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The Miracle of God's Calling

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The Miracle of God's Calling

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The Miracle of God's Calling

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What is God's calling? How does God call you? How does it occur? What do you need to do with God's calling? This sermon will examine these topics and show how God's calling is a personal invitation.

Transcript

[Richard Kennebeck] Tomorrow evening Hollywood is going to be hosting the Oscar Awards. The streets have already been blocked off, the decorations are going up, millions of dollars are going into the event. The Dolby Theatre is being prepared for this event – the red carpet is going to be rolled out shortly – all to celebrate the best of the movie industry. Can you imagine getting an invitation to go to the Oscars – to be on that red carpet, inviting you to the festivities?

Or maybe the Oscars aren’t your thing. They’re not mine. Are you still waiting for the knock at your door – the call at your door – from the Publisher’s Clearing House for $5,000 a week for the rest of your life – that you can not only give to yourself, but then eventually pass on to somebody else?

Or, if you’re in high school or college, are you waiting for that diploma – waiting to hear your name called for that diploma? You can’t wait, because you want to start the rest of your life – have that diploma in your hand. Or maybe, in the reverse in some ways, ABC, are you actually not looking forward to the call of your name, to receive that certificate, because you know you’re going to be leaving friends that you’ve built over this time?

Throughout our lives and in various times and in various ways, we all receive calls that change our lives – change our lives to make us go a new path or a new way. Those of you sitting here today, you’ve received a calling – a special calling from God – a miraculous calling from God – to have a special relationship with Him – a personal relationship with Him. That’s what I’d like to take a look at this morning – is that miracle of the call of God – the miracle of God’s calling in our lives.

What is God’s calling? How does God call us? How does it occur? What do we need to do with God’s calling? Let’s take a look at these and a few other topics as we go through this morning.
So what is God’s calling? God’s calling is a personal invitation to you – a personal calling – very personal. He wants to have a close relationship with you – a very dear relationship with you. God wants a close relationship with mankind. He’s planned that from the very beginning. It’s been part of His plan. He wants that personal relationship and it begins with the few of us, that He’s calling now in this world, at this time now.

Turn with me to Romans 8, if you would. In these verses, we can read about this close relationship that begins with that calling that God gives to us and, eventually, if we truly yield to God, results in our ultimate glorification.

Romans 8:14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption – or that could better be translated sonshipto whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

V-16The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirsheirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
When we respond to God’s calling, we begin that close relationship with Him – that close father-son, father-daughter, father-child relationship that He wants to have with us. Drop down with me to verse 28 in this chapter. We often use this verse as a source of encouragement to us when we’re going through difficult times, but I’d like to focus on the one other aspect that we read in here. That’s the aspect of being called.

Romans 8:28And we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Those who are called according to His purpose – God has a purpose for us. He has a purpose for His calling of us. He’s got a purpose on this earth. He called you for a purpose. And that purpose is to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

V-29 – For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

We see a process here. God predestined that there would be a people that He would call, that there would be a people that He would justified, there would be a people that He would glorify, He planned that. He predestined it. That includes the calling of us today. The New Century Version of the Bible reads this way:

Romans 8:28 – (NCV) We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love Him. They are the people He called, because that was His plan. God knew them before He made the world and He chose them to be like a son, so that Jesus would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. God planned for them to be like His Son and those He planned to be like His Son, He also called. And those He called He made right with Him and those He made right, He also glorified.

That’s the path that God has for us. That word called in this scripture – these verses – actually comes from two different Greek words. Both of them can be translated called, but they can also be translated to bid or to invite.

As I mentioned earlier, the Oscars are taking place this weekend. Could you just show up? No, you’d be bounced out of there as quickly as you got there. You’d have to have an invitation – and that invitation is to a select few. You couldn’t just show up. You must have an invitation. And that’s what God’s calling is – it’s an invitation to you – an invitation to me – to become part of His spiritual family. God must call you, He must invite you to become part of His spiritual family. You can’t just decide, “Hey, I’m going to become part of God’s family, I’m going to twist God’s arm – make Him give me an invitation, I’m going to choose to be called.” I can’t decide that. I can’t force that. I can’t become righteous enough to make God call me. God calls whom He chooses and we really have very little to do with that.

God called His disciples – tax collectors, fishermen. They weren’t looking to be called. They weren’t looking to do a work. They were looking to fish. They were looking to collect taxes. In 1 Timothy 1, we can read Paul’s words describing what he was before He was called by God. In 1 Timothy 1, we read that Paul calls himself the chief among sinners. Doesn’t sound like somebody that God would be calling necessarily, but He had a purpose. Paul writes:

1 Timothy 1:12And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Paul didn’t know what He was doing. He didn’t understand God’s truth and God’s way.

V-14And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Paul realized he was a chief sinner, He realized his calling wasn’t because he was a great man or a righteous man.

V-16However, for this reason I obtained mercy that in me, first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Paul’s clearly saying to us that it wasn’t because of his righteousness that he was called, but God had a purpose for him – there was a purpose for him. God showed mercy to Him, God was showing that no matter how bad we are that He can still call us – that Paul was going to be an example of God’s calling to a person who was a chief among sinners. And Paul states this principle over in 2 Timothy 1 even more clearly – that we aren’t called because of our own righteousness and goodness. Just a couple pages over in 2 Timothy 1:8:

2 Timothy 1:8Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me His prisoner but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

We see here that our calling has a purpose. God has a purpose for calling you, He has a purpose for when He calls you.

We see four points in the scripture: One is that God’s calling is not because of our own works and our righteousness. We cannot be good enough to cause God to call us. He calls us with a purpose. God’s calling is an outcome of His purpose and plan. God’s calling is because of His grace and love towards us. And God’s calling to us is part of His plan that He has had for a very long time. And God’s calling is actually more than just an invitation. It’s a drawing. God draws us to Him. It’s not a simple invitation, but He draws you.

Let’s turn to John 6:44 – we’ll read about this. This is a section of scripture that we often read around the time of Passover, because Christ was telling the Jews that He was the bread of life and they must eat of His bread – this bread that came down from heaven. And the Jews were complaining and murmuring about this. How could this be? But in John 6:44, Jesus gives us an important lesson about the calling of God. We’ll actually begin in 43:

John 6:43Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves, no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up in the last day.”

No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them. The Father is the one who does the drawing. That Greek word for draw there is an active verb – active word. It’s like pulling or dragging or persuading, leading, to impel somebody. If somebody draws a net of fish out of the water, it was the same word. It’s an active word – more than just an invitation. It’s not just a simple request. There’s more to it than just an invitation. There’s a pull behind it – a pull to that calling. It’s stronger than an invitation. God is leading and drawing you to a relationship with Him.

I’d like to tell you the story of a man that I met in South Africa several years ago as an illustration of the pull and the draw. I’m sure that those from Africa can tell other stories like this – and in other areas of the world – who have it a little bit more difficult to search for the truth and to find the truth. This man’s journey wasn’t easy. God called him. It wasn’t easy. It was a difficult journey, but it shows the power of God’s drawing.

Three years ago I visited South Africa to help the brethren during the Passover season. When I was there I met a man in the Johannesburg, South Africa, church who had just recently started attending church. His name is Johannes. You see, Johannes is from the Zulu tribe. He was attending his first Passover that year – had a long and circuitous path to that Passover. He’s a Zulu – many of you, especially the older of us, remember the old movie, Shacka Zulu that came around several decades ago. The Zulu were fierce people and they conquered much of Southern Africa – a very strong and proud and fierce people. There are about ten million Zulus still living in South Africa and most of them live in an area of the country called KwaZulu-Natal. It’s in the southeastern area of Africa and it is predominately Zulu.

Johannes spoke very heavily Zulu – had a very heavy Zulu accent. I don’t speak Zulu, but he spoke English in a heavy Zulu accent, and he was very difficult to understand. He was just learning and understanding English too, but Johannes was born in a community that worshipped their ancestors. I mean this is true paganism. He worshipped his ancestors. His family, his community were ancestor worshippers. You see Johannes a zealous man. He zealously worshipped his ancestors – all the way up until the age of 18. He fully believed in diviners and healers and ancestors actually actively working in your life.

But shortly after he turned 18, he began asking questions of his family – questions about why didn’t this ancestor worshipping make sense? Why didn’t it seem to work in his life? What was its purpose? And Johannes struggled with that loss of his faith. He wasn’t sure exactly where he was supposed to go, but he had big questions. Well, during that time he was imprisoned for a crime he never did. One day he went out on a work detail in prison and along the road, as he was working along the road, he spotted a book. It was a New Testament Bible. He picked it up. He took it back to his cell. It was written in English. He didn’t read it. Not long after that, he went out on another work detail along the road – near the same spot – and he found a book. It was The Bible, both the Old and New Testament. He took it back with him to the cell. It was English. He didn’t read it.
The next time he went out on the work detail, along that same road, in about the same spot, he saw a book. He picked it up. He took it back to his cell. This time it was the Bible written in Zulu. He realized – and as he told me this story, he actually hit himself on the side of the head – and he said, “I realized at that point that there was something important about this. There was something that I should take a look at.” This was serious. So he began reading the Bible in his free time in the cell, and over a period of time, he began having questions about this Jesus Christ, and this God, and this glorious future he had, and the Sabbath. And a minister from a local church – a local major large church in his area – would come to the prison from time to time, and would come see him in his cell, and he would ask him questions. But you see Johannes was still an ancestor worshipper who was just beginning to be called, so he still wore the bracelets and the trappings of an ancestor worshipper. And the preacher would just look at him and point to his bracelets and say, “You’ve got to get rid of them. You’ve got to get rid of them.” But you know, Johannes was stubborn. He didn’t get rid of them, but he kept reading his Bible. And he read more and more about it, and that preacher never would explain to him any of his questions. But you know, God was using that, because he had to read his Bible to understand the truth.

So over time he started understanding the Sabbath. And he understood the holy days to some extent – that they were important. And he understood who God was. To the best of his knowledge, he understood that it was different than his ancestor worship and what various other preachers had told him. After a couple of years, he was released from prison and he realized he was being called by God. He realized there was something there, so he wanted to meet with people who had the same beliefs as he was convicted of these beliefs now.

Well, he couldn’t find anybody in his local area and eventually he moved to the town of Johannesburg. Now Johannes is a very enterprising young man. If you ask him what business he’s in, he’d say he’s in the recycling business. He goes around to many businesses and shops around town and he collects things to be recycled – paper, cans, metal, aluminum foil – all those sort of things – and he recycles. It gives him enough money to be able to live in a small shack with a dirt floor. Johannes continued to read his Bible and he continued to search, because he was pulled and drawn by this calling of God.

He continued to search for someone to fellowship with. but never could find anybody. He was on one of his recycling forays in a town close to him, where he asked a shop owner if he had anything for him to take and recycle. The shop owner said, “No, nothing for you.” But Johannes had already seen a small pile of magazines behind the store, so he was persistent and resourceful, and he asked if he could go back and check anyway. The owner relented, so he checked behind the store. As he leafed through, sorting out the stack of paper, he found a magazine still in its wrapper. It caught his attention. He saw the back of it, and he saw something about God and something about God’s way and the Sabbath, and it caught his attention. And he looked at it and he opened it up with great delight and started reading it. It appeared to be what he believed – he understood as best he could. He said, “This is what I want. This is who I want to fellowship with. God was drawing him. So he quickly found the address of the South African office and called to see if he could attend. And he did and it was actually a couple weeks after that that I actually met him in South Africa, in Johannesburg.

God’s calling – it has a tremendous draw, a tremendous draw. It isn’t just an invitation. It’s a draw. Johannes, as he told me his story in soft-spoken quiet manner, reminded me of Peter’s words in 1 Peter 2:9, where Johannes had come out of great darkness. Johannes knew what it was like to live in great darkness. He had never heard before his calling – before this drawing – he had never heard of Jesus Christ. He had never known of anything other than ancestry worship. He knew great darkness. But in 1 Peter 2:9 it says:

1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

We all, just like Johannes, have come out, have been called and drawn out of darkness into God’s marvelous light – into His wonderful, marvelous, miraculous light. That’s part of our calling. And because of this, we were once not God’s people, but we are now are God’s people. And we once did not have mercy, but we now have mercy – because of this calling – this tremendous drawing that God has for us. Johannes was called, and he was drawn, and he responded.

That calling begins that process of bringing us into that special relationship where we can be called God’s people. But not everyone responds to that calling of God that you and I and Johannes responded to. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 13 – ad we’ll go to another parable today. We heard about the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We’ll go to the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. Matthew 13 contains several parables about the calling and the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 13:3Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.”

V-6 – “But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell on thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop; some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

This is talking about the calling that God has. Now we’ll drop down to Verse 18, because in the middle, we have a little inset that tells us why Jesus spoke in parables. It wasn’t to explain. It was to hide. In verse 18, Jesus begins to explain this parable of the sower. He explains that there are really four different responses to that seed that is sown.

V-18 – “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”

This first group – here’s the gospel; here’s the truth – is called, but doesn’t understand it, and quickly loses it. There’s no root to him. It doesn’t seem to have an impact to him on his life. They seem to be able to live beside it and not really be affected by it. We’d say it’s kind of like water off a duck’s back. It just doesn’t seem to impact them at all. In verse 20 we read:

V-20 – “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”

This second group hears the call, hears the word, hears the good news of the kingdom and the gospel, hears about God’s way of life, and they’re excited – they’re excited about this and joyful about this new truth and understanding – but it doesn’t last long. Difficulties start to come in. Life gets a little bit difficult because of their new lifestyle, and they begin to fade. They begin to fade and lose heart – kind of like a transplanted plant in the hot sun. I wonder if this group of people ever really, truly, deeply took their calling as a strong invitation. They may have spent too much time rejoicing and not enough time building roots – planting that truth in their hearts and minds.

Spring is on its way and many of us who do gardening at this time, we start to think about what we’re going to plant, and how we’re going to plant, and how exciting it will to be out in the garden and working it. This group of people is like a transplanted plant. How often have you transplanted a plant – gone out to some major garden store, pick out these beautiful flowers and maybe pick up a couple tomatoes and beans, whatever. You take them home in the morning, you go ahead and put them in the ground, and you water them, and you nurture them, and then you go about your other chores that day. You come back in the evening and what’s happened to them? Their head is usually bowed against the earth. There is no root there yet. They’re beginning to wither. They won’t survive very long unless we continue to work with them. But this is that second group. They have no roots yet and they wither away.

In verse 22, we read about the third group – these people received God’s message but they still have a problem. They received God’s calling.

V-22 – “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful.”

This person understood, or withstood the early trials, he understood the calling, he partook of the calling. The early trials of his new Christian life, he was able to overcome them. He was apparently able to build some roots, but then he got caught up in this world’s life, and in the difficulties of life, the riches of life, the ways of the world, the things that he needed to do in this world, maybe even the things he could no longer do in this world, and they were a pull to him and these things grew up around him like thorns and began to suffocate him, and choke him out. And that can happen to us, if we’re not careful. We let the cares of this world…they can choke out our spiritual life. They reject the calling of God.

That last group is talked about in verse 23. This group accepts God’s calling and grows productively in it.

V-23 – “But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces; some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

This person takes God’s calling seriously. He understands the word. He apparently has dug into it, built roots. God’s word is in his heart and mind and he puts it into practice in his daily life. He watches out for those thorns and thistles – doesn’t allow them to crowd him out. He roots deeply in the soil, so he isn’t easily scorched by the trials that come along his way. He has an active spiritual life.  Let’s take a look at where the saints in this group are talked about – Revelation 17 – because this last group includes the saints of which you and I are part. Revelation 17:12 – this is at the end of this present age – man’s going to make war with Christ when he comes back.

Revelation 17:12 – “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.” And what will happen?

V-14“These will make war with the Lamb and the Lamb will overcome them for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen and faithful.”

Called, chosen, faithful. These three words – called, chosen, faithful – define what the saints are. Each word describes a different aspect of a saint. A true Christian is not a person who has only been called by God. A true Christian must be chosen and faithful to God. Let’s take a close look – or a short quick look – at these two traits – two additional traits – chosen and faithful – because these are part of our calling.

The word chosen in the Greek language means chosen out, selected, but it can also mean elect. We are the elect of God. We saw earlier in the parable of the sower that God called many. The seed was sown among many, many areas, but only a percentage of those grew to maturity and produced fruits. God spreads that seed of His gospel and His calling to many, but only a small percentage of those actually are called and take part, and choose to take part of that calling. Only those choose to produce fruit and to become the elect of God.

I think most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the parable of the wedding feast. I won’t go into that, but virtually all of us remember Christ’s statement that many are called, but few are chosen, which is at the very end of that parable. Many are called, but few are chosen. It indicates that it isn’t enough to be called, but you must also be chosen. And to be chosen, what do you have to do? There’s an active part that we have to do. We have to respond to God’s calling, we must begin to change, to repent and to yield to God.

Just as the parable of the sower indicated, we must grow roots. We must yield to God. We must produce fruit to be chosen. The ones that God calls and chooses must be spiritually prepared. They must be clothed with righteousness. Part of that parable of the wedding feast is that there are many who are called and invited, but they do not accept the invitation. So the servants are told to go out and bring in others from the by-ways. And these men come in – these people come in to the wedding feast – and there’s one man who is not dressed appropriately, and the man at the wedding feast rebukes him for that. Often clothing is used as an example of our spiritual life. Are we clothed in righteousness? It indicates our spiritual life. Many are called, but few are chosen, we need to put on the clothing of righteousness and be chosen by God.

The third trait – called, chosen and faithful. The third trait of Revelation 17:14 was faithful. We not only are called, not only are chosen, but we must be faithful. That’s the third trait. We need to remain strong, well-rooted to the very end, not just for the short haul. Calling is not something that happens at just one point in time and then we are saved. Calling is something that happens – we are drawn to God, we are getting closer to Him – a personal relationship with God – and then we remain faithful to the very end. God’s calling offers us that opportunity to serve Him through a lifetime and to endure and persevere to the end. As it says in Matthew 24:13:

Matthew 24:13 – “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” It’s a process – calling, chosen and faithful to the very end.

There’s a story, that I vaguely remembered from time to time, that occurred many years ago in Mexico in 1968. It’s about a marathon runner. Maybe a few remember that story. I came across it again recently when I was searching on the internet. I’d like to tell you the story of this man, this man that was faithful to the end.
 
The men’s marathon was one of the last events of the summer Olympics in 1968. It was a hot Sunday afternoon when the marathon started – around 3:00 pm. John Akhwari didn’t expect to win. He didn’t expect to win the marathon for Tanzania, but he hoped to have a respectable finish anyway. By the ten-mile mark, John’s head was throbbing, his muscles were aching and his legs were cramping. He had never practiced in the high altitude similar to what Mexico City had. His muscles were throbbing and then he had a horrible fall near the eleven-mile mark. You see, there were several people jockeying for position, and he was hit hard, and he hit the pavement very hard, dislocated his knee, badly hurt his shoulder and was trampled before he could regain his footing. Despite these injuries, John pressed on and continued to race, battered and bandaged. Race medical staff asked him, and even pleaded with him, to quit but he wouldn’t. John eventually finished the race an hour after the winner, He came in last place. But he was still ahead of 17 others who never completed the race. It was said that this was one of the most heroic efforts of Olympic history. Afterwards, asked by a reporter why he had not dropped out, Akhwari said, “My country did not send me 5,000 miles to start the race. It sent me 5,000 miles to finish the race.”

Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6:11. God doesn’t call us for the calling only. God doesn’t call us to just start the race. He calls us to finish the race, even if we are beaten, even if we are battered, even if we are limping.

1 Timothy 6:11But you, O man of God, flee these things – and we didn’t read the verses before, but Paul’s talking and telling his readers that they need to be careful about falling into the trap of the deceitfulness of riches – very similar to what the parable of the sower talks about. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
V-13I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing.

We need to fight that good fight of faith – lay hold on the call to eternal life to which we’ve been called to, which we’ve been invited to.

One final point: God isn’t trying to save the world now. I know that’s difficult for many in the world to handle and to understand that. He’s just called a few and chosen a few at this time. 1 Timothy 2:4 says:

1 Timothy 2:4 – God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

It isn’t just for us now. There’s a time in the future when all will be called and all will have the opportunity to come to salvation – to understand Christ, to understand God’s way, to have a chance at eternal and spiritual life, to become the called, the chosen, the faithful.

The calling of God is truly a miracle. God the Father calls us and draws us to Him. We need to actively be responding to Him and responding to that calling – to not get choked by the worldly cares, but to plant our roots deep, deep in Jesus Christ – deep in the truth – to withstand the trials that we have ahead of us.

God sets in motion the miracle of life through His calling – the miracle of a new spiritual life. If we’re faithful to that calling, we have life forever, for all eternity.

One last set of scriptures. Turn with me in closing to 2 Peter 1 – I’m going to read this out of the English Standard Version. Peter is writing near the close of his life. He writes down these words of wisdom that are every bit as important and true to us now as they were at that time.

2 Peter 1:1Simon Peter, a servant and apostle to Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

V-3His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises so that through them you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Dropping down to verse 10:

V-10 – Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fail. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

What a wonderful future – as part of the calling of God – that we’ve been given. You know, I’m not expecting a call from the Oscar organizers tonight. My bags aren’t packed. I’ve long ago given up that prize of $5,000 a week. My kids have given up hope that I’ll pass it on to them. But I have a greater prize. I have a greater prize than any of those ever could be. And that’s the miracle – the miracle of God’s calling – that leads me to His eternal kingdom – His eternal kingdom and eternal life.