In August1984 I received a phone call from Donald Davis, assistant principal at Dobson Elementary School. He told me he needed a bus driver to start a new bus route. I shared with him that I had just bought the family farm and I did not know if I could work it into my schedule. He asked if I would come and help him start the route and if it did not workout then he would find another driver. I began the bus route and drove regularly for Dobson Elementary until June 2019. I have said through the years that was a phone call that truly changed the direction of my life. The Lord blessed me to be able to serve the children and the staff of Dobson Elementary for 35 years. We must keep in mind there are always “calls” that will come into our lives that gives us an opportunity to serve.
Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 5:14-19. In this text Paul describes four calls that God made to the people of Ephesus that are just as relevant for believers today. Let’s look at each.
Call One: God calls for us too “Wake up” in verse 14 as Paul writes “awake thou that sleepest.” This is a call every born-again believer needs to hear and heed today. Many times, as believers we have fallen asleep concerning sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are like the disciples who were with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we have nodded off to sleep. We have allowed the troubles, trials, and cares of the world to make us complacent in sharing the gospel and serving the Lord. We are living in a time of urgency that believers should with excitement, passion and great desire, share the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. We can also look in the Scripture as it points to the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ and we must not be caught asleep when Jesus returns. God is calling for us to “wake up.”
Call Two: God calls for us to “Get up.” In verse 14 Paul writes “arise from the dead.” There are too many professing believers who think going to church and sitting through a service is all that God expects of them. Many people are like the folks in the Sardis church which John wrote about in Revelation 3. Christ said of the church, “That thou hast the name that thou livest, and art dead.” This pictures people who are going through the motions of doing the business of the church but not truly about the business of God. God is calling for believers to “rise up” from our pews of do nothing and get busy faithfully serving the Lord because of the urgency of the day that we are living.
Call Three: God calls for us to “Step up.” Paul exhorts in verse 16 to “Redeem the time, because the days are evil.” This gives us a picture of God calling for us to be aware of opportunities we have to impact the lives of those around us with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dr. Jimmy Allen, a former pastor of the First Baptist Church San Antonio, Texas, tells the story of lost opportunity. Allen recalls, “We missed him, our chance to change things came and passed and we did not even know it was there. There was a little boy who came to our church and sat through Sunday School classes for three years but we missed him. His name was Sirhan Sirhan and at the age of 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. We never saw the opportunity to reach this young man.” So often we miss opportunities to make a difference for the Lord, but God is calling for us to “step up” and to seek and recognize these opportunities.
Call Four: God is called for us too “Fill up.” Paul writes in verse 18 to “be filled with the Spirit.” Many believers are filled with the excesses of the world and it has affected their lives, families, and witness. We need to pray daily for the Lord to fill us with His Holy Spirit. Paul was saying here that it is evident when a person has drunk too much wine it affects their behavior. We should be so filled with the Holy Spirit that our behavior is affected, and people see a difference in our lives from the lives of those controlled by the world and the devil. God is calling for us to be “filled up.”
Paul tells us in verse 19 that if we hear and heed these calls from God, we will be faithful to give praise and worship unashamedly to our Lord Jesus Christ. We would give that praise not only in the church house but wherever we are. God has issued some calls that will change our lives and the lives of others for eternity. Will you heed the call?
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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