. I really did. I mean, I, I, Irving, God, maybe you said Irvine, but. we accepted. And I had no idea, no idea what God would do. None. And I'm telling you,

25:06 we every day wake up and pinch ourselves and go, God, I can't believe this. And Lisa and I have not live perfectly, nor have you. Every day though, I try to say before God, God, here I am. I mean, I don't have the ability, but God, I want to be available to you. And I can't tell you what God has done. That's just my life. It's just me. There's been thousands, tens of thousands who would echo that story in even a more dramatic way. I'll say it again, God's calling you. He is calling you. And we're called, check this out, to reach up. You're called, I'm called to reach up. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 22, verses 39 and following, it tells us, love the Lord your God.

26:04 This is what Jesus said as he summarized everything. love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, and with all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is love your neighbor as yourself. I'm called, you're called to love God, to worship God, to reflect God in everything. In your marriage, the way you deal with your kids, you might be a single parent, you might be struggling, You could be on welfare. You could be a billionaire for all I care. God has called you to reach up to worship him and to love your neighbor as yourself. Also, we're called to reach out. To reach out. The Bible tells us in Matthew 28, verse 19, it's called the Great Commission. Not the Great Omission.

27:00 The Great Commission. Jesus said, go. He didn't say yo. Go and make disciples, full court followers. Make disciples. And we are to reach out. And as God gives us the ability, we're to impact and influence others for the glory of God. You're called to reach up. You're called to reach out before you're called to be a teacher or a coach or a truck driver or a pastor or a surgeon or a lawyer. This is on another level here, what we're talking about. Now, obviously, God does not call most of us into the ministry. I don't wanna scare you. When I felt the call into the ministry, you'll love this, I walked into dad's closet. He was getting dressed for a funeral. I said, dad, I feel called into the ministry.

27:55 He goes, you do? I said, yes. He said, well, son, I don't know about that. What? He said, if you can do anything else and halfway enjoy it, don't become a pastor. It's great advice. because there's nothing else out there that I know I'm supposed to do other than this. So we're called up. We're called out. Who are you reaching? Who are you inviting? Who are you engaging to come to Fellowship Church? Most people come to Fellowship Church because someone invited them. Most people will attend church if you invite them. Are you inviting people?

28:49 Some of you are. Some of you aren't. Some of you aren't. As hard as we work for the glory of God, we should be running about 100,000 people right now. Have you ever thought about that? So if you're not regularly praying and engaging and inviting someone here, you're not right spiritually. You're not. So we're called to reach up. We're called to reach out. We're called to reach in. That's becoming a full court follower of Christ. that's the sanctification part where we're saved that's salvation then we walk in sanctification that's becoming a mature believer in the Lord so what I'm saying is God is calling

29:41 what's your response? He's calling. What's your response? Are you going to pick up the call? Are you going to answer the call? are you going to decline it avoid it oh man i got out of that service scot-free once again are you going to text god back hey god i'll get to you later now once i take care of this and that once i get my my life squared away then we can we can we can do business some of you here have even blocked his call God is calling the Holy Spirit is moving touching lives he's touched lives here and he will continue to touch lives he will touch lives in the anchor center he will continue to do so because friends we are standing on holy ground We're in the presence of the Lord God Almighty.

31:04 Don't block his call. Don't send God to voicemail. Respond and just say, Here I am. Will you say that with me? Here I am. Say it like you mean it. Here I am. would you pray Father, I pray for our great church. I pray for everyone hearing my voice right now, whether you're online or at one of our different locations. And I pray, God, that some people here who've never made the decision to become a Christian would do so.

31:52 Maybe you think you're somebody, but now you realize you're a nobody because of your sinful state. that's what I realized years ago when I became a Christian. So I thought I was a somebody. I've been the God of my life. And then, uh-oh, no, no, no, I'm a nobody. But I pray, like Moses, that you go, you know, God can use anybody. He wants to come into your life, Jesus does. He wants to take control of your life. He wants you to respond by hitting that green button. by saying, here I am. So if you want to make this decision, just say these words with me. I said them years ago, and I'll help you with this prayer. It's one prayer. Just pray to the best of your ability.

32:44 Just say, God, I've been thinking I'm a somebody, but I realize because of my sinful state, I'm separate from you. I turn from my sins and turn to you. I believe that you died on the cross, Jesus, and rose again for everybody. And right now, I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life.

33:09 If you said that prayer, you're going to realize that God can use anybody because he used Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. and Jesus has led you and me out of the slavery of sin. So if you prayed that prayer with me and meant it to the best of your ability, would you lift your hand for a second? Just lift your hand. All right, hands going up everywhere. It's awesome. So many, many hands. So many people responding to the call. And as their heads are bowed and eyes are closed, one of our pastors or team members will see your hand and they'll give you, they'll give you after this service some important information that we would love for you to take home and read. there's other groups of us here, and we need to get serious about the concept of standing on holy ground.

34:09 Not common ground, but holy ground. We need to get serious about reaching up and reaching out and reaching in. And Father, you do business in our lives as we make these decisions. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, our Lord.