Good morning, everyone. And let me just extend that same happy Father's Day to our dads, our granddads, our foster dads, our stepdads, our granddads, whatever fits the bill for you. But many of you in this room have been a father figure in somebody's life, and I want to thank you for that, that God would raise you up. Because unfortunately, on a day like today, like we talked about on Mother's Day, while there are those of you in this room, this is a day of celebration and joy. For some of you, it's a point of pain.

And what I mean by that is some of you are still recovering from the loss of your father. Maybe he passed away, your grandfather passed away, and that's a hard thing to carry, especially on days that remind you that he's gone. And my heart hurts for you today, some of you in this room, another point of pain is that maybe your dad deserted you. Maybe your dad wasn't in your life. And.

And then you're sitting here going, well, you're singing about a good, good father, and you're just like, well, my father wasn't that good. And that can be a point of pain because you hear people celebrating their dads, and you're going like, well, I didn't have that. Can I tell you, God sees you and God knows you. And even though you may have had a bad experience with your father, that doesn't mean that our God can't be a good dad to you, because you can't compare the two. God exceeds that so much, and today he would bring the salve to your heart.

So could we pray today for our friends in the room that maybe having a point of pain, of loss or desertion, that God would just give just an extra bit of grace today, Father, you're good to us. And we do this, God, because we do love our brothers and sisters, those joining us online that maybe today Father's Day is much more a heartache as it should be a joy. God, we can't control the fallenness of mankind, but we're so thankful you sent your son to save us from that fallenness. And so, Lord, today would you show yourself mighty and powerful as the one who is our utmost Father, that it would break anything in our minds that we think the disappointments, the desertion, the loss. Because, God, you are eternal and you're loving and you love your children.

You give us good things. And so, Lord, I pray that today that you would comfort the hearts of those who are hurting and that you would remind them of your goodness and your power. In Jesus name, amen. Also, I'm very thankful today for our Mexico mission team. And the pictures that you see is only a glimpse.

But can I tell you something? They didn't go and build a house. They built a bridge. And now after five to six different trips, we're beginning to deepen the relationships that we have with the people of Ensenada. They're not just a people group.

They're people with faces and they're people with names, and they matter to us. I looked at Emma Whitfield's pictures on Facebook as she gave the gift of that iPad so that this young lady could communicate. I'm probably the highlight of what I saw on there, other than my son eating everyone out of house and home.

I mean, if she fits, wear it. But it just was such a great week. And for you ladies, can I say thank you? Many of you participated in making some blankets that went down to reach the moms of the children who attend the special needs ranch. And I just want to say thank you for that, but also that the moms were blown away with gratitude and appreciation.

We left a part of Ebenezer in Ensenada. And I can't wait till we get to send the next team back in just a few weeks. Actually, in October, second full week during Stephen county break, Habersham break, Tallulah fall break. Three schools have a fall break that week. Is God calling you to go to Mexico?

Because if you are, Randy's ready to buy some tickets. So get on that app as soon as possible, folks. I'm telling you, as Crosby mentioned, there is no other church that I know of that offers a way for you to go on a mission trip at the price you can go on it. You're like, well, that's a lot of money. Well, I'm telling you, I've been on other mission trips that were a lot more.

And I'm telling you, take advantage of that blessing, of the generosity of our people. You know, one of our core values in worshiping God is that we give. And there's a lot of faithful people who give not just to our tithe, their tithe, but they give to our mission budget so it can offset those costs for you to go. And I'm telling you, take advantage, parents. Take your kids.

Let them experience something, serving together. It will change. It'll change your life. So I want to ask you to turn to 1 Thessalonians 2, 10. I've got to 145.

You know, I really just wish that we could just go sit in a coffee shop and we could just take this scripture right now. I have looked at this Scripture probably more than any passage that I ever have. It has hit me in so many different ways, but I did the math, and you guys listened to somebody from this pulpit about 26 hours a year.

That's a fraction of the time that you spend doing anything else. And I'm telling you, it convicts me that I'm going to get up here and exhort, I'm going to get up here and encourage, and I'm going to get up here and implore you. That's what you're going to hear from Paul in just a moment. Y' all stand. Y' all stand up.

Let's read these three verses. Not going to read the whole chapter. We will go back to the beginning of it. Just a second. Starting in verse number 10.

You are witnesses. That means they've seen something and it's impacted them. You are witnesses, and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behave toward you who are believing just as you know. Say no.

How we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you. Now, check this out. As a father would his own children.

Paul owned the Thessalonians deeply. They weren't a job. They weren't a preaching engagement. They were not a checkbox. He loved them.

So this is why he did those three things. So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who. Who calls you say, calls into his own kingdom and glory. Go ahead and have a seat. I'm just telling you.

I mean, I could just park my camper here. There's a lot of things that's going on from the beginning of that chapter up to here. Last week. I asked you a question. I asked you not.

What would you do if you knew Jesus was gonna come back today? I asked you, do you want him to? What fueled the gospel in Thessalonica was that these people really believed Jesus was coming back to you. We sit here and we think, you know, I'm living on borrowed time. I don't know when he's going to come back.

Let me live my life to the fullest. I'm telling you, we haven't experienced life yet. We can't imagine what it's going to be like in eternity.

Let that fuel your faith. Jesus is coming back soon. We don't know when it's going to be. I want to be ready and I want to be diligent. Helping others to be ready.

Does that fuel you as well? Because God has a purpose for each and every one of us. God has a call for each and every one of us. Now, I like to think about the calling of God in, in three categories. The first is the relational call of God.

God is calling you to know him by faith in Jesus Christ, in the repentance of sin. It's a relational calling. Do you know him? Are you saved? Do you have a relationship with Him?

Are you walking with Him? Because the second is a general call. Jesus Christ is calling you to follow Him. It's for everyone. I mean, you don't read in there where it talks about people becoming Christians.

It talks about people believing. That last verse is to those of you who are believing, it's a present tense action. And that believing should drive you into discipleship and followship. And the third type of calling that we, we know about is a specific call. Each one of you in this room that have been saved by Jesus Christ, you have a call in your life.

How do I know that? Because he's gifted you with spiritual gifts to contribute to the body of Christ for the work of the church. All of us have that. And so all of us in this room, you're at one of those three phases. Maybe you've settled the relational call.

You know Jesus Christ, you've been saved. You've got confidence that your name's written down in heaven and that when you leave this world, you're going to see Him. You won't face the wrath of God, but you're saved. But you haven't come to that second one yet where you've accepted the call to follow Him.

We talk a lot in this church about that. Discipleship is important, that we own our faith. The reason it's worded that way is because if I own my faith, I'm taking the responsibility to learn what the expectations are. I'm taking the responsibility to then do what the Word says. But then I take it a step further and I own the responsibility that I want to help you to, to grow in your faith by exhorting you, by encouraging you, by imploring you, just like a father would his own children.

Is that you today? Where are you in that spectrum of calling? Because that last call, which a lot of us think like we need to skip from the first call to the third call, that I'm so special that God's got something very, very, very specific. Well, he does. Not because you're special, but because he loves you and he has a Purpose?

What does he reveal to you? Maybe some of you have embraced the call of God in your life. You know, when I was growing up, it seemed like the only thing that you could be called to is preach. Y' all know that's wrong, right? Like, there is more calling than just somebody preaching.

And it takes all of that work. Not my work, all of the work. Every single one of you contribute to the work of God. Because not only has he called you to something specific, he's called Ebenezer to something specific, and that is that we are called to lead the broken to hope in Christ.

I'm ready to shout this morning because this excites me and it fires me up. The call of God has changed my life. Has it changed yours? Because I want you to back up to the first verse of this chapter. Because I want you to see how Paul begins.

There's a lot of different things he's doing in this text. He's going, I told you last week, he likes these triples. There's four different places from verse one to verse 16, where he just likes to think in threes, like any good Baptist preacher has an introduction, three points and a poem. Well, evidently Paul was Baptist because, like, he preached four messages in one text. I'm preaching one in the time frame it would probably take others to preach four messages in a text.

But I want you to notice the word know. K, N, O, W. K, N, O, W. In fact, he started in 1:5 when he said, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and the Holy Spirit with full conviction. See, there was those threes telling you he speaks in threes everywhere. Just as you know, that word there in the original language is the word oida. It's a perfect tense verb of the verb to see.

And what oida knowledge is compared to gnosis. Knowledge is it's knowledge in full. It's the bank in our mind. It's connected to our conscience. And 12 times in the Book of Thessalonians, he's going to call them to remember what they know.

Y' all remember in 1989, I was a little late on this analogy last, and I got my names right this time. Y' all remember in 1989, there was a commercial that Nike put out with Bo Jackson. At the time, Bo Jackson was playing professional baseball and football at the same time. And the commercial is this montage of different athletes. And I mean, people you would know, like John McEnroe and some others.

And they start out with, bo knows baseball. And then Bo knows football and Bo knows tennis. And, like, going through all these, because Bo Jackson was an incredible athlete. So they go through it and they get to the end and there's Bo Jackson on stage with another Bo, Bo Diddley. Bo Diddley was a fantastic guitarist who helped to transition from blues to rock and roll.

And so Bo Jackson's over there and it sounds like a goose is dying. And he's trying to play the guitar. And Bo Diddley looks over and goes, you don't know Diddley.

I gotta confess, I didn't know that the real guitarist's last name was Diddley until I started looking this up, though. You don't know Diddley. He could do all these other things. He didn't know how to play the guitar. You don't know Diddley.

Any good father would come up to you and say, do you know? Is your knowledge complete? Because if it's not, Paul says, let me take you down a road. And I want to show you how in my life, the call of God changed me. It gave me life shaping conviction.

And these five characteristics that I'm going to give you, they're not even blanks in your study guide. They're just given to you for free. Every one of them is connected back. Do you know? Do you know?

Do you know? Do you know? And as we're continuing our study in this book, pay attention to when Paul says, as you know, he's appealing to their conscience that you observe this in me. And it already said there that the impact in their life from chapter one in the way they lived among them, caused them to want to be imitators of Paul and Silas and Timothy. So follow with me for just a moment.

We already read chapter one, verse number five. But that was a revelation of Paul's conviction. He says, just as you know what kind of men we proved or became among you for your sake. His conviction, that was that God called him to preach the gospel for the benefit of other people. That's why he would say, you are dear to me like a father.

In fact, we're going to see. He even says, like a mother loves you. I love you like a father. I'm going to lead you. He even says, I came to you humble, like a child.

Three again, how many? Three. Three metaphors. Child, mother and father. And for the mother and father, he says, as my own, his conviction was deep.

In 1st Corinthians 9:22. Let me repeat that. 1st Corinthians, 9:22. He says, to the weak, I became. It's the same word that he used a minute ago for proved.

I became weak, that I might win the weak. I became all things to all men, that by some means I might save some. His conviction was for the benefit of others. Has the call of God deepened your conviction? Number two, as you know, in 1 Thessalonians 2, 1 we begin this reading.

It says, for you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. The was not here is perfect tense. Paul, Silas and Timothy were following the leading of God, their specific call. And it intersected with this group of people in Thessalonica who heard and received the word of God after only three weeks preaching in the synagogue. And it changed their lives, their commitment.

Paul's commitment was deepened. He did not see it as a waste of time that he was run out of town in such a short amount of time. We would look at that today's terms and go like, well, that was an utter failure. And Paul is saying it was not in vain. Folks, listen to me.

You got family members you've witnessed to for many, many years. It's not in vain. You've got co workers that you're praying for right now to be saved. It's not in vain. You've got husbands and wives that you've been pleading to God that they would take their faith serious.

It's not vain because our commitment is to the call of God. And when my call is in line, everything else falls in place. Look at verse number two. Should just read it off top of my head, but I'm not that smart. But after we already suffered and had been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness, say boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.

That was Paul's confidence. A lot of us would throw in the towel before we even got started. If somebody huffs and puffs at us, we run away. Paul stood in the midst of suffering. What kind of suffering?

Well, in Philippi they were run out of town too. They were arrested and thrown into jail and beaten and had to leave under the COVID of night. And he still spoke with boldness. I mean, you think the first missionary trip would have done him in? I mean, he went to one town and he was stoned for what he was preaching.

Guys, this is the kind of boldness that man cannot muster. This is the kind of boldness that you can't buy at a Kmart Blue Light Special one because there's not any Kmarts around here anymore. You can't Buy it. You can't. Trade can only come from the power and the spirit of God.

A boldness to stay in the game, as Paul would say to the Philippians. For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but but also to suffer for his sake. Why? Why God would you make us suffer? We're doing this for you because in our suffering, we proclaim the suffering of that cross.

And as we hear in verse 15 and 16, it heightens the judgment on those who would persecute the church. Whoa. You kidding me? No, that's just what the word says, that their sin has come into full. Do you want to receive the full wrath of God that our sins deserve?

I don't. I think it would hurt. Some of you don't like pain. But this is not even describable. He's calling us to be confident.

Not in an ideal, not in an idea, not in a means, in a way, but to be confident in him. Look at verse number three. He said, for our exhortation did not come from error or impurity or by the way of deceit, another triplet. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted or faith with the gospel, so we speak not to please men, but God who examines our heart. I love the way that is worded because they didn't wake up and go, you know what?

I think it'd be a good idea if we became evangelists. Right, Steve? Like I just want to be an evangelist. No, God judged their heart and entrusted faith them with that gospel.

Can I meddle? Some of us, our hearts aren't pure enough to be entrusted with the gospel.

We got a heart problem. The same heart that drives us, that we wouldn't want Jesus to come back because I'm pretty comfortable the way I am. It's the same heart that would resist really being concerned about my lost neighbor.

He said, God entrusted us with this. Does it move you in your bowels to want to know that God is entrusting and faithing some men and women of God to take the gospel to the nations, yea or nay? I mean, it's worth considering because the call then begins to move inwardly into Paul. Pick up with verse five. He says, for we never came with flattering speech or as you know, with a pretext for greed.

And he says, and he'll say again, God is my witness. In other words, he's nodding to this idea. God has sifted, transformed, refined my heart. And by refining my heart, that promised heart that CIRCUMCISED heart. He's given me pure motive.

As we read in verse number 10, rightly, devoutly, like he says, my heart is pure before God because he made it pure. Now he's working through my heart to move me to have compassion. Verse 6. He said, we didn't come seeking glory from men. He's trying to lay the case down.

You've observed this in me. I didn't come to get attention. I didn't come to be elevated. I didn't come to be celebrated. I didn't come to just sit back and come and talk to you for 30 minutes and then just sit around the rest of the day.

He said, I didn't even become a burden to you, he said, either from us or from others. Even though as apostles of Christ, we might have asserted our authority. They had been called to go in, but they weren't trying to compel them to conform. He was compelling them to believe. Listen to verse seven.

This is beautiful. All right. We proved to be gentle among you. That phrase literally says, we became like a kid, a child. Gentleness and humility, he says, having so much fond and affection for you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

That nursing mother is someone who would be hired to nurse someone else's child. They were hired. They were compelled. And what Paul is saying, no, this is like a mother who's caressing and bringing her own child up. Can I talk to you about the ideal parenting situation?

The ideal parenting situation? I believed as by being created by God. As mothers, you are the nurturers. Thank God for nurturing moms. I remember an episode of Bonanza when Hoss comes in.

He says, when I was little, I remember I hurt my finger and I went to my mom and she kissed it. But it didn't take the pain away. But it did the heart. He didn't take the physical pain away. We love our nurturing moms because dads, like he says in verse number 11, we're driving our kids to grow up to be responsible.

So you take those two things, and what the nurture of a mom does is it provides security while the dads provide a means for identity. And Paul's saying, I've done both of these towards you, both of these. That is my compassion. Like Jesus compassion. When he saw the people, he felt that movement in his bowels because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd.

It was his compassion. And finally we see represented here his charity. Look at verse number nine. For you recall, brethren, our labor and Hardship. This word is not know.

It is to recall, like a mnemonic key that would kind of trigger something in your mind. Our labor and hardship and how working night and day, we did not want to be a burden to any of you. We proclaim to you the gospel of God. He again reasserts this idea. We didn't come asking for money.

We didn't come expecting that you would put us up in a grand hotel. We came and we worked in the gospel and we worked with our hands so that you wouldn't have to. That was his charity. So look at those five things. His conviction, his commitment, his confidence, his compassion, his charity.

All of this came out of the calling that God had in his life. Paul was living in his calling as he urged the Thessalonians to be resolute in their calling.

What has God called you to do? Do you know him relationally? Are you following him? And what has he called you to do? Specifically, getting those three things in alignment represents that God has changed us from the inside out.

Is that true for you today? Where are you? So let me give you some observations from these three verses. Verse number 10, submission to God's calling sanctifies our character. We're going to study in just a few weeks about the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification, for those of you who are like, that's a big old word. What does that mean? It literally means to be set apart, to be made holy for a purpose. And God makes us holy by cleansing the world out of us. But then he has a use for us.

Like, what is it that God wants to do with your life? Well, to do that, he wants to sanctify our character. Paul has just spent the last few verses four times saying, as you know, you saw my conviction, as you know, you saw my commitment, as you know, you saw my confidence, as you know, you saw my compassion. And I want you to remember my charity. He's calling them to know that.

And he was confident that. That they, if they mimicked him, would have the same character. Listen to what Dr. John Walvoord and Mark Hitchcock. Wow. Some names said in their commentary.

Few Christians realize how many are watching them to hopefully discover in their lives the answer to the question of whether Christianity is real, whether it really satisfies, and whether it pays to serve the Lord. And they're looking at our conduct. Let me remind you what he said. He said, you are our witnesses and so is God. How devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we became.

It's the same Word again, behaved toward you who are believing. If someone looked at your life, in my life, would they see confidence and conviction and commitment and compassion and charity? And you're going like, oh, I'm just. I'm the scum of the earth. I don't hit any of those five.

The Lord can do it through your life. When we get in alignment with his calling, are you there? Submission to God's calling sanctifies our character. Listen to this. I love this verse.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He said, for our proud confidence, Is this the testimony of our conscience? That is, in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God. Where's his confidence in the grace of God? We have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially to you.

In other words, what's he saying there? He's saying, I'm behaving according to the grace of God. Well, how can I behave toward the grace of God? Because God lives in me through the Holy Spirit. And he's called me relationally.

He's called me to follow him, and he's called me to do what he's wired me to do. Number two, Submission to God's calling sharpens our conduct. These things go hand in hand. Cause, see, in the first verse, he was testifying to his character. Now he's testifying to what he did toward them.

Again, as a father would his own children. He exhorted them. In other words, he called them out. He pointed out truth to them. Number two, he encouraged them.

He encouraged them. And number three, he implored. The word there is the same that we get. Parakletos, the Paraclete comes alongside. This isn't just someone preaching to make people better.

They got in there with him relationally and said, come on, you got this. Keep going. Keep trying. But he implored them, came alongside of them. Like when your kids were little and they were learning to ride bicycles.

I remember when Caroline took off on her bike. We were down at the beach in this. In this condo. And I'm the one running behind, holding that seat until I let go. Come on, Caroline, do it.

Come on. You got this. Then she turned around and saw me and fell over. But don't take your eyes off the road, you know, but, you know, I experienced it with my grandfather. I spent time with him when he, you know.

How many of you started picking beans yet?

Laura? You got some in the crowd, you know, Laura, last night, she's sitting there popping beans. Kids. How many kids have never popped a green bean? Y' all ain't gonna say it if you kid me.

Alright, your homework is find somebody that's got green beans and learn how to pop them. And make sure you get the strings off correctly. Cause you don't want to eat those strings. But my grandfather, when he plant green beans, he didn't put the runners up. We had to get on the ground.

And those things are about this high. And we're picking the beans off the ground. And then we'd sit though on their porch with a towel in our lap. Mmm. God miss those days because it deepened our relationship as we labored together.

Do you see the relational appeal that Paul is giving here? Look at what I am doing, look at who I am and mimic this. Replicate it.

Dads, I don't know where you are in life with your children, even if they're out of the house, but be a source of exhortation, be a man of integrity where you can give instruction, be an encouragement to them.

I did the math earlier. 31 years ago, I started ministry. And for the first year or so I would go and speak at different churches and I would look back and my dad would be sitting in the back encouraging me.

Folks, dads, you need to come alongside your kids. You need to implore them, but not with your words, not with shame, not to exacerbate them, but. But come alongside them. Show them how to cast that fishing rod, metaphorically speaking, show them how to treat a woman with respect.

You can tell them all day long, but when you start spending time with them, that's when it begins to take root. And that's what Paul is saying, you know, you know, you know. Look at my conduct. Now mimic it. Let me go on to point number three.

Submission to God's calling straightens our course. When you are sure about the call of God in your life, you know where you're going. Walvard and Hitchcock said this. God has called us to walk a walk that is in keeping with our destiny. There's a thing called the path principle, and this is simply what the path principle says that that wherever your behavior and conduct is pointing you, that's where you'll end up.

So if you're living in the world but say you're heaven bound, those two things can't be in alignment. I'm either heaven bound or I'm hellbound. Which one is it? I could say all day long. No, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm not going to hell. Jesus saved me when I was 5 years old and I was baptized.

Okay, well, where's the evidence of the work of God in your life to this point. Yeah, you may claim the relational. I might argue that you don't because your faith is not being displayed in your conduct and works. We're not saved by works. Are you hearing me?

But when we really get saved, radically saved, our works change, our behavior change, our conduct will change. So that the world might see Christ in. In me and in you and have something they'll want to mimic, something that they can have hope. The death of the church in America is because we're reproducing Disciples of Society. Yes, we should be about social justice.

But when that becomes my focus and not the kingdom of God and the Gospel, I've lost my destination.

Patting myself on the back because I gave somebody a bag of food is not discipleship. He said I gave you. Go back to verse eight. Go back to verse eight. Having so fond affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel, but our own lives.

Why? Why do all this? So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you. And if you've got your calling in alignment, then there is conviction, there is commitment, there is confidence, there is compassion and there's charity being birthed in your character. Has the Spirit sanctified your character so much man that the joy of the Lord just exudes from you?

Because you can't wait to tell somebody the story. You can't wait to interact with somebody. You can't wait to go on mission.

Pick up. Let me give you. Let me do this. Let me do this. There's a big blank at the bottom of your page that says this.

Be resolute in the call of God that results in life shaping conviction. I'm going to give you three application points. Let you go back and read some of these verses. This is 13 through 16. How can I get right with my call?

Well, the first thing starts with the Word of God. Yield to the work of God's Word in your life. You know what that means? Not just that you're reading the Bible, but that you're studying it. And if you're studying the Bible, how are you studying it?

And not just how you're studying, but with whom are you studying it? And are you sitting under the preaching of God's Word? You may think what I do on a Sunday morning is foolish, but we do it because it's what God's commanded us to do, the proclamation of His Word. And when I sit out of church, when I decide that other things are more important in my life. I'm missing a work that God might be doing in my life.

Listen to what he says. For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive the Word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God. Now catch this. Which is performing its work in you who are believing the Word of God will not have an impact on the unbelieving, but for the believing man, it's changing me. It's working in me.

If you're struggling today, I want to ask you, do you have a word problem? Because if you have a word problem, you have a heart problem. You have a heart problem. God's judging your heart. Where does it stand?

Get in alignment with the Word. The second thing I want to encourage you to do today based on these passages, is to learn how to endure suffering and hardship. Suffering is a reality for believers, he says, for you, brothers know. And you became imitators of the churches of God in Christ that are in Judea. For you have endured the same suffering at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews.

What story do you think is playing in his mind when a young Paul named Saul at the time was standing there holding coats while they stoned Stephen to death? Remember that story, right? This same Paul who's testifying to the persecution of the Jews was one of them.

And he's saying, endure, because in your endurance, it's proclaiming. It's proclaiming. He says, they're not speaking. They're not pleasing to God. They're hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved.

I mean, this is exactly what happened in Thessalonica. The Jews rose up and ran them out of town. And he's calling them out for it. He's calling them heathen. You remember in the Book of Genesis, chapter 15, when God told Moses, excuse me, told Abraham, that his people would go into Egypt and they would be there for hundreds of years?

He said, until the time of the sins of the Canaanites comes to full. Now listen to this. He says, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. These are not the Canaanites who were lacking. They have filled it to the brim.

And God says, but the wrath has come upon them to the utmost. Would you want to pay for that? We need in the midst of that to persist in proclaiming the gospel. You know why? What if God, in that proclamation breaks down the heart of even someone like Paul who was persecuting the church.

Your words are not in vain. They are not wasted. Why? Because it's God who called you. And if it's God who calls you, it's God who will equip you and will lead you and will guide you.

Do you trust that today? Where are you in the calling of God relationally, generally, and specifically? Yield to the word of God, endure suffering and persist in the proclamation the gospel. Look at his conduct and let's be mimickers of who he is now. I did a little search and I found a story that speaks to the testimony of the impact a father had in his daughter's life.

As she watched him over the years in ministry, actually committing himself and doing all the things that he did. She makes him out to be just a man like any of us that loved cats and dogs and wore blue jeans and sweaters and a baseball cap. He liked lukewarm coffee. Ugh, sweet iced tea, ice cream and plain hamburgers from McDonald's. She watched his life.

She knew his life. Then she says this, but when I think of him today, I also think of his message. Because he was immersed wasn't a job. It wasn't a checklist. It was who he was.

He was saturated in it. She said he was his message. A simple man who had responded to the love of God by placing his faith in Jesus, receiving the assurance that his sins were forgiven and that he would not perish, but would have everlasting life. He had a simple faith. When Anne Graham Lotes wrote these words about her father Billy, she shared her father with the rest of the world.

She said that 60% of the year he was gone. But the time that he was with her, it impacted her life that she could proclaim. He didn't just preached it, he lived it. The call of God changed his character today. Is that you?

Has the call of God changed you? Have you resisted the call of God to be saved? I'll wait till another time. I'm good. I'm fine.

No, I went down when I was a kid. I'm fine. Being fine is going to send a lot of people to hell today. Are you sure that if you leave this world today and stand before God, he will say, come on in, good servant? Or will he say, depart?

I never knew who you were. Number two. Are you following him? You may know all the right things to do. I'm asking you, are you doing them?

Because you gotta get these two things in line before you can say, well, I went up on the mountaintop and God's called me to do X, Y or Z. Because if your character's not in alignment with the call, the ministry you perform will have no effect. So as this altar opens, I don't know what your need is. Randy's down here. I'm down here.

If you're lost today, come see us. If you're not sure where you stand with the Lord, come see us. Maybe you need to come up here today and just say, lord, where are you calling me? What are you calling me to do? And if you're calling me, I need to depend on you to get me ready to provide what I need.

But mainly to give me that conviction, to give me that commitment it. To give me that character that bears out that calling. Father, minister to us today, Lord, wherever we stand in need, wherever we lack God, we're going to trust that you will reveal it. Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear. In Jesus name, amen.